Cleaning the floor

The cleaning lady put up a bright yellow sign in the reception area of the hotel in Prague where we were staying and started to mop the floor. The sign said: "danger wet floor". Yes, health and safety is everywhere, but it was not that which struck me. It was the fact that the sign was only in English. The previous day, we had done a tour of what is called ‘The Municipal House', a beautiful concert hall in the art nouveau style built in about 1908. The guide was justifiably proud of it. But not only is it a beautiful building, it is also the building in which, at the end of the first world war in 1918, the leading politicians of the day held a meeting. At the end of that meeting an announcement was made from the balcony to the surrounding crowd that Czechoslovakia was from then on to be an independent republic. It had thrown off the shackles of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The guide went on to explain that in the previous century, the Czech language had gradually been overtaken by the German of the foreign ruling-class and was in danger of dying out altogether. And, as she put it, "If the language dies out then the national identity is lost". Now, we saw many interesting things in Prague and people were able to communicate with us sufficiently well in English for all the tourist necessities to be dealt with - booking tours and concerts, having meals in restaurants and of course using the hotel's excellent facilities (the Maximilian Hotel - very highly recommended). The town maps we were given of necessity had the street names as they were displayed in the streets, and so were in Czech, but translations were given of the names of the places of interest into English, so that, for instance, we could work out where Wenceslas Square was - the Czech version is "Vaclavske namesti" - not obvious for the average tourist. But it was certainly the case that Czech was the dominant language - so there's no danger of the Czech Republic losing its national identity for the moment. But is it really true that language has such a critical place in nationhood? I would imagine that the Austrians feel every bit as Austrian as the Germans feel German despite the common language. When the Americans declared independence, they didn't all go off to night classes to learn Cherokee, but carried on with their version of English. The lack of Gaelic speakers doesn't seem to have diminished the Scottish identity. I never spoke Welsh as a child, but I certainly felt Welsh. Where, however, a foreign power has been in charge of your country and has used its position to try to erase your identity by imposing its values and its language, it is quite understandable that, when freedom is eventually obtained, the reaction against what went on before will be very strong. And so I can quite understand the wish of the Czechs in 1918 to reinstate their language. That is not to say, though, that its reinstatement is any more than a blip on the radar. As we know, languages evolve (Wenceslas, Wenceslaus, Venceslav, Vaclav) and the use of any language is dependent upon its utility. And let's face it, the Czech language is not exactly a passport to the world. In our hotel, there were many foreign business people but the main language in the conversations I overheard was English. Tourism is very important economically and English is the language normally spoken when dealing with any foreigner. At the moment, there is great enthusiasm (at least according to the Prague Post - a weekly newspaper, in English) for the installation of a huge radar facility there by the Americans. This would be part of the defence shield proposed by the USA to ward off danger from the "Axis of Evil" countries and which has proved so controversial with the Russians. The Czechs, though, see it as a way of directly making money through leasing out the facility and at the same time getting cutting-edge hi-tech fundamental research going in the country in co-operation with the Yanks - all of which will, of course, have to be done in English. So then, perhaps the next language to threaten the Czech language will not be one imposed by an invading enemy, but one needed in order to make money from friends. Economics generally wins in the end.

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