"I like eating řízek, but that word is terrible." With Tamara about learning Czech and dating experiences.

From Mariupol, Ukraine, to owning a beauty salon in the heart of Prague, and finally to the Czech language courses at Slovo 21. My colleague Yuliia and I visited Tamara Krutko right in her studio. While Yuliia was getting her eyebrows done, Tamara shared her story with us—talking about how the Slovo 21 language course changed her relationship with the Czech language, and also what it’s like to go on a first date with a Czech man.
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We meet in the morning near the Muzeum metro station. A young woman with long blonde hair comes out to meet us. She shakes my hand and introduces herself as Tamara. She runs her studio in the building above us. The cozy room is dominated by a vanity table with a mirror framed by warm yellow light bulbs. I watch as Tamara prepares her eyebrow-shaping tools. "Look," she says, pointing to the windowsill where several Czech language textbooks are lying. "I got those from a client. She gave them to me to support my learning." She smiles and flips through one of them. 

I watch as she slowly gets to work, picking up pink wax and spreading it around the edges of Yuliia's eyebrows. "I came here from Mariupol in 2022," she says. "I didn't start learning
Czech right away, simply because I thought I would definitely be returning to Ukraine soon. It wasn't until 2024 that I realized I really had to start. Through the Slovo pro Ukrajinu social media pages, I stumbled upon
the Slovo 21 course."

She and Yuliia discuss which eyebrow shape to choose. "My problem was that I didn't like the Czech language at all," she continues. "But the course changed that. Well, mostly our teacher, Katka. She is such a wonderful lady! For example, I didn't have much time for homework, but I would do it at night just to make her happy," she laughs. "One of my friends had a pretty unpleasant experience in a different Czech course. She felt the teachers were condescending and not very friendly. But with Ms. Katka, it was really great. And I also made a new friend in the course. We were able to study together, and we still see each other today."

Tamara has decided to continue her studies and sign up for a follow-up language course. "It's still hard, though. Like the genders. For us, 'tram' is masculine, and here it's feminine. Or the endings... And the worst is 'ř'. I like eating schnitzel, but that word is terrible. And anyway, some things you just have to feel, and of course, I can't feel those yet." Yuliia joins the conversation. She talks about how it must be difficult in relationships. Some intimate things can be very hard to translate. "And did you know I went on a date with a Czech guy?" Tamara smiles. "That was before I took the course. When he asked me something and I didn't understand, I would just smile and say, 'Yeah, yeah, sure,'" she laughs. "And some cultural things are really different when it comes to dating, too. For example, we Ukrainian women, when we go on a date, we wear dresses. He was just in shorts and a T-shirt. Or it was very hard to understand when someone was joking. I would make jokes sometimes, and he didn't get them at all..."

"Do you have any favorite tongue twisters?" the girls ask me. I think of 'strč prst skrz krk'. "That's terrible," Yuliia laughs. "In Ukrainian, there are no words without vowels." In return, she teaches me their 'Šla Saša po šosse i sosala sušku'. The eyebrows are almost done. We wish Tamara good luck with her further Czech studies and say goodbye with a hug in front of the studio.

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