S dicu sme morali govorit česki / We Had to Speak with Our Children in Czech (Josef Kusmič)

"Kad sme bili v Huzovoj, tako kad su kluki rasli, tako duoma diede Hrvat, baba Hrvatica, ja Hrvat, maja moja …. Tako sme govorili nek hrvatski. A sa ta Pepa ur je rasav, no a tako nek hrvatski, sa je imav dvi ljeta a je šav va školku. A sada on česki ni znav. A Pevnarka, Minče, ta je za dvi ljeta starija, ta ur je hodila v školku, ta je došla k nam a je velila: ´Učitelka vám vzkazuje, že musíte s ním mluvit česky.´Protože on je htiv nikakovi kyblíček a on je to veliv hrvatski. No tako ti su se da on nizna iberhaupt česki, tako da s nim musíte mluvit česky. Tako sa si predstavte. Baba Hrvatica jak poleno, diede Hrvat, no a mi samozřejmě, mi známe česky, tako sa sme začeli s njim jako opravdu česki. Pak je ta drugi dorasav ur, tako ur je se s njimi već česki govorilo. Tako oni rozumiju se, ale na čega je im je to? S nami se pominaju nek česki."

"When we were in Húzová and the boys were growing up, there was the grandfather who was a Croat, the grandma, who was a Croat, myself a Croat and my Croatian wife. We spoke only Croatian. When Pepa was two years old, he went to kindergarten. But he couldn’t speak Czech. Minče Pevnerová, who was two years older and who was already attending the kindergarten, then came to us and said: ´The teacher says that you should speak Czech to him.´ Because he wanted some toy and he asked for it in Croatian. They thought that he couldn’t speak Croatian at all, and they insisted that we speak Czech to him. Just imagine. Grandma was a Croat through and through, the same for grandpa. Naturally, we could speak Czech, and so we began speaking Czech to him. When the other son was growing up, more Czech was spoken at home. The boys can understand everything in Croatian, but what for? They speak only Czech to us."