For the past couple of years I’ve been attempting to learn the Czech language, and indeed as much as possible about Czech life, culture and history.

Progress has been gradual, but immensely satisfying, and delving into Czech culture has opened up a rich and varied world that was often untapped through my formal education.

Of course, it’s also nice that there are various studies highlighting the impact being bilingual has on our capabilities, with such people apparently able to better filter out irrelevant information, which is a pretty useful skill to have in an age where we are increasingly deluged with information.

Alas, I wouldn’t go as far as to call my crude attempts at Czech anywhere close to qualifying myself as bilingual, but slowly slowly.

Various members of my Czech class have children who are being raised in such a bilingual household however, and its always impressive how quickly they appear to be picking things up.

Whilst it’s tempting to think these absorbent little things are making the task look ridiculously easy, I’m sure it’s anything but, so a project underway by my Czech teacher should be very welcomed by bilingual parents who want to help their charges pick up the vagaries of English and Czech.

Introducing Karamel

Karamel is a Czech bear living in London who has next to no knowledge of English.  The story shows how he recruits some friendly children to help him learn the language, make new friends and explore the city.

The book emerged from the Czech Without Borders school for young children living in London with Czech and British parents.  The experience of the two authors in such an environment went into the creation of the book.

It’s currently raising money for its initial print run via the CrowdFunder website, with the project a good way towards the £1,500 target already.  Backers will be rewarded with a range of things, including a signed copy of the book.

It’s hoped that 1,000 copies of the book will eventually be printed, for distribution in both Britain and the Czech Republic.

If you’d like to learn more about Karamel, check out the video below, and you can pledge your support to the project here.