If you are a Czech, and you have never learned Slovakian, can you understand a Slovak, who has never studied Czech? Both countries were unified for almost 80 years, so I assume that people born before 1993 would have some knowledge of Czech and Slovak.
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No Czech has ever actively learned Slovak (okay, not literally, some probably did, but it’s not a thing for most people).
Czechs and Slovaks can generally understand each other (Slovaks understand Czech a bit better than the other way around) due to the combination of language similarity and the cultural exposure. The grammar and vocabulary are quite similar.
Now, most people will tell you that the languages are mutually intelligible. I actually disagree with this as there are enough differences to make it a challenge if you live in a bubble where only one of those languages exists – for example, people who learned Czech as their second language will sometimes struggle dealing with Slovak (happens often with expats in Prague for example, then we default into English). But there’s the cultural context too – both languages are present enough in the other country that you are exposed to them since young age and you get used to it. There are some Slovak bands that are super popular among Czech youth, students mix up with each other, many TV shows are produced for both countries, many movies are multilingual with some Slovak actors, etc. You’d have to be very dumb to not catch up on a rather similar language you’ve been exposed to since you were a kid (remember, kids can learn a completely different language just by listening to it – that’s how you learned your native language). This is also the reason why Slovaks are a bit better at this game – apart from the examples I mentioned, we’re the smaller brother, so sometimes we’re not worth having something translated into Slovak and we use a Czech language source instead (think movies for example).
And finally – remember, the border is not some kind of a natural line. People mix up. As you pointed out, we were one country until 1993 and we are in Schengen since 2008. It’s really more of a scale than a line. For example, Moravian dialect takes some elements from the Slovak (that’s why I sound like an idiot in Prague, I’m a Slovak whose Czech has been formed by a Czech dialect influenced by Slovak, lol), and on the other side of the border you have the Záhorie dialect which is basically the fluence of both. Go to Hodonín or Holíč (the former is Czech, the latter is Slovak but they’re 10 minutes away from each other) and there’s virtually zero chance of not undestanding something. Be a Slovak in Děčín or Czech in Humenné and things get a bit more complex – but we will still use our own language and understand each other, unless someone wants something with čučoriedka/borůvka :))))
There really is not a Czech that has never been exposed to Slovak nor vice versa. Even my four-year-old daughter has been to Slovakia multiple times, listens to Slovak songs and her best friend in kindergarten is Slovak.
Now, I have a (Czech) friend, who once met a German guy who spoke Slovak, but not Czech. She had trouble communicating with this person, because while she understood his Slovak perfectly, he didn’t understand her Czech at all. She had to search her memory for Slovak words and compose sentences that were Slovak enough for him to understand.
I worked in Slovakia for a year. At first, I had some trouble communicating with people on the phone. My understanding of Slovak was good enough for a face-to-face conversation, but not for a phone call. It took several weeks before my increased exposure to Slovak smoothed it.
I spoke Czech while working in Slovakia, but I did mix in Slovak words if I was aware that the Slovak and Czech words differ significantly – typically months. Czech uses Slavic words for months, but Slovak uses Latin names. If you say “říjen” or “březen” many Slovaks struggle.
If there was a hypothetical Czech who has never been exposed to Slovak, he definitely would have problems understanding the language. But there is no such person.
Until the age of 20 I only got exposed to Slovakian language while randomly scrolling through the TV channels and even then most of them play movies with Czech dubbing.
When I got confronted with Slovak (teacher of a university course) I had to concentrate a bit harder to understand him, but I wouldn’t say that I didn’t understand him, ever.
Also as the other comment states, no Czech has ever studied Slovak.
>so I assume that people born before 1993 would have some knowledge of Czech and Slovak.
People born long after are still very aware of the other language. The two nations are so intermingled, both economically and culturally, that we’re exposed to each other’s languages from very early childhood.
This is admittedly more true for Slovaks and less for Czechs, as Slovakia is “smaller” in every regard. As a result it is much more common for Slovak children to find a movie/cartoon/book in Czech language, than for Czech children to encounter a Slovak one.
But even so, people understand each other very well, and they can hold long conversations in their mother tongues, without the necessity of switching to the opposing language.
It’s a matter of getting used to it. I met a few people who didn’t understand Slovak because they never bothered to listen to any Slovak person or a medium. I used to watch Slovak TV so I’m fine. There is no need to learn anything.
>If you are a Czech, and you have never learned Slovakian, can you understand a Slovak, who has never studied Czech?
Yep. As a fun fact – in the university that I (a Czech, in Czechia) was studying in, we had a Slovak proffesor, many Slovak “peers” and even some people who corrected our assignments and gave feedbacks were Slovaks
Of course, not every Czech speaks Slovakian fluently (or some at all), but Czechs can understand both written and spoken Slovakian almost perfectly without learning it. Hell, I still remember Cz&Sk YouTube from when I was a kid, so many Youtubers did collabs and they were each talking in their native language and understood each other perfectly, and so did the viewers whose average age was 8-ish at the time
Yes we can. Because we are frickin’ awesome!
When you have CV you dont even mention Slovakian/Czech language as other language you know, it is automatically expected that you know the language, although I was told that my boss is gonna be Slovak.
As a Polish person i can understand about 40% of czech and 60% of slovak (never learned either)
I’m from Lithuania, I’ve learned the basics of russian because of proximity, and I grew up in the part of the country with a significant russian minority.
Then I went to study in the UK and I had some classmates from Slovakia. There were a few guys who weren’t great with English, their mates would tell us “Sorry, we’ll speak in Slovak for a bit” to tell them the context of the discussion.
I actually understood what they were saying, because it’s still a slavic language and there are a lot of shared words.
Most Czechs don’t even count Slovak as an extra language. I think it’s not only because of how close the languages are, but also because our nations are quite connected. We’re still brothers and sisters at heart. We grew up on shows that hosted both Czechs and Slovaks, so I guess we learned the languages naturally. There are also Slovak teachers in Czech universities and nobody has a problem with that.
As someone who grew up in a german speaking country and learned czech from my parents i had no problems understanding slovaks when i encountered them way later in life
Let me put it this way – when we are writing our CV when looking for work, in column Languages we never add Slovakia as language we understand. Not because we couldn’t, but because it would be laughable to even mention it.