Thanks to Irene Newhouse for her potent description of how language can be
so powerful politically and socially.
My most unpleasant memories of being a German speaker as a child in Sydney
post war are of my mother being abused in a bus because she spoke to me in
German. A very aggressive Aussie woman yelled at Mum and told her "We speak
English here!". Mum of course said not another German word to me ever in
public again. Another time my stepfather was pulled up by a policeman and
immediately he heard the Hungarian accent the cop was incredibly rude.
These are trivial examples but if you expect the Czechs to write officially
in any other language than their own as we say in Australia, "You are
dreaming".
Daniela Torsh
Sydney, Australia