Final Word from Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Ex-Prague Mayor Pavel Bém should be thanking his lucky stars that Adriana Krnáčová is not a native speaker of Prague Czech. Much of the debate about Krnáčová's new transit pass is focusing on the basically inconsequential question of the name. Native speakers of the Prague "dialect" don't like "Lítačka," which is also a word that is hard for foreigners to grasp. Should they call it the Swiftcard, the Whizcard, or just stick to the unfathomable "Leetachka"? The far more important question, though, is whether such a complicated IT project can really be implemented for a mere Kč 10m. This should send shivers down the spines of not only Bém and his Opencard squad, but also someone like IBM, who is charging Kč 2bn for a building registry that some people compare in complexity to a spreadsheet. Opposition politicians have reason to want Krnáčová to fly out the door because of Lítačka, and so do many leading IT companies. [Czech Republic ANO ODS]
Glossary of difficult words
to thank your lucky stars - to be thankful for one's luck;
inconsequential - not important or significant;
to grasp - to comprehend fully; to get mental hold of;
to whiz - to move quickly through the air with a whistling or whooshing sound;
to whiz through - to do or deal with quickly;
unfathomable - incomprehensible;
to send shivers down/up someone's spine - to make someone feel very frightened or excited;
to fly out the door - (in this sense) to leave a position or be fired.