Like a fish in water

You're listening to SoundCzech - Radio Prague's own Czech language series in which you'll learn useful phrases through song lyrics. Today we'll hear a song from the 1964 Czech film comedy "Limonádový Joe". The song is called "Arizona" and the phrase we are listening out for today is "jako ryba ve vodě".

Limonádový Joe

Listen in RealAudio

The plot of the comedy is set in Arizona where a young girl and her frail father are trying to convince all the tough men to stop drinking alcohol and convert them to soft drinks. The young girl is singing about Arizona, the land of real men where playing cards rustle, bullets whiz and cows moo. She says that she feels in this atmosphere like a fish in water "cítím se jako ryba ve vodě" - simply she is in her element.

Listen in RealAudio

Limonádový Joe

The beautiful but naďve girl goes on singing that Arizonian men are kind to women, gentlemen don't hesitate to punch thugs to teach them good manners and in the name of progress they shoot straight from the hip. Now, she means the phrase literally but it actually works as an idiom in Czech, too. "Střílet rovnou od boku" or just "střílet od boku" means to do something without preparation, on impulse. Have another listen.

Listen in RealAudio

Today we have learnt two useful phrases "cítit se jako ryba ve vodě" - literally "to feel like a fish in water" and "střílet od boku" - to shoot from the hip. I leave you with the song Arizona from the now cult Czech movie "Limonádový Joe". We'll be back next week. Good bye.