Price: $15.00    Add to Basket

American expatriates and long-term visitors have been coming to the Czech Republic in droves for generations, and many of them will tell you that there is nowhere in Europe with more to offer in terms of hospitality, entertainment, culture, sports and outdoors activities, cost of living, and the ability for someone from outside the country to blend in almost perfectly after learning the language.

Title: Cultural Dimensions of Living and Working in Czech Republic
Author: Bill Drake
Edition: 2009
Pages: 157

There are a few American customs which are looked upon askance here and which American newcomers will have to avoid. One is American informality. Czechs never put their feet on their desks. Women and men should not walk into a church with their hands in their pockets, it is considered disrespectful. In the old days women were not supposed to smoke on the streets – this has changed among the young. Czech women never cross their legs across their knee when they are in pants.

One thing that puts Americans off is that Czechs will tell you exactly how they feel when you ask them how they feel  - Jak se mate? Yiak se mate? how are you?

Most Czechs will tell you, just o.k., or bad or not good or so so, because in fact, life is tough on them here, and often they don’t feel fine and are honest about it. Following that, Czechs are very likely to go on to tell you in some detail about the medical problems that their family, children or friends have. Very rarely would they tell you any other detail about their personal lives, but they seem to delight in discussing their maladies..

Some of the most difficult things for new expatriates living in the Czech Republic to adjust to are:
 
1. Not being able to touch anything while you are shopping. Therefore you cannot look at merchandise closely as clerks are usually reluctant to pull things from the shelves. Also shop clerks tend to be quite surly.

2. Most restaurants have only one seating and will not allow you to make reservations – but then you may also not be able to sit down at what to you seems like an empty table if anybody else is coming that evening who the proprietor knows and likes.

3. The answer to any request you may make is usually no, rather than yes, from officials. Or, if they actually like you a little (maybe you’ve learned a bit of the Czech language) then you’ll hear  “maybe”, which also never results in actual actions, but is intended to soften the blow. In other words, it is difficult to get things done and takes a long time. We always advise people to make their travel plans and purchase their tickets before they enter the Czech Republic, or to get somebody local to help them, because dealing with institutions is complex and frustrating. Czechs are resigned to the fact that things often don’t work very well.