I am writing from Ostrava, Czech Republic. I am Indian living in Czech. For those who don't remember, Czech Republic is the western part of the erstwhile Czechoslovakia, with its capital Prague. Sitting right in the middle of Europe its a very convenient place for those who love to take quick unplanned trips. Almost all of Europe is within driving distance of Czech.
I first came to Ostrava in 2005 April. There are no intercontinental flights into Czech Republic.So I landed in Vienna, Austria and drove down to Ostrava. I was surprised at the beauty of the undulating countryside and a little upset at the dilapidated houses. The winter snow had not yet melted completely and the ground was often covered in snow. The branches of trees in the forest were laden with snow..... a Christmas gift for me!!! Since then I have been here off and on many times until I have now decided to live here for awhile.
The first problem in Czech was the language. Czech is a slavic language and so sounds very complicated to me. I am completely at a loss with the sounds and the Czechs are very proud that their language has so many difficult sounds. Although, when I tell them my name they are unable to pronounce it.... its a simple name which starts with 'J' (which they pronounce as'y') and ends with 'shree' which they find very complicated. And Czech has a whole lot of sounds accented above and below and words with multiple consonants together....... go figure.
That done, I learnt 'Dobryden' (good morning) and a few other essential words and just string them up (sans grammar) and get by!! And guess what, they don't understand mis-pronounced or ungrammatical Czech words!!!!If you hear a Czech person speak English you will want to drown yourself! They make no effort to make the foreigner feel at ease!! Never will anyone smile at you on the streets. If you do smile at someone he/she will either look away or scowl back.Most restaurant menus are in Czech with the waitresses dont speak English. Shopping is a tedious chore. All labels written in Czech so I shop by instinct and by the picture on the label.
These are my first impressions of Czech. In subsequent posts I will write about the other cities in Czech Republic and life in general.
I first came to Ostrava in 2005 April. There are no intercontinental flights into Czech Republic.So I landed in Vienna, Austria and drove down to Ostrava. I was surprised at the beauty of the undulating countryside and a little upset at the dilapidated houses. The winter snow had not yet melted completely and the ground was often covered in snow. The branches of trees in the forest were laden with snow..... a Christmas gift for me!!! Since then I have been here off and on many times until I have now decided to live here for awhile.
The first problem in Czech was the language. Czech is a slavic language and so sounds very complicated to me. I am completely at a loss with the sounds and the Czechs are very proud that their language has so many difficult sounds. Although, when I tell them my name they are unable to pronounce it.... its a simple name which starts with 'J' (which they pronounce as'y') and ends with 'shree' which they find very complicated. And Czech has a whole lot of sounds accented above and below and words with multiple consonants together....... go figure.
That done, I learnt 'Dobryden' (good morning) and a few other essential words and just string them up (sans grammar) and get by!! And guess what, they don't understand mis-pronounced or ungrammatical Czech words!!!!If you hear a Czech person speak English you will want to drown yourself! They make no effort to make the foreigner feel at ease!! Never will anyone smile at you on the streets. If you do smile at someone he/she will either look away or scowl back.Most restaurant menus are in Czech with the waitresses dont speak English. Shopping is a tedious chore. All labels written in Czech so I shop by instinct and by the picture on the label.
These are my first impressions of Czech. In subsequent posts I will write about the other cities in Czech Republic and life in general.
posted by jayashree at
5:01 AM
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