Michael informed us the other day that Czech drivers are not as crazy as the whole world seems to think so. He also crushed some other stereotypes about the Czechs…read up:
CZ: Michal nas pred par dny stroze informoval, ze Cesi vlastne vubec zadni blaznivi ridici nejsou, prave naopak. V nasledujicich zapiscich se mu podarilo nabourat take dalsi stereotypy o Cesich, ktere jiz par (desitek?) let koluji zemekouli…
Myths to debunk or otherwise exterminate
Myth 1. Czechs don’t smile.
Fact. Czechs smile all the time (well, perhaps not the few we met walking in the woods near Marianske Lazne. Maybe they had bunions or were Germans – who could know). But everyone else did. I haven’t met anyone yet who does not enjoy a compliment. So try that. The lady walking her dog (“nice dog – hezky pes”), the shopowner with pretty goods, the man living in the house of my wife’s great grandfather who wondered why some woman was photographing his house – all smiled hugely with a simple compliment (and simple it had to be with my Czech language skills). And, there was Petr in the Cesky Krumlov hospoda who caught my wife’s eye because he looked like her brother. Petr knew no English but we had a great time together, definitely all smiles. Of course, his alternating beer and coffee didn’t hurt – or, maybe it was the picture of a Hawaiian hula dancer on the wall behind us – my Czech instructor here has said that a favorite phrase of Czechs when things are good is “to je Hawaiian”. Anyway, I digress. Czechs smile all the time.
Myth 2. Dark beer (cerne pivo) is ‘girlie beer’.
Fact. I’m biased, liking dark beer from all over the world, but I thought the Czech dark beers were great. A Samson dark ‘won’ my blind beer tasting event (for my Raleigh meetup group). I saw many Czechs males drinking dark beer and I certainly would not call them ‘girlie’ to their faces. What they thought of me and my obvious devotion to my dark beer shall remain a mystery.
Myth 3. When entering a shop, be sure to pick up a small basket near the door to show that you are a serious shopper.
Fact. What baskets? Never saw one in any shop, anywhere. From Praha to the smallest place, baskets were not to be seen. This has to be a myth perpetuated by guidebooks needing something to say as filler.
Myth 4. ‘Watch out for the police’. [Some sinister music as background].
Fact. The police were quite helpful (asked for directions in Josefov) and understanding (Ceske Budejovice and that gas station). Don’t know what they would have done if I couldn’t have paid my bill but that’s a theoretical situation I hope to avoid – forever.
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Ahoj Michale,
diky za cestovni “vlozku” ;o) S vetsinou souhlasim, protoze jsem na podzim byli taky v CR, ale s dvema body mam uplne jine zkusenosti:
Kosicky v obchudkach….. V Praze je to mozna jine jak pises, tam jsem nenakupovala, ale byla jsem v obchodech v Uherskem Hradisti, a sla do grogerie bez kosiku, protoze jsem potrebovala malickost, a prodavacka me hned vratila pro kosik. Podobne se me stalo v Opave, a tak jsem uz nikdy bez kosiku nesla. Maji je ve vsech obchodech. Takze si nemyslim, ze v prirucce o tom psali jen pro to, aby zaplnili misto, ale ve vetsine pripadu je to pravdive.
Taky o ridicich…. Ja nemam problem jezdit po americe, ale musim rict, ze v CR jsem se opravdu bala jezdit, a nechala jsem ridit jen manzela. Mnoho ceskych ridicu jezdi jak “blazni”, a brzdi na posledni chvilku, atd….
Ale zase, po Praze jsme necestovali, jen jsem vyjeli z Prazskeho letiste na dalnici smer morava.
Taky bych chtela upozornit, ze neni moc vyhodne platit v CR credit kartama z USA, a to proto, ze Vam nedaji ten nejlepsi kurz a taky uctuji prirazku za premenu penez, to vim z vlastni zkusenosti.
Ahoj Marino,
diky za koment,ale mohla by jsi to taky prosimte psat v anglictine? Anglictina prvni, pokud mozno, aby tomu vsichni rozumeli. Dik za pochopeni!!
Hi Martina,
could you please write in English too?? Lot of people do not understand Czech so it would be cool to include them in the conversation too. Thanks!
Hi Michael!!
I do have to agree with Martina though, I always get the looks when I don’t take “kosik” (basket) right away. I can’t believe you could not find them!!! Although I have not been back to Czech for couple of years so the “kosik-fashion” may not be “in” anymore…
I had to laugh out loud when I read your comments about the dark beer. I myself like dark beer better so I must be the exception to your observation 🙂
Overall, I think that it is your friendliness that conquers all “evil”, including the crazy drivers and mean policemen 🙂
Dekuji Martino a Tanjo. Martino, budu studovat vas email. Trochu rozumim a budu se snasim. A Tanjo, cerne pivo je v poradku vzdycky pro zeny.
I think that tourist guidebooks create a lot of myths simply by using boilerplate text when they’re not sure about something. When a relative of mine came to visit me in Czechistan, he and his wife were very paranoid about crime, and I couldn’t figure out why. They showed me the section in their guidebook about crime in Prague, and it was so exaggerated that I guessed the publishers must have pasted in the same paragraphs that they’d used for their book on Palermo, Sicily.
As for myth No. 2, how can dark beer be “girly” if nearly no girl on earth likes dark beer? I’ve only ever seen men drink dark beer. That myth must have been started by some company trying to get men to drink wine coolers.
As for Myth No. 1, it’s not true that Czechs don’t smile, but you’ll notice that — especially in Czech children — you’ll seldom see moods as extreme as the ones you see in Americans. Americans’ highs are higher, and our lows are lower, or at least that’s how it looks to me.
Here is something that’s not a myth: Czech dogs aren’t as curious as American dogs. I’m not kidding. Almost every dog you meet in the US will approach you curiously to smell you and make your acquaintance, if its owner doesn’t prevent it. In the Czech Republic, you’ll see dogs completely off the leash, and they’ll walk right by and never even look at you, as if they’re on their way to something important and don’t have time to stop.
I like dark beer! Although I drink like 1/8 of the glass 😉
You are right about the Czech dogs!! They do have more of the “I have got a lot going on” attitude. Since they are left without a leash then they have “been there done that”, sniffed everything everywhere, so some kind of a”boring” human does not interest them 🙂
And, actually, the dark beer comments were made to me personally, not in a guidebook. Both were Czechs, one male and one female.