We don’t really think about it as much anymore but it is mind-boggling how much the American culture influcenced the whole world, including the Czech Republic. Most of the the American ‘novelties’ cought up very quickly (the good ones and the bad ones) but some did not. The Czech Daily Word did a whole article on those items which did not do so well in Czech. One of them is a drinking fountain, for example (what a shame!); or the usage of checks; or…you will just have to read it (click here).
CZ: My o tom uz ani moc nepremyslime, ale Americky zpusob zivota opravdu ovlivnil cely svet a to vcetne Ceske Republiky. Vetsina Americkych ‘novinek’ se uchytila (dobrych i spatnych) ale par ‘cernych ovci’ se v Cechach proste neujalo. Jako napriklad fontanka na piti; nebo placeni cekem; nebo…..to si ale budete muset precist cely clanek v Czech Daily Word.
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Kdyz jsem na ceskych chatech (na tech slusnych), tak slysim: “Vau”, “Kuul”, “OK”, “Luuzer” atd…
Bojim se o budoucnost ceskeho jazyka
Yes, that’s true the language definitely suffers. But what can you do if it’s only 10 million of us?
And the rest of us gets dilluted in other countries 🙂
Ale na tech neslusnych chatech, tam cestina drzi svou pozici velice pevne :))))
#4: Automatic transmission
False: Among other things, I worked for importer of Land Rover in the CR for couple of years and automatic transmissions were becoming quite popular at that time. I think it was around 2002.
#5: Pagers
False: Before working for car importer I worked in the hospital as a nurse and we used pagers for nurses on call. Also I had a couple of friends who had them for personal use. Maybe they just did not take off as much as in the US but when cell phones came they made up for it! Everybody is text messaging over there like crazy and has been going on for quite a while. Maybe so because calling is more expensive then sending a text.
I miss the free tap water in the restaurants. The Prague tap water is quite good now-a-days.
Also public restrooms in the grocery and other stores!!!
OK, so I guess the list wasn’t as comprehensive after all 😉
So wait, there are no restrooms in the Czech stores? I can’t even remember that…probably because I have never even tried to ask for them;)
Jana,
where do you live? We have restroom in most stores !
In New Jersey to be exact
A lot of the foreign things didn’t get adopted in the Czech Republic because so many Czechs are so dishonest. (Remember the padlocks on the toilet paper and the soap tied to the sink?) Some Czech supermarkets adopted a system from Germany where customers weighed their fruit on the honor system, but Czech customers stole so much fruit that within a year the stores stationed a kid next to the scale at all times just to weigh the fruit.
I remember those stickers! So I guess they don’t have them anymore…Czechs are some inventive beings!
Wait…why don’t they weigh the fruit at the register like they do it here in the US?
Good question, Tanja.
I think it’s because they pay the cashiers so little money that the kind of people they can afford…. Well, they just want them scanning, not doing other things.
Jana,
then in New Jersey cashiers must be real idiots..We are getting more and more self-service registers..
There are no cashiers..you come up, weigh your fruits or vegetables, scan your stuff , pay (using credit cards or cash) and leave …..
I was talking about the CR not NJ. Sorry, if it upset you. We do the same thing here.
“they just want them scanning, not doing other things.” also applies to the speed of check out.
Jana,
Sorry, I had a difficult weekend :)))
Jeden z takovych americkych symbolu je “Budweiser”…
Bohuzel tato zlatava tekutina se neuchytila, i kdyz cesky napoj s podobnym jmenem “Budweiser” se uchytil velice dobre… Myslim, ze se take v Cesku neuchytilo moc “waxing” osob muzskeho pohlavi…coz v USA frci