Czechmatediary

MaryLena is a very lovely lady who agreed to share one of her emails she wrote to me in the past. She and her husband are a die-hard travelers who have traveled all over the world, including the Czech Republic. Many years ago her family was also kind enough to host an exchange student from Japan who has become like a son to them. Here is one of her wonderful stories about Akira’ culture shock with America. Since it is about hugging – and most Czechs would much rather shake hands – I thought I would share it with you:
CZ: MaryLena je jedna fanjova pani, ktera s manzelem procestovala cely svet, vcetne Ceske republiky. Dovolila mi, abych jeden z jejich emailu (adresovanych mne) publikovla, protoze se mi opravdu moc libil. Zabyva se totiz tematem kulturniho soku a to objimani (misto potrasani si rukami), tedy neco na co vetsina Cechu neni moc zvykla:

Dear Tanya,
I have one funny story I will share with you which was the real beginning of our awakening to cultural differences.
Our oldest son brought home his college roommate “for dinner”. During the course of the evening, he explained that Akira’s family would have to restrict their funding of his education to address some health issues of his father. (Both Akira’s parents were children in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped. Both were left with lifelong injuries to their internal systems and Akira’s daughter has a mutation to one kidney which we believe goes back to her grandparents’ early exposure to radiation.)
Our son suggested if Akira could live with a family, work parttime, and attend a community college instead of continuing in a residential private college, he would have a better chance of finishing his education before the funds ran out. We agreed and he stayed three years. (more…)

My good Slovak blogger friend Lenka (AKA SlovakMama) had a great idea. She created a website called ‘www.postaramsa.com‘ (meaning “it will be taken care of”) which allows visitors to search for caretakers for either their children or their elderly parents ( or pets!) and worldwide! So let’s say  you are a Czech or Slovak mom abroad and you are looking for a Czech/Slovak nanny. You enter your ad in and for free. Or you live abroad and have an elderly mom who speaks only Czech and you are looking for a Czech companion for her – you enter that in and for free. You get the point. Her website is brand new so there is no English translation as of yet but I am sure if you are in a need of help and cannot speak Slovak, you can contact her and she will be more than happy to help you out – she is great that way :0)

CZ: Moje dobra blogarska kamaradka Lenka (znama take pod jmenem SlovakMama) mela vyborny napad. Vytvorila webove stranky zvane ‘www.postaramsa.com’, ktere vam umoznuji inzerovat uplne zadarmo v pripade, ze potrebujete najit hlidani pro vase deti, nebo opatrovnici pro vase stare rodice, nebo vaseho pejska. Postaramsa zahrnuje i zahranicni staty, takze jestlize jste napriklad ceskou/slovenskou maminkou zijici v USA a hledate specificky pani na hlidani, ktera mluvi cesky/slovensky, toto je pro vas to nejlepsi misto, kde zacit. Nebo naopak, hledate praci jako osetrovatelka/au-aupairka doma nebo v zahranici? Udelejte to same!

We have here yet another great writer/contributor to this blog, Jamie,  who sees the Czech culture from the “outside”. Jamie is an American who has spend quite some time working in the Czech Republic so needless to say, he knows us, the Czechs, through and through. He describes here a “reverse culture shock” which he suffered with once he returned to the US. Listen to what he says – it’s hillarious:

CZ: Tak tu mame dalsiho nadaneho spisovatele, ktery pospisuje ceskou kulturu z vnejsiho vzhledu. Jamie je American, ktery pracoval dost dlouhou dobu v Cechach, coz znamena ze ten nas cesky narod  zna skrz na skrz. Popisuje zde  tzv. “obraceny kulutrni sok”, kterym trpel po navratu do Statu. Posudte sami – jeho vypraveni je dosti vtipne:

A lot of culture shock is caused when someone goes to a new place and
finds his ordinary habits of behavior — and even of seeing — are
dysfunctional there. Reverse culture shock is even worse, because the
person develops new habits in order to function in the new culture but
doesn’t realize he’s changed. He goes back home expecting to fit
right in, but he doesn’t. (more…)