Let me just be clear up front that I appreciate Czech culture. I spent the past 2 weeks living with a Czech family and then an older Czech woman for language immersion. It was definitely an interesting experience, and I loved experiencing the differences in culture. For both weeks I was out of Prague; first in a town of 10,000 south of Prague and then a town of 2,000 east of Prague. Though it was good practice (listening and speaking), even more interesting was the experience of living with Czechs and experiencing daily life with them. I haven't been in such a close context (outside of English camps, which is not real Czech life :) ) up to this point. So here are a few fun observations from throughout the weeks, some of which I had known to some extent before, but it was fun to actually experience them. Hope you enjoy a glimpse of Czech culture.
- Czechs eat watermelon seeds. Maybe you do too, I don't know! But it definitely was not common in my family of origin.
- Lunch is the biggest meal of the day, usually preceded by soup (which I think is supposed to help with digestion). Supper is much lighter; often leftovers or bread and meat and cheese.
- The garden is the term for the whole backyard. Sometimes it contains an actual vegetable garden, but often is a mix of flowers, fruit trees and fruit-bearing bushes scattered around. Most gardens have multiple types of fruit or nut trees/bushes.
- It's quite normal for children up to 6 or 7 years old or so to run around naked - even swim named together with friends and even babies and toddlers not yet potty-trained, though maybe for shorter periods of time.
- The Czech language has completely different words for "eat", "sit", "lay" when talking to small children. In addition, almost every noun can be converted to a diminutive form when talking about a smaller form of any object, and often used when talking about items or toys for children. (i.e. kniha = book, knižka = small book, storybook)
 |
| Buckthorn |
- Soft serve ice cream is served everywhere - even in the smallest village you'll find a tiny stand that sells it and in bigger towns, multiple ones, designated by a large cone sign on the sidewalk.
- I learned a few herbs and berries that are native to Europe and as far as I know, we don't grow in the US: libeček (lovage - an herb used in soups), rakytnik (buckthorn - small orange berries high in vitamin C). Rybiz (red and black currants) are found in almost every garden (though I know we have them in the US - though they're not nearly as common). And I tasted gooseberries for the first time, which were quite good.
- It really is quite strange to not unusual coffee or beer. After the lunch meal and at every visit drinks are offered and I often received a look of surprise when declining these beverages. Fortunately, I can redeem myself a bit with accepting tea. :)
- Not only is my written name strange for a female in the Czech, the English pronunciation is extremely difficult for Czechs. The Czech "j" is pronounced as a "y" sound, so the j sound is difficult to begin with - often coming out as [zh] (like the s in "measure") . And the "a" (as in man, van, etc.,) is not found in the Czech language ("a" is more like the vowel sound in "pond") so my name is everything from "Jane" to something like "Zhon" or the French "Jean".
- And one not from my immersion, but a doctor's appointment recently... doctors answer personal calls while seeing you.
