Language Barrier

[Patrick]

Hi Ray, I was reading a post in the pre-planning forum and someone mentioned it was tough to rent a place without knowing the language. I'm just wondering how you're finding it living in the Czech Rep - any problems with the language barrier? I've never been, do a majority there speak english as well - you seem to be getting along pretty well so I assume you're not running into too much difficulty?

[BigRay]

Hi Patrick,

The language barrier is a tricky subject for me here. Many people in Prague speak enough English to get by. The percentage of people who speak English drops considerably when you leave the city. Since I live in the city, it is not a problem for me to communicate with most people. It is also very helpful that many restaurants have English (and German) menus. So for most things there are no problems.

However, not speaking Czech has made it difficult for me to meet locals and start real friendships. Since I have been here, I have been grateful for the tremendous amount of warmth and hospitality shown to me by many, but it has been difficult to break into the purely Czech social scene with my extremely limited language abilities.

Another tricky thing is that there are so many expats here, it is easy to meet other native english speakers, visit expat hangouts, and basically insulate yourself from the larger Czech scene. On one hand, this is very comforting and I've met and continue to hang out with a bunch of expats. On the other hand, this has slowed my learning of the Czech language.

So basically, if you are going to travel in Prague, there is no need to worry too much about the language barrier. But as for living here, I think things would be a lot different (and possibly a lot better) if I had at least a decent command of the Czech language.

Cheers,
Ray