Hi,
I would like to know what it the general behaviour of Czech to foreigners.
What do they think about them? Do they usually treat foreigners well?
Do they like tourists? Deslike those who move to Czech Republic to live permanently, or for a long time, as for a university college?
Are there any preferences, any groups or nationalits - Russians, Germans, Polishes, Brazilians, other Latin Americans, US.people, Central African, East Asian, black people, arab, gipsy, etc - whom they like more or clearly deslike?
Thank you for the attention,
Good bye.:
In my experience people in the Czech Republic are generally much more hostile than in other parts of the world - although having said that I have not travelled through other parts of Eastern Europe.
I am a white male, so Ok until I open my mouth and attempt to speak Czech (we are livin here for a few months visiting friends) at which point many Czechs are impatient - they are not used to foreigners attempting to speak their language. My partner fares much worse: she is half-Japanese, although raised in New Zealand. She is frequently stared at in the street, is pushed in front of in queues, and, on one occasion, was refused service in a bar. Another friend is Macedonian and faces difficulties and recently saw an old lady shouting at a black man in the supermarket.
If you stick to the touristy bits, you will be fine, as the people there are more than used to foreigners and are sometimes even pleasant - but international standards of service and hospitality do not apply here. The second you step outside the old town you will find it difficult. Czechs have a lot to learn about multi-culturalism - which the rest of the world learnt a long time ago.
Hi,
thank you Nenad and Dave for your answers.
Well, it seems that it is not so bad, neither good.
According to what Dave said the situation is not the best for me, since I am Brazilian and black skin.Anyway, by now I intend to go there only as a tourist, so, not much to care.
My Slovakian friend one day commented with me that he went to Prague one day and it was full of tourists, it annoyed him, I replied saying that he was a foreigner too, but he said no, that after Bratislava, Prague was his second city, well, and we can´t say that he is wrong, by the way, when he was born, the country was one. =P
The Moravian part seems interesting, one of those interesting "forgotten" parts of the World, and even the name of this website suggests it. (Dominik, don´t misuderstand me please)
Nenad and Dave, where are you from? Dave seems to come from USA and perhaps UK
Thank you again you two.
Good bye.:
Ahoj,
It depends on the place in Czech Republic. Prague is full of tourists, so you will be treated there like a normal tourist. They don't need more tourists in Prague (the place is completely and unpleasently full of them) and you cannot count on any simpaties there, from wherever you are. My experiences from Prague are not good, all services (exchange officies, restaurants,...) were trying to have as much money of you as possible. It seems that in Prague they live just for money.
On the other hand, in Moravian part ot CZ, there are almost no foreign tourists and they treat foreigners in completely different way. People generally really want to help you on every step and are very kind. It is also very appreciated if you know a little Czech!
As for the university college, I am one of those foreigners - their university college. My experience is that we (Czechs and me) don't have any simpathy about huge group of foreign students coming from the same place. E.g. there are lot of Mongolians and Vientamees who are always sticking in their group and live their own life independment of the Czech one. But, if you are alone as a foreigner (from Brazil, Serbia, Germany,... from whereever) you will be treated different and you can easely make friends with Czechs.
Welcome to CZ,
Nenad
I would definitely agree with Nenad. Prague is probably the most easy going of all the cities. I have been there once and everyone treated me just fine. I haven't been to the other cities so I can't speak from experience, but I have been told by others that it can be quite different than Prague - depending on the scenario. Hope this helps...
Alwayzer
Hello. Good question, but quite difficult to answer! :o
I've lived here for two years now, so I'll do my best.....
Czechs in general, welcome foreigners. But like anyplace, they do show preferences between different foreigners. In my opinion, they prefer western, white people. For instance, I know they are quite cold in many times to further eastern european nations (romanians, russians, ukranians...), but they pretty much view british, americans, french, etc as more or less equals. You'll find preferences among individuals, but for the most part czechs want to be western, and appreciate most western company.
As far as color of skin, I'm sorry to say that there is quite a disparity of warmness based on it. For instance, in prague I knew an asian-american guy who moved here, and within 4 months had been pummelled on the streets at least 4 times (that he admitted to). Blacks & arabs are in the same boat. Even if you're not attacked, you'll definitely feel an outsider. Let's hope that will change in the years to come.
Anyway, hopefully that sheds some light.....I know others maybe have different experiences / observations than I do, and I look forward to hearing them! :-)
Dave