Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Prague has emerged as one of the most popular tourist destina-
tions in Europe.
lANGUAGE
Hurdling the Language Barrier
The language barrier in the Czech Republic is no bigger than in
Western Europe. In fact, I find that it's even easier to communi-
cate in Český Krumlov than it is in Madrid. Immediately after the
Iron Curtain fell in 1989, English-speakers were rare. But today,
you'll find that most people in the tourist industry—and just about
all young people—speak good English.
Of course, not everyone speaks English. You'll run into the
most substantial language barriers in situations when you need to
deal with a clerk or service person aged 40 or above (train station
and post-office staff, maids, museum guards, bakers, and so on).
Be reasonable in your expectations. Czech post-office clerks and
museum ticket-sellers are every bit as friendly, cheery, and multi-
lingual as ours are in the US. Luckily, it's relatively easy to get your
point across in these places. I've often bought a train ticket sim-
ply by writing out the name of my destination; the time I want to
travel (using the 24-hour clock); and if necessary, the date I want
to leave (day first, then month, then year). Here's an example of
what I'd show a ticket-seller at a train station: “Olomouc - 17:30 -
15.7.2009.”
If you speak German, it will likely come in handy—especially
in the south of the country, where the economy depends in part on
Austrian tourists from across the border.
Of course, the easiest way to hurdle the language barrier in
any country is to learn some of the local words.
Pronunciation
Czech, a Slavic language closely related to its Polish and Slovak
neighbors, bears little resemblance to Western European lan-
guages. Slavic pronunciation can be tricky. In fact, when the first
Christian missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, came to Eastern
Europe a millennium ago, they invented a whole new alphabet to
represent these strange Slavic sounds. Their Cyrillic alphabet is
still used today in the eastern Slavic countries (such as Serbia and
Russia).
Fortunately, the Czechs long ago converted to the same
Roman alphabet we use, but they've added lots of different dia-
critics—little markings below and above letters—to represent a
wide range of sounds. An acute accent
(á, é, í, ó, ú, ý)
means you
linger on that vowel; it does not indicate stress, which invari-
ably falls on the first syllable. The letter
c
always sounds like “ts”
