Monday, March 05, 2007
Pink hair, grocery bags, and thin-crust pizza
Throughout the course of this year, many of you have asked me what my observations are as far as Czech-American culture differences. So after months of anticipation, I have compiled my thoughts for the four of you who faithfully read this. Again, these are just my personal observation and I am not trying to generalize or stereotype in any way. This list is made up of my thoughts along the way:
-Czechs always say hello and goodbye upon entering and leaving a room. Even if it’s to nobody in particular, or if you don’t know the people there. You say it to the cashier at Tesco, or to the doorman at the business you work in. Everyone.
-Czechs carry flowers upside down. Even numbers of flowers mean you like the person. Two flowers mean someone has died.
-You always take your shoes off upon entering someone’s home. Often, your host will have slippers for you to wear if your feet get cold.
-At restaurants, you don’t wait for tables. You just seat yourself. Often, especially at lunch hour, you share tables with others if there isn’t space anywhere else.
-Czechs don’t do the big American “cheese” smile in photographs. A friend told me she doesn’t even think she could if she tried.
-Many doors out of buildings open in. This causes problems when they have opened out your entire life and you walk straight into it expecting it to open out!
-In a store, you always take a basket or shopping cart. Even if you only need one thing, or you know you might not buy anything. You just take a basket anyway.
-Czechs reuse grocery bags. They bring their own to the supermarket.
-Pizza is always thin-crust. Ham is probably the most popular pizza topping in CZ. It’s also normal to put corn and broccoli on pizza. If there are olives, they are usually green. I really miss good, deep dish pizza.
-Czechs are very humble people. They will tell you they can’t speak English when they are practically fluent. One student I met mentioned one time that he was a fencer, then I found out later he’s a six time national champion.
-Czechs, notably young people, are great about giving up seats for the elderly on public transportation. I’m always impressed.
-During Communism, many American songs were covered in Czech and then marketed as Czech songs. To this day, many of them will hear an American song and think we stole it from them.
-Cheating is incredibly common in Czech schools. The students (and even the adults in my class), consider it "helping" eachother and it is pretty much expected that they do cheat. They don't seem to have any regret or guilt about it. This is one difference that I still don't understand.
And one humorous observation: you can predict the age of a woman by the shade of red her hair is. Young girls usually go for the hot pinks, which gradually fade to a darker and darker red. Around the mid-forties, the red is almost a natural red color. Then it gets a little purplish tinted. The purple gradually lightens until they're in their 80's or so and it's a nice lavender color.
-Czechs always say hello and goodbye upon entering and leaving a room. Even if it’s to nobody in particular, or if you don’t know the people there. You say it to the cashier at Tesco, or to the doorman at the business you work in. Everyone.
-Czechs carry flowers upside down. Even numbers of flowers mean you like the person. Two flowers mean someone has died.
-You always take your shoes off upon entering someone’s home. Often, your host will have slippers for you to wear if your feet get cold.
-At restaurants, you don’t wait for tables. You just seat yourself. Often, especially at lunch hour, you share tables with others if there isn’t space anywhere else.
-Czechs don’t do the big American “cheese” smile in photographs. A friend told me she doesn’t even think she could if she tried.
-Many doors out of buildings open in. This causes problems when they have opened out your entire life and you walk straight into it expecting it to open out!
-In a store, you always take a basket or shopping cart. Even if you only need one thing, or you know you might not buy anything. You just take a basket anyway.
-Czechs reuse grocery bags. They bring their own to the supermarket.
-Pizza is always thin-crust. Ham is probably the most popular pizza topping in CZ. It’s also normal to put corn and broccoli on pizza. If there are olives, they are usually green. I really miss good, deep dish pizza.
-Czechs are very humble people. They will tell you they can’t speak English when they are practically fluent. One student I met mentioned one time that he was a fencer, then I found out later he’s a six time national champion.
-Czechs, notably young people, are great about giving up seats for the elderly on public transportation. I’m always impressed.
-During Communism, many American songs were covered in Czech and then marketed as Czech songs. To this day, many of them will hear an American song and think we stole it from them.
-Cheating is incredibly common in Czech schools. The students (and even the adults in my class), consider it "helping" eachother and it is pretty much expected that they do cheat. They don't seem to have any regret or guilt about it. This is one difference that I still don't understand.
And one humorous observation: you can predict the age of a woman by the shade of red her hair is. Young girls usually go for the hot pinks, which gradually fade to a darker and darker red. Around the mid-forties, the red is almost a natural red color. Then it gets a little purplish tinted. The purple gradually lightens until they're in their 80's or so and it's a nice lavender color.
# posted by Jessica @ 8:09 AM 
