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ESL Online English Teacher

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A cloudy day in Prague

I walked up to the counter of a bakery in Karlín, an up and coming part of Prague, and ordered their summer special.

The shop assistant replied in Czech: “Which one – the salad or the Argentinian baguette?”

I didn’t have my glasses on me, in fact I broke them ages ago, so I squinted at the board in front of me to see what they were offering. I didn’t realise there were two summer specials.

Before I had a chance to reply, the assistant replied in English:

“Do you speak English?”

I replied in Czech: “No.”

He looked annoyed. But we completed the transaction in Czech.

I can order in Czech, zero problem, but this guy couldn’t wait another 10 seconds for me to have a good look at their full menu before telling him my preference.

People across the world complain that expats and immigrants don’t learn the local language but this small exchange is typical of a LOT of transactions I’ve carried out this summer in Prague.

Just because I have an Australian accent when I speak Czech doesn’t mean that I can’t order a baguette in Czech!

I always speak Czech when I go to restaurants and cafes in Prague and quite often the waiters reply in English.

So if you want foreigners to learn Czech, how can we when you respond in English??

This is just one barrier I have to face each time I walk into a cafe or a restaurant or indeed interact with Czechs. I’m a foreigner – so get used to hearing Czech with an accent.

It’s bad enough when we have our own internal barriers to learning a language, let alone what others impose on us.

  • What barriers do you have when it comes to learning English?
  • Are they barriers that come from within or from others around you?
  • How do you deal with them?

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Marcelo says

    August 18, 2011 at 01:16

    I don’t have anyone to speak English where I live, at least, not that I know of. If I were still living in São Paulo, I would have much more opportunity to speak English with somebody there, but out here, in the countryside of São Paulo, find out somebody who speaks English is more like looking for a needle in a haystack 🙂
    As a learner of English, I just have one barrier, which is my “personal” barrier to speak English fluently, and it is “the fear”, the fear of making mistakes, be embarrassed in front of others, mainly with native speakers of English, or yet, be the butt of the joke for them, even worse, isn’t it? But I’ve been trying to get rid of it, because the more you use the language, the more fluent you will become. I think I’m in the right way 🙂
    Nice topic!
    Take care David.

    Reply
    • David Sweetnam says

      August 19, 2011 at 19:16

      Hi again Marcelo

      Some of the things you say remind me of what a few students here have told me. Indeed making mistakes is something people fear in whatever they’re learning, whether it be a language, a dance or karate.

      It partly depends on your attitude towards making mistakes, and how your teacher + others respond. Though ultimately it’s up to you. I’m learning zouk right now, and I must admit I don’t like being the only beginner at a party among all these amazing dancers, while the other beginners stay at home. But I still want to stick at it.

      And there aren’t any English speakers or people who speak English well in your town? Even when I’ve been in small places in Europe, there’s always an ‘expat bar’ where the local Americans or Brits or Aussies go to. Me, I’d like to meet some Czechs for a Cz-Eng exchange, will put the ad up this weekend ; )

      Reply
  2. Marcelo says

    August 20, 2011 at 21:00

    Hello David,
    Learning how to dance must be enjoyable, it’s definitely on my list of things to do with my wife, we even enrolled in a course recently, but we couldn’t be able to start, because we are always in a rush.
    Here in Juquiá, there is no such thing. Juquiá is a tiny town of twenty thousand inhabitants hehe, I know that two friends of mine, have been taking English classes, but they don’t feel comfortable to start an English conversation. I even proposed to create a small group of friends to speak English in a pub, and meet up with them once a week, but they have always been putting off the meetings 🙂

    Reply
  3. David Sweetnam says

    August 23, 2011 at 22:23

    I really like this idea of having a group of friends for an English night. When I was in France there were some students who came to our school + spoke to us in French, while we also had an exchange in English.

    Here it doesn’t really happen (ie re: Czech) though this week I posted my own advert for Czech-English 🙂

    Reply
  4. D. I. says

    April 23, 2012 at 00:17

    That’s really unfortunate, but matches up with a lot of what I’ve heard from expats about Prague. I’d like to move there from Brno, but I’m worried my Czech wouldn’t continue to progress (here in Brno people are more patient; they almost always let me speak Czech). Maybe I will have to wait until I’m fluent…

    Reply
    • David Sweetnam says

      April 23, 2012 at 00:36

      Hi thanks for your comment. I’m still encountering my own barriers to learning Czech here. I’ll definitely write some new examples again soon.

      So you’re in Brno? I was thinking of going there to study Czech for a month or so this summer. I think it’d help not just with this, but get to meet some new people beyond Prague.

      Reply
  5. D. I. says

    April 23, 2012 at 08:36

    Hey, well, if you’re coming to study at the Masaryk program for a month, I’ll be there. I’ll also be in Prague for the month of June (doing my TEFL training; I’ll be starting as a teacher next year).

    I think the saga of my trying to learn Czech at least means I’ll have more sympathy with my students and funny stories to share with them…like the time I asked someone what kind of music he kissed (líbat/líbit), said I wanted to take a bath in the supermarket (koupat/koupit), and almost said I needed to take my face, rather than my clothes, out of the washing machine (obličej/oblečení)…

    Reply
    • David Sweetnam says

      April 24, 2012 at 20:50

      Haha, I think I can relate. I once mixed up ‘dívka’ with a word which has a similar sound but quite different meaning..

      You have some cool thoughts btw on your blog. I gather you’ve been studying here, but now ready to enter the world of TEFL. If there’s one thing I’d do differently it’s learning Czech before getting into English teaching, so if you can already get around quite ok with the language, I think you’ll have richer foundations to work with 🙂

      Reply
  6. D. I. says

    April 25, 2012 at 00:30

    Haha—I hope the girl didn’t get too mad at you.

    Yeah, I’ve been studying here. I’m hoping to go into translation and in a year will probably apply to Masters programs here, but I don’t feel that my level of Czech is ready for that yet. I wanted a job that would allow me to stay in the country for the next year while I work on my Czech, and that I could continue part-time while in school. TEFL seemed to fit the bill.

    Reply
  7. D. I. says

    April 25, 2012 at 00:33

    I’m also glad I learned what “poluce” means before getting into a discussion about environmental issues (hint: not the same thing as “znečištění životího prostředí”).

    Reply

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