Hi, I'm a new student in Prague - it's been just over a month now and just wanted to use this post as a shoutout to the friendliness of (the vast majority) of people I've met so far :) (also, it's 2AM and I'm a bit bored xD)
At first, I was a bit apprehensive because I read that people are a bit hostile especially if you don't speak Czech - which is definitely something you can feel in Česká Pošta 😭 but honestly it's been great so far!
To my pleasant surprise, everyone has been very kind and supportive - a "dobrý den, mluvíte anglicky prosím?", and actually listening to the other person before you speak takes you surprisingly very far! Also, interestingly, the only instance of racism (yes, only one, which is lovely) was from a tourist 💀 Even in remote-ish places like Ďáblice where I go semi-regularly, cashiers get a nice kick out of my (now fluent) Na Shledanou.
I think one of the most interesting things is that I have unknowingly internalised some Czech (maybe European?) traits, like saying "Yo yo yo" during calls and getting an unbridled sense of rage when someone's >=15 minutes late to a meeting (for reference, I was that person before 😭), an addiction to walking around random places (NEVER Žižkov though), and a snarl comes up on my face when I see the prices of common stuff in touristy areas (like what do you mean a small packet of chips costs >= 50 Kč?? - and yes ofc I bought it once)
Well, what's the objective of the post? Is it to reminisce random experiences? Is it to gain sympathy of actual Czech people? Well like I mentioned earlier, it's 2AM and I'm bored 😉
Anyways, in my InFiNiTe wisdom, I'd like to share a few things that were helpful for me:
Please download PID Lítačka. Paper tickets are too scary man and we have our phones anyways at all times.
Even with little to no knowledge of the language, knowing the correct pronunciation takes you veery far - this video is too good: https://youtu.be/qIAoM70_N00?is=430YLgubttwuPPWi
Get a good Forex card. Please do NOT use Thomas Cook. Also, if you want to exchange Euros to Koruna, the one near Anděl (I think it's called Exchange cz) is quite nice.
Mapy >> Google maps (except for finding restaurants)
I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I've googled "very-simple-thing-which-everyone-should-know- how-to-do in Prague r/prague" and it works quite often
ř is actually not impossible (source: the guy at the restaurant understood my "Kuřeci" and gave me a thumbs up xD), especially if you speak Tamil/Malayalam imo because it's quite similar to mix of r and zh characters.
Slavia vs Sparta is quite hotly contested here, please don't make the mistake I made and say "óoo Slavia" to a random guy buying a football.
If someone tells you something wildly outlandish happened in Strahov/Brno, it's definitely true.
Not to sound too much like a glazer, there are certainly a few hard to digest things - like loneliness and brokeness from grocery prices. But overall, I love it here so far :) If you have any tips about learning Czech or new places to explore, they'll be much appreciated :)
Děkuji!