Grant Clark, Plus3 SSOE Transfer Plus Czech Republic Summer 2023
I’ve got to say, I was so used to living in the states that I encountered some major culture shock while being in Prague. Culture shock that I wish I could have been prepared for or even given a disclaimer about. I mean, I imagined that culture shock was going to happen, but I didn’t imagine it happening so significantly… being polite in the states is not what it means to be polite in Prague! I had countless moments where I’d wave when a car let me pass by as a pedestrian, head nod kindly at a stranger walking by, or smile at a stranger and did not receive any gesture in return. There is an autonomy about people’s lives there where it’s almost better to not make any sort of gesture to someone you don’t know. It was fascinating to me that people genuinely mind their own business. It was not rude, it was not personal, it was just the way people operate over there. I don’t think I ever learned how to operate that way and respect the culture, because I’ve been trained in the American version of being polite. An instructor that we got to learn from mentioned that this gap in culture norms is likely due to the Communist period of Prague’s history, where citizens just learned to stay to themselves in fear of getting spied on by the communist party. I was intrigued by that, and it made me sensitive to the fact that I shouldn’t make any judgements on the way people conduct themselves. There can be a wealth of history behind their behavior that I don’t even know. I got home and wondered if my friends and family would think I was acting “stand-offish”. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t, either way, I’ll kindly refer them back to this blog hah!
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