Language though Occupation

editors | 25 December, 2009 10:50

By Andrés Jennings, drediz2000@gmail.com

There is no risk in saying that almost all literate people in the world have taken some kind of foreign language course. Maybe just in high school, taking a basic Spanish course that was a requirement to graduate, and later remembering only a couple words. Whether or not one is fluent or has just taken a few basic classes in a foreign language, there is no denying that knowing more than one language is useful.

I have been motivated for a few years now to learn new languages. In college I took classes and studied abroad to immerse myself into the places where the languages where spoken. For the last few years, I have been living in South America in various countries to learn the other major languages of the Americas: Spanish, Portuguese and French. Being a native English speaker, I wanted to provide a service to the people I would be living with so learned how to teach English.

Teaching English was my way to make a living abroad, but it also helped me get in touch with my students, and learn their native language. After living in Mexico, Ecuador, and Brazil, I managed to come out of South America speaking fluent Spanish and Portuguese. This was by no means an easy feat, but being totally immersed in the language and culture greatly accelerated the process. My willingness to learn was key to my success.

Being a teacher allowed me to understand what it was like to help people learn. Teaching, I found out, requires a lot more talent and energy than most people think. Being able to speak a language fluently does not necessarily mean you are able to teach it. Beyond understating the technical rules of a language (i.e. Grammar), a teacher has to know how to manage time, prepare and create appropriate lessons, work to understand the individual needs of their students and above all, have a great amount of patience. Teachers are leaders. It was not until I was the teacher standing in front of the classroom that I realized this.

Besides being an international teacher, I have also been an international student. While living in foreign countries, it has been my personal philosophy to learn the language of the country where I am living. When you are immersed, everything turns into an interactive language classroom and I took full advantage of it. South America was amazing. I lived a dream life living and traveling over a four-year period, and learning from the people was easy because they were so open and friendly. I had experienced great challenges and had learned so much that I was beginning to feel that I wanted to just go home to the United States and start my life there again. I had conquered my own hopes of learning more languages and experiencing something different so going home sounded really good.

I did go home, back to New Mexico where I was born and raised. Back home, I started to get very comfortable. New Mexico is a wonderful place to live, and because of its history and people being very rooted in the Spanish conquest of the Americas, my fluency in Spanish was useful. After a year back home though, I started to get that itch to travel again. I still felt that I had more to learn and more to see.

So, to make a somewhat long story short, I am now living I the Czech Republic. I have been living here for the last four months and have a job teaching English. I am living in Prague, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and I once again dived head first into the language pool. The only problem with the Czech language is that the pool is very deep, and there is a current that you have to swim against.

In Europe, there are three main types of Languages: Germanic, Latinic and Slavic. English is a Germanic language, and the other languages of the Americas are all Latinic. The Czech language is a Slavic based language. Other Slavic languages are Russian, Polish, and Slovakian. In the USA there is virtually no exposure to these languages. America speaks European languages, but this branch of the language tree has not grown at all in the American Continent.

You may be asking, as my family did when I decided to come to Prague to learn Czech, why would anyone want to learn Czech? There are only ten million people in the world who speak the Czech language, and there are other Slavic languages that would be more useful to know, like Russian. The answer comes down to wanting to live in the Czech Republic. Although I had never been here, I had a few Czech friends that told me it was a great place to live, I could easily get a job here, and they would help me get me off the ground in the first few months. As an added bonus, the beer in the Czech Republic is some of the best in the world.

My reasoning for learning Czech was that if I know one Slavic language, it would be easier for me to learn another in the future. Taking a look at what Prague had to offer made the move very exciting for me, and I wanted to give it a try. I wasn’t the first American to want to try this.

Coming here with the intent to teach English has been the idea of many Americans nice the 1990s. On November 17^th, 1989 the Czech Republic (then known as Czechoslovakia) had a non-violent revolution. The Velvet Revolution, as it was called, ended Communism that had commanded the territory since 1948. The protests of more than half a million people around the country sent the Soviets packing, and a new democracy was instated. With the fall of Communism came new opportunity for the Czech people, and the world became something they could be a part of. The new world that they became a part of was the Capitalist majority of Europe, and the English language was very useful in that world.

The Czech Republic has been occupied by other countries throughout most of its history, and there has always been another language forced upon them by the occupier. In the last 80 years, the German and Russian languages pushed upon the Czech people, but with the arrival of Democracy to the country, English was not forced upon the Czechs though occupation, but rather by circumstance.

The students I teach in the Czech Republic are not like other students I have had before. First of all, they are all adults. In South America, most of my students were between the ages of 14 and 30. Here in the Czech Republic, all my students are over 30 years of age. The reason for this is because anyone who is under 30 already speaks English pretty well, as it was offered to all Czech students after 1989. Prior to that date, all Czechs were required to learn Russian or German. If anyone learned English before 1989, it was because they worked very hard to learn it and were never guaranteed the chance to ever visit an English speaking country.

It has been 20 years since the Velvet Revolution and the Czech Republic is finally coming into its own. With so much change going on over the one hundred years, it is no wonder that there is a feeling of distance when approaching the Czech people. It is not to say that the Czech people are cruel and prejudice to outsiders. Far from it. The fact is that it is a new thing for the Czech people. Their history has always been tangled in the web of some other nations interests and being free is a new feeling.

The greatest challenge that faces a foreigner in the Czech Republic is to understand the reason for the cold Czech shoulder. They are a people who have been kept in the dark amongst their own people; they have been controlled by other governments and speak a language that only exists in their country. Besides these reasons, the greatest cause for their distance is what I like to call the generation gap.

The generation gap is the result of the four generations in the Czech Republic living today that have had totally different experiences growing up in the same country. The oldest generation witnessed the World Wars, German occupation and the destruction of Europe. The next generation saw the arrival of the Soviet occupation and the dawn of communism in their nation. Third generation lived the revolution and were the ones who protested for the freedom of their nation and the change that the final generation has lived their entire lives in. The youngest generation has lived their entire life in the new, capitalist nation the Czech Republic is today. Between these four generations, there is little commonality.

They have all lived different lives in a very small country and all have had to cope with changes that the other generations did not have to. Parents don’t understand their grandparents, neither their children, but family is still a very important part of Czech life. Social life in the Czech republic is very reserved, as a result of people being constantly worried about secret police and public distrust. Though twenty years have passed, older generations are not easily approachable, even if someone is fluent in Czech.

I have learned from my older students that it is not normal for them to meet people in social settings. Many of them find a foreigners approach to social behavior refreshing. As a Czech, if you got out to a typical pub or bar, and try to start a conversation with a complete stranger, there will most likely be a response of curiosity as to why you are trying to speak to them. Social politeness is not as prevalent in Czech society and to behave in such a way, as a Czech would be abnormal.

Young people in the Czech republic are a bit more open to a public social courtesy, but it is usually in response to the initial action taken by a foreigner. Being a young man in Prague, I figured it would be easy to make friends in such a metropolitan city, but it has been harder than in any other country I have been to. I don’t want to make the Czechs seem unapproachable, but it has become apparent to me that there is particular etiquette to approaching Czech people.

Social inconsistency is perhaps the greatest cause of this. In South America, there are many social problems, poverty and misery, but there has been consistency there over the last one hundred years. Czechs have been exposed to so many different ways of life, that the last twenty years has not had too much of an impression. However, the future looks bright here. Czech xenophobia will become a thing of the past as new generations are born here. Though it cannot be pinpointed in a specific way, there is a difference in how the youngest generation is living. So far, the last one hundred years have been very unsustainable in regards to Czech culture and exposure to the rest of the world, but there are changes coming here.

Participating in the 20^th anniversary of the Czech Revolution on November 17^th 2009 was very inspiring. The Czech people were united again, as they were 20 years ago. There was a strong sense of national identity and unity among the different generations that I had not seen before. There was a positive energy and a good sense of community. This lead me to think about what the Czech Republic will look like in 2029. Will these people continue to develop their sense of community and sustain their current direction of openness and diversity that is prevalent in the youngest generation?

The future will tell. There are many ex-patriots living in the Czech Republic and the Czech people are traveling more to other countries and living abroad more and more. International experience is a new thing to the Czechs, but there is a desire for it. As with all things in life, perfection comes with practice and the more Czechs get to travel, the better they will be at it, and at opening up to visitors and new residence to their country. Sustaining their culture will be deeply rooted in their language as the future brings more and more languages to this part of the world.

Of course, knowing the language is key. Unfortunately, learning how to speak Czech feels a bit like wanting to jump the Grand Canyon on a motorcycle. It sounds really exciting and challenging, but even if it is possible, it is a long way to go to get to the other side. There is also no point in stopping half way once one has already taken the jump. The challenge is great, but the rewards seem to be worth the trouble.

It has always been an important part of my philosophy as a language teacher to also be a language student of the host country that I am living in. Prague is the first place I have been to where there I have seen a clear bridge to the other side if the canyon, but the bridge is English. One can live for years in the city and not learn how to speak Czech. Perhaps “live” is not the best word to use in this case, so lets say, “survive” instead. I have come across many English teachers here that I have not learned to speak the native language and they don’t seem the least bit bothered. There are areas in Prague that cater to English, and it is a city where English is in high demand.

If you want to learn Czech living in Prague, it takes a lot of effort. Most young people can speak English and if you start speaking to them in broken Czech, they won’t want to waste their time speaking to you in their language if they can just speak to you in English. They want to practice their English and take advantage of the fact that you are a native speaker. Only the most daring and hard working students can come out on top with the Czech language.

In many ways, learning the Czech language is the best way to explain how Czech people approach anyone who is occupying their country. If you want to be accepted, then you have to earn your place and play by the rules that govern Czech culture. It’s a long and hard process, but once you are in, you are in forever. They have been occupied by different countries, and have had foreign languages forced upon them throughout most of their recent history. When a foreigner makes the effort to learn their language, Czechs are very impressed. Not many people jump over the Grand Canyon on a motorcycle.

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Journal of Sustainability

Language though Occupation

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