The thought of travelling to another country, experiencing a new culture and accessing new opportunities is exhilarating. However, this will die down after some months and you will start missing home. This feeling is normal. Moreover, the thought of settling at your new location can be exciting and at the same time daunting.
Having lived in the Czech Republic for two years now and after much deliberation, I finally got around to penning my experience as a foreign student living in the Czech Republic. This piece, I believe, will be useful to students and researchers who are new to the Czech Republic or even considering moving here.
- Google translator will be your best friend. The Czechs take pride in their language and so you will often find yourself being bombarded with the Czech language everywhere you find yourself. Even at your university! I guess there is the implicit assumption that everyone living in Czechia speaks the Czech language and so more often than not this is the first language you will be communicated to in public places. Whether it is a short run to the local supermarket, a trip to your favourite fast-food restaurant, the post office or, surprisingly, the immigration office, the people you meet are most likely to speak to you in Czech. Fortunately, google translator always comes in very handy. It also has an offline version that you can download on your mobile device. I learnt this the hard way, unfortunately.
- It is a no brainer that you will miss the food back home. However, you will find that Czech restaurants have a variety of delicious foods available, and that even the picky eater will find something to eat. There are restaurants that offer food from various nationalities, most popular being Vietnamese, at reasonable prices. There are popular chain restaurants as well. If none of these options appeal to you, there are some grocery shops that sell international food ingredients, and you might just be lucky to find foodstuffs from your country on their shelves. I can confidently say food will not be a problem for you in Czechia.
- Having visited a number of European countries, I daresay Czechia has one of the best public transportation systems in Europe in terms of accessibility. There are trams and trolleybuses that work throughout the day, and even night! There is also the train and buses for long distance journeys. All these forms of transport are easily accessible. You only have to make sure you have the right ticket that will enable you to travel on them. There are ticket inspectors onboard quite frequently, and you would not want to be caught without a ticket. You can be heavily fined!
- The Czechs as a people are “reserved”. It is normal for local people not to talk to you, but to stare at you. I admit this was strange to me in the beginning. Coming from a country where it is normal for strangers you meet on the street to greet you and even proceed to ask how you are doing, or people on public transport to strike up a conversation among themselves as though they are familiar with each other, it felt completely different. Notwithstanding, I have found Czechs to be helpful on several occasions – even on public transport.
- Czechs are generally polite. You will hear “prosím” at every turn. I found that just by being polite, and also knowing a few Czech phrases, you could easily get assistance from the locals.
- Generally, as a PhD student, you are required to carry out independent research, and so you have to be proactive with your studies. However, I have observed that in the Czech system you not only have to be proactive, but you also need to be extra proactive. I have come to the realisation that you will constantly have to grapple with the excessive structures, administrative processes and procedures not only in your school, but the Czech system as a whole – health, immigration, etc. Be sure to do your research.
If I am to put everything into one sentence, I will say be open to learning about new things and take it each day at a time while having fun.
Author: Patricia Ofori-Amanfo
SustainableCZ 
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