Now that I am almost done with my internship, I can reflect on some of the communication differences and how that affected my time here in Prague. Before I do that, I’d like to quickly talk about my trip this past weekend to Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. While Croatia is an extremely popular tourist destination, Bosnia isn’t in the EU and is one of the poorest countries in Europe. My friends and I got surprised reactions from both Americans and Czech people when we said we were going to Bosnia. We wanted to experience something out of the norm, and we did just that. Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the most beautiful countries I’ve been to. It’s really impressive how they rebuilt towns and cities after the war only 30 years ago. The local people were some of the friendliest and funniest people I’ve met. The country is not doing well to European standards and they rely on tourism for 50% of their economy. I would recommend Bosnia and Herzegovina to anyone looking for a less commonly visited country in Europe.

Now for the main topic of today: Communication styles and differences in Prague. While I’ve generally been able to communicate with people easily, there have been some fascinating instances where the cultural nuances shone through.

To begin, I’ll talk about the communication at my internship at Nekrachni. When I start my day, I’m usually the first one in the office, so I have to grab the key from downstairs. The security guard doesn’t speak any English. I quickly learned how to say my room number, (dvě stě šestnáct) and keys (kliče) in Czech. Now he recognized me, so I give him a nod and he knows which key I need. This is an example of non-verbal communication which is more common in Central Europe than in the USA. I’ve used a lot of it since I don’t know Czech.

My company communicates through slack mostly. I initially found myself out of the loop since they send updates in Czech. At first, I wondered if I was missing out on important information. I came to the conclusion that any vital information would be given in English since they understand that the other intern and I don’t understand Czech. However, I was still curious about the rest of the company, so I had to ask about it to get information. It was a little difficult to deal with this feeling of being out of the loop but as I became closer with my coworkers on a personal level, I felt like I was able to better understand the company’s goals and plans.

One noticeable difference in communication style that I’ve noticed is that my Czech coworkers communicate in a slightly more direct fashion than the people I’ve worked with in the States. While this might be partly attributed to English not being their first language, I found it incredibly refreshing. In a professional setting, I’ve come to appreciate this straightforward approach. In fact, I think it’s better to be direct in many situations at work to save time and better communicate one’s opinions.

I’ve also had some experiences with communication differences outside of work while living in Prague. I’ve learned about local customs that contribute to the high-context fabric of society – like not wearing a hat indoors or bringing a change of shoes to the gym. These aren’t explicitly stated rules but are understood cultural norms. A recurring source of miscommunication is my attempts to obtain Czech coins. My laundry machine is coin-operated, so I often go to the bank to get coins for it. There have been multiple occasions where the bank or exchange office is out of cash or out of coins. I don’t understand this, but I came to discover that it’s common in Czechia since the workers seemed to expect me to already know they didn’t have coins. My suite mates and I also try exchanging cash for coins at coffee shops. At some places they completely refuse, and other places are very willing to help us out. One thing I’ve realized while living in Prague is that every store or restaurant is different in the way that they operate, so you can’t go into a business expecting something to be done a certain way. Overall, the workers have been very kind, even if there were some communication problems.

My internship has been a fascinating journey into understanding how communication differs in Prague compared to the United States. From adapting to the unspoken cues with the security guard to navigating the implicit information flow on Slack, and even grappling with the “common knowledge” of coin availability, I’ve been able to adapt to a more high-context communication culture where I’ve been able to learn from my experiences.