Tomorrow marks the beginning of my final week in Prague, which feels insane to write. Time has really flown by this summer, and while I am looking forward to going home, I know I’ll miss this experience. I am definitely going to soak in as much of these last few days as I can.
This past Monday was a fun day in the office. Or more like a fun day out of the office, since everyone at EARCH came together for a trip to Prague 16. We took the train out to a new part of the Czech Republic that I haven’t seen before, stopping for lunch before swimming at a local public pool. It was fun to meet everyone who work at EARCH, since about half of the office is fully remote so I haven’t been able to talk to them in person yet. It was interesting to trade ideas and practices in the journalism field, with me explaining how The Pitt News work in comparison to their magazine. Plus, being able to swim in a pool was awesome, since that’s one of my favorite summer past times back home.
Looking back at these seven weeks in the office, there are lots of communication differences that stand out to me. I think that was the hardest hurdle to jump when moving to a new country and entering a foreign work place. The biggest and most obvious communication difference was the language. I don’t speak any Czech, minus the few weeks of Duo Lingo I started, and everyone in the office speaks Czech all the time. Unless they are directly talking to me, they prefer to not speak English. This made it hard to follow group conversations, since someone often would have to stop and explain to me what was happening. I wasn’t able to sit in on their board meetings, since it would make zero sense to me. Even the writing was in Czech, so I would have to translate my articles and emails that I received and sent out.
Along with the language barrier, there were also slight differences in communication preferences. I found that my editors were much less direct with negative feedback on my assignments, and hesitated to correct what I did wrong. This was unusual to me, since I am used to an editor marking up my writing. I ended up having to express that I wouldn’t be offended if they made a lot of edits and corrections, since I think edits always make my writing much stronger.
I also found the office to be extremely laid back and causal, more than I expected in a professional workspace. This was definitely a plus, I was just surprised at first. My colleagues and I would talk about everything, from what we did this weekend to TV shows. I would never expect for my boss in America to take me to a public pool for a day, just because they felt like it. I really appreciated how welcoming and kind everyone was, it made me feel miles more comfortable.
Heading into my last week at EARCH is both exciting and a little sad. I have one more project to complete before I’m done for the summer. I’ll be sad to leave my colleagues who have been so open and generous to me, but I definitely will be grateful to be back in a space where everyone speaks English and I don’t stick out like a sore American thumb.
