I haven't been to the Czech Republic since the Velvet Revolution. Is English now pretty much used as the second language? What about German or Russian? Is English mandatory in schools?
Yes, English may be the best choice. German is quite popular in the border areas and Prague. Usually younger people speak English, older ones Russian and German. The young eneration does not speak any Russian - which I think is wrong, but it is their choice
In my opinion, teaching people Russian was a complete mistake but anyway I understand why everyone was taught that language some time ago. The similar situation was present in Poland. Now Russian can be useful if you make business on the east but generally English is enough because when somebody thinks seriously about making deals with foreigners, he must surely speak English. Well, speaking English or German is a much better choice than speaking Russian.
When a Czech company is about to do business with a German firm, and sends them a letter in English to sign a deal, you always get a response in German. From a German point of view, there isn`t any reason for them to strike a deal in any other language than German. Especially, if YOU want to do business with them, which is almost always the case. One thing is to go out and have lunch with your German business partner speaking English, another is to cut the deal in English. The buzzword of English being a universal language that everyone speaks it, is not true in that it`s estimated that there`re 1-3 billion English speakers. (By far the best choice from all other languages, but as hard luck has it, you never find an English speaker when you need one.) The current web trend is even to de-anglicise COM, NET etc suffixes, and allow people whose language is not grounded on Latin to use their language so that they should feel more like home. Why not? No language is a mistake or waste once you`ve learnt it. Waste is to forget it.
well ma boy friend is czech n' his 2nd language is german...bt i think english is really important to be as a 2nd langauge!
I stand my ground, Sova, when it comes to formal business letters, at least. Generally , German is preferred so long as you have to do business with Germans. (My first paragraph is only concerned with a Czech-German subset, which may not have any effect on the general view as stated by Adder). Karel
Adder's statement of "generality" applied to foreigners, not specifically to Germans. As for your statement regarding the "specific" (not general) Czech-German subset, I agree. After all, who can argue with the statement "When in Rome, do as the Romans."
