racism

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous (Czech-Related)' started by zulan, Sep 1, 2004.

  1. zulan

    zulan New Member

    I am Chinese and heard that the people who live in the Czech Republic do not like Asians in general. Is this true or does this happen mostly in the outskirts of Prague? I know I won't be able to hide myself from being a tourist but I sure hope I won't get ripped off left and right. Will the older natives of Czech be less friendly towards me?
     
  2. nikdo

    nikdo Well-Known Member

    You shouldn't be afraid. Things like this sometimes happen in the Czech republic - mostly in working class neighborhoods but very rarely in areas visited by tourists. And you needn't necessarily be seen as a tourist - there's a relatively large Vietnamese community in the Czech republic and only a few Czechs are able to tell the difference between the East Asian ethnic groups.
     
  3. marv_boy

    marv_boy Active Member

    As nikdo said, there is a large asian community presence in the CR, not only in Prague.

    I would be very surprised if you'd come accross any racial problems.

    enjoy your trip!
     
  4. Eva2

    Eva2 Well-Known Member

    What's wrong with being seen as a tourist? There are plenty of tourists in CR and they seem to have a pretty good time. And you will too, I'm sure.
    Bon voyage!
     
  5. Karel

    Karel Well-Known Member

    Hi Zulan,

    Besides the large community of Vietnamese scattered throughout the CR, there are also not insignificant numbers of the Chinese. Yes, it`s true that most Czechs can`t tell Asians apart. Nor can most Asians tell the difference between Europeans. :D

    If you speak Czech, probably one of the rudest things you could meet with is "tykani" instead of "vykani". I find many Czechs disrespectful towards Asians in the way they speak to them. If you don`t speak any, you don`t need to be bothered about it. China is a sleeping giant that is beginning to awake and if some Czechs haven`t noticed it yet, they will, sooner or later.

    2 years ago I was sitting on a bench in the city centre of Prague when a young Japanese man approached a middle aged Czech couple and asked them in the very Japanese manner of courtesy for directions. They did not and could not understand his gestures for "excuse me" etc., which wouldn`t be surprising for me, if they didn`t start laughing at it. Wishing to watch the act till the end, I wrestled with myself for the whole period, refraining from cutting in. The apex, the moment when the two Czechs burst out laughing as never before, had reached its max on his bowing as a form of thank you shortly before he left dumbfounded by the strange way of his learned politeness being mocked. Perhaps he didn`t get it at all, perhaps he did, in which case he must have said to himself "there`s nothing we can do about it, is there?". I realized it was better to leave the whole matter as it was without giving any explanation, because you tourists ought to make your own conclusions.

    However sad this may appear, there`s no tension between Czechs and Asians as for example between China and Japan. But that`s another story.

    Whatever your manners and habits are, DO as the Czechs DO when there.

    All the best,
    Karel
     
  6. BENEDIKTA

    BENEDIKTA Member

    I once overheard at the train station in Prague two Czech pension operaters talking as a large group of Korean tourists came off a train. They were saying some rather unkind things about the Asians but were certainly all sweet smiles as they passed out directions to their pensions. I think that if Czechs have any racist attitudes they usually keep it among themselves and act in a civil manner towards others, especially in the tourism industry. As far as Asians having any problems in Czech, I've never heard of anything sereious or even partly serious. The Vietnemese have been there for quite a time and they seem to be basically left alone by the Czechs. Enjoy your trip!
     
  7. Halef

    Halef Well-Known Member

    In fact, the Vietnamese are already quite accepted today. The first generation of immigrants, who speak hardly any Czech, live in community among other Vietnamese and sell low-quality clothes in stands, has already raised up the second generation, kids who go to Czech schools, speak Czech perfectly and take many normal jobs. And as it is quite easy to disregard and make fun of that stupid little shirt-seller round the corner, it is not that easy with your child's best friend or your doctor.
     
  8. lellodj

    lellodj Member

    Let's not be hYPOCRITES . Czechs don't like vietnamese at all like they hate gypsies and you all know it well.They say about vietnamese that they have bad smell and they don't want to learn czech and they play all their money at the casino...so let's not hide the reality.Another thing is that they don't show it to them for their famous attitude of "live and ignore" that czech people have.That is what i find fantastic in Czech carachter, they are able to completely ignore their neighbours when they don't like them.I dont like vietnamese either when they are at the casino, they are very rude and they disrespect other people.they push and shove as if they were the only ones in the place...
     
  9. Karel

    Karel Well-Known Member

    Read this article before you go on the rampage again:

    You Mustn't Be Right

    The Problem: Antiprocess

    Most people have a fairly fixed set of beliefs with which they are comfortable. These help them get through life, and if these ideas are in jeopardy they may react irrationally.

    This involves a psychological defense mechanism known as "avoidance of cognitive dissonance". I refer to this problem as "antiprocess" because while the person preprocesses the information subconsciously, he or she does not process the information consciously. Indeed, he or she actively evades conscious processing. When this happens the person can appear to be stubborn or even stupid.

    Once you learn to spot antiprocess, you will see how it causes unresolvable arguments. Certain types of phrases (which I refer to as "Unwarranted Ascription") serve as warning signs that a debate has run up against antiprocess:

    You know perfectly well ...
    You are deliberately ...
    You are intentionally trying to deceive ...
    You know I'm right, but ...


    When you see somebody "mind-reading" like this — telling somebody else what they "know" or what they are thinking — it's quite likely that antiprocess has entered into the discussion.

    There are other warning signs. It is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the various logical fallacies, such as Ad hominem, Argumentum ad populum, Straw Man, and so on. (These are documented in many places on the net and are outside the scope of this article.) It is my belief that we pick up these techniques as we learn language and keep them in our subconscious catalog of defensive techniques. We may understand, on a purely rational level, why each of these techniques is fallacious, but we are nonetheless tempted to fall back on them when our emotional well-being is threatened.
     
  10. Halef

    Halef Well-Known Member

    It seems that you have some kind of problem with Vietnamese.

    I cannot give arguments against such a general thing as "Czechs don't like Vietnamese at all", but I can give you my opinions and observations.

    I live in a small town, 5000 people or so. There are two or three Vietnamese families in the town, running a quite succesful clothes shop. The adults do not make much social contact though (mainly because they don't speak much Czech). Their children are in primary school now, noone seems to have a problem with that. They are just like the other kids.

    My girlfriend is a teacher in a nearby town. She has a Vietnamese girl in her class, there are some more in the school. She says that all the Vietnamese kids are among the hardest working ones. That particular girl is in fact her best student.

    I study at a university in Brno. One of my colleagues is Vietnamese by appearence, but a "betelné borec" (Brno slang expression for a really cool inhabitant of said city) otherwise :) He was born in Brno and speaks better hantec (Brno slang) then I will ever be able to learn.

    I have no experience on casinos though.
     
  11. lellodj

    lellodj Member

    i don't have any problems with Vietnamese people, i just ignore them because i am not concerned with them.i told you i just came across them in casinos and their behaviour is what i told you( ask any people who have experiences with that) and i was not talking about second generation young Vietnames, they of course don't go to casino because of their age.All asian people are well known to be hard workers.Can you also deny that Czechs don't like gypsies...?
     
  12. Halef

    Halef Well-Known Member

    Seems like a contradiction to me.

    A university student has proper age for going to casino. But that's irrelevant. What I want to say is that is a nonsense to judge a whole nation(ality) if you only know those of them who visit casinos.
    That"s like saying "beware of Canadians, they will beat you on sight, just look at their hockey players".

    So you feel I have denied that Czechs don't like Vietnamese? I don't think so. I am only passing my experience.

    As for the Gipsies - I made a post about them elsewhere recently, I'll quote the relevant part:

    So yes, there are problems with gipsies, and yes, many Czechs don't like them, disregard them or even hate them. Precisely, those of them behaving the way described. I sometimes think that it might not be (purely) a problem of racism. There are people of other races in CZ (not a lot of them, though), and it seems they are quite alright. They, of course, behave the way the major society does. There may be some difficulties, especially with older people, but I think it is just "fear of the unknown" rather than conscious racism.
     
  13. lellodj

    lellodj Member

    i agree with you thaT IS NOT ABOUT RACISM.IT WORKS WITH CERTAIN nationalities and with others doesnt.In my country we have lots of immigrants and we are all fed up with the rising criminALITY THEY ARE BRINGING HERE.I WAS A POLICE OFFICER FOR 4 YEARS AND I CAN TESTIFY THAT PERSONALLY.THE PRISON POPULATION WE HAVE IS AT THE MOMENT 70% foreign and that is a fact,it is not the fear of the unknown...it is about religion and different habits.for example here we have lots of polish but you never hear of them in terms of crime.most of the crimes we see here are made by albanians and north africans.so it is not about the colour of their skin but about their culture.they just dont want to accept our way of living...i gues you agree with me that it is their problem and not ours.
    I agree with you about the gypsies , i met nice normal gypsies in Czech
     
  14. Sam Chen

    Sam Chen Member

    Hi all,

    I think we all have some STEREOTYPE in different issues, peoples and cultures. It's unavoidable. However, in my opinion tolerence helps a lot to balance those conflicts or differences come from foreign cultures.

    I'm a Chinese (Taiwanese) and knew almost nothing about Czech until I met a Czech girl here. She is so nice to me, giving me a lot of information about her country in gerneral and I enjoy beeing with her very much too. In my mind, she is the PATTERN of Czech people and she gives me a positive feeling with CR at the very first stage. Of course, comparing with some negative news I read here, i do know CR is not a PERFECT contury. However, there's no a perfect place for you and the utopia always lies in your mind but not in the outer world. This is like, if Czech don't like Asian people you have no choice but accept the fact. On the other hand, you may be someone who is more than being an Asian and some other of your individual characteristics can make people get alone with you; even you have an Eastern face.

    I like the example given by Karel, the Japanese one. You can not expect the locals to understand your culture and the best way to get rid of any embarassing situations is to do some lessons before you visit some foreign countries. Always more observation than judgement brings you more pleasure and fun while having cultural shocks. There are always the brighter side, right? :wink:
     

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