The Content of this Site

Discussion in 'Website Feedback' started by Czecan, Feb 22, 2003.

  1. Czecan

    Czecan New Member

    I am a Czech by birth and upbringing, currently living in Canada. I have visited both of your respective sites; mostly out of curiosity; over the past one and a half years. I thought by doing that I would be able to stay in touch with my beloved country... However..., I was soon to find out that the Czech Republic you have been all referring to here has little to do with my homeland. It is all about Prague ( like Prague needs an extra site, duh!!) Cesky Krumlov, maybe Ceske Budejovice and Telc or Brno. To my dismay, the stereotype of the Czech = Prague has been more then upheld by the webmasters.
    I suggest to you that you visit some, e.g. Hungarian, Polish, or Slovak, for that matter, sites to see as to whether or not they are solely dealing with Budapest, Warsaw, Bratislava, respectively. You might be surprised. While I have felt let down. Why call this a Czech Republic site?? It is just another Prague site. Those of us who know our country can positively say that this corner of the net has as much to do with the "Czech Republic" as Kaliningrad does with Russia. Keep up the "good work".
    I don't think though, this post will serve to enlighten you Prague-based "experts" on the Czech Rep. Although, I would like to grow pleasantly surprised. Best regards
     
  2. Dana

    Dana Well-Known Member

    Dear Czecan,

    Thank you for your opinion. I must say that it struck me – a true Moravian who wants to scream every time I tell people in the States that I'm Czech and they automatically react: Oh, you're from Prague! - as ironic and perhaps as sort of a wakeup call.

    After Local Lingo was started in 1998, it contained almost no information on Prague in its first two years. That is when a lot of the content related to the Czech Republic was created: holidays and traditions, Czech name days, Czech language lessons and audio recordings, information on Czech Republic regions (albeit brief), the Czech Republic photo gallery, the section on Czech Republic trivia with quizzes... Our main goal then and now has been to "show off" the country my husband and I both love. We especially pride ourselves in our Czech language area, which has been extremely popular with our visitors for years.

    Our friend Alberto joined the "team" in the summer of 2000. Back then, he was already working as a Prague tour guide and we thought it would be great to add targeted first-hand information about Prague, which we weren't offering to our visitors at the time. We felt that not having much information on the country's capital, Czech Republic's most popular tourist destination, was not a good thing. We are very grateful to Alberto for graciously providing us all the wonderful content on Prague and we feel that the website is now more complete. As you probably noticed, all this information is contained under the "Prague" header in a separate section.

    We receive hundreds of questions from our visitors every year and in developing new content for the site, we have been giving priority to areas that these questions most often touch on – it will probably not come as a surprise that a vast majority of them deals with Prague...

    We would very much appreciate your opinion on our other, Czech Republic content. A lot of work has been put into the Basics, Culture, Language and News sections over the years, and our wish is for this content to be useful and interesting to our visitors. There is still so much that we would like to add to the site, including more information on towns and regions throughout the country. Since the website is just a hobby for us and is not bringing in any profits, we're not able to afford as much time to spend on it as we'd like to. That is why we always appreciate feedback and even help and contributions from others.

    Thank you again and we hope to read a response from you soon!

    Dana
    Owner and webmaster
     
  3. Czecan

    Czecan New Member

    Thanx for the answer; I have actually recommended this site, despite some of my reservations, to a few of my Canadian acquaintances who were interested in finding out further info on the Czech, and potentially, visiting the country.
     
  4. Dana

    Dana Well-Known Member

    Is there anything in particular that you would like to see on this website? We do base a lot of the content on our visitors' questions, suggestions and feedback, and knowing what you and others are missing would help us in improving the site. Thank you!
     
  5. KJP

    KJP Well-Known Member

    Dana,

    For those of us that do live in Prague! Might you have sections for items for sale, jobs and apartments? This forum could be an invaluable tool for those of us in the Cz. Rep. but we need more real time events like the above...please :} The langauge learning section is also great...if we wanted to be with Brits, we would be in Britain! I discourage expats to come to here to be with other expats...- learn, grow, then teach! They stay together, speak Czech like children after years of being here, and never fully acclimate as a result. This site encourages fully acclimating into the culture! Those that frequent other expat sites do so out of a lack of knowledge of the language, (ano umim cesky, ale bohuzel ... spatne, byl jsem tady za rok a pul) and that results in over pricing and false friendships (sometimes) :{{{ When in Rome, do like the Romans !

    Just please don't commercialize it with a million ads....a few are ok, when you try to make a living off a php board, the problems start! You have alligned yourself with quality (localingo, etc.) and hopfully will follow that business model in the future. Thanks, great site....
     
  6. Luigicek

    Luigicek New Member

    Hi,

    I have to admit that I have been travelling for the last few months, nearly every available weekend, around the Country.

    I have to say that there is a fantastic countryside. I have been nearly everywhere in this beautiful Country and there is much more than Prague.

    However, saying that, I have experienced poor service (hotels and restaurants but even shops and transportation), bad direction postings, very little, if none at all, language skills (and I speak 5 languages) and having been mugged twice (Brno and Ostrava) no cooperation whatsoever from the police.

    So, on one hand, I tend to agree with the person from Canada but on the other hand, I would like to point out that the Czech Republic, as a whole, is not the right place for those who live on stereotypes and once mugged they will tell the most terrible things about the Country hosting them.

    I think that before the Czech Republic can be rated as high as Prague, a lot of work is necessary to educate the locals that tourist is a good thing and brings wealth.

    I lived before in Poland and Hungary and what Czecan says is not completely true.

    In Poland there are a few cities that are popular but they are less than those mentioned in the post. If you exclude Warsaw, Gdansk, Krakow... there is nothing left on the plate for tourists.

    Hungary? Even worse! I love Budapest and I have elected that city as my second home after Rome but if you exclude the Capital and Lake Balaton, there is nothing at all known to tourists.

    I think that it takes time to develop a country and starting with major infrastructures, education, language skills and customer services could be a good point.

    I remember that Portugal or Greece were, before EU ascension in a similar state the Czech Republic is now and thanks to the EU funds they rose from little or nothing to their current glory.

    I hope that the Czech politicians will do what the others have done and I hope that the corruption is not so widespread to block this development.

    Congratulations for the website and for your beautiful Country.

    sincerely,

    Luigi
     
  7. maartenv

    maartenv Well-Known Member

    Interesting topic,

    I hesitated a bit before giving my addition to this topic. The reason why is that I am one of those people that have only seen a small part of the country. Surprise, but it's not Prague.

    Since several years I visit the region nearby the city Liberec, aproximately 100 Km north of Prague. It's the part that borders the German and Polish border, also known as Northern Bohemia.

    I've been to Prague 4 times I believe, and although it's just an hour away from the place I usually stay, I did not feel the urge to visit prague during the odd 20 times I've been in the Czech Republic more than that.

    This year I passed along the highway and did not bother to stop by.

    Ofcourse it's a beautifull city, and the few times I've been in Prague, my eyes almost got hurt from all the beatufull places there are over there.
    Although there is plenty I have not seen, I'm not quite comfortable in Prague. All the tourists, (I'm one myself), people speaking English and German, lot's of organised things to do, and at an ease that is undescribable for the Czech Republic. No I prefer the country side in the region I've spend lots of weeks, wandering around in the Czech Paradise, Talking the Czech language, although uncapable of doing so, but If they speak only Czech, it's hard not to.

    After a while you start to speak the restaurant Czech Language, after just trying some meals, and remembering what it was you ordered. Then some small words come along, and before you know it, you actually can communicate with People, even little children, though in a primitive way.

    It's not hard to find an attraction anywhere over there. And once you've found one, they have brochures with many other fun places to go. After a while you get to know how to have fun.

    Ofcourse, this can only be done if one has the opportunity to visit the country regularly, so for those that just drop by for one or two weeks, I'm sure there is plenty to do in Prague. But if you are there, it would be great to ask some guidance to find some of the many interesting places outside of the city. There is so much to do, just an hour by car away.

    The nature over there is pure, one can see many sorts of wildlife, and beatiful view points over the hilly / mountain like landscape north of Prague. I know it's worth visiting one or two day's at least!

    I have nothing against lot's of information about Prague. If you want to read it, just do! It's great it's there isn't it?

    And If anyone can help post items of other interesting things in the rest of the country, they are free to do so.

    The moderators can give guidance, create opportunities for us members to post items in an orderly fashion, and that's hard work!

    I do believe that we the members, can give an evenly great contribution by giving information. If we all write something, and our numbers increase, there is no stopping in the information being more and more about other things as well.

    Cau,
     
  8. TroskuAmericanka

    TroskuAmericanka Active Member

    I´m sorry all that happened to you. Having been the the Czech Republic 9 times before the age of 21, you can tell I´m at least a little bit obsessed with the country. :D I have never been mugged and hopefully never will be, so I don´t really know how that was for you. I´ve also experienced what an American would call "bad service", but when I look at it from a czech view, it wasn´t bad at all, it was just different. What I mean by bad service for example, is Americans would always say "customer first" but that is just not how it is here, from what I have seen. At least, even if that is how they are here, I just don´t take it that way. I think the best way to get a great experience from a country is to overlook as much bad stuff as you can. (I do say it would be hard to overlook a mugging....but I guess it happens everywhere so we can´t just point only at Czech). I have been travelling around Czech by myself for a long time, and I feel completely safe (at least, outside of Prague) alone. I guess opinion just goes by experience, because I have had good taxi drivers, good service, etc, except for the one supermarket worker who butted in line in front of me to pay for her stuff...that was odd...But I over look it....I dunno...I guess that is just my advice to anyone, to remember the best experiences and forget the worst. If I didn´t forget the worst, I would hate my home in USA with all my heart...but I´m trying to remember the best.
    I´m sorry again for the muggings. My friend got pickpocketted last week in Prague, 200 bucks gone. I tend to stay away from bigger cities. Not only can I learn the language quicker in smaller towns, but it is easier to see the culture and get more out of my trip. MEJ SE!
     

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