If you're wandering the touristy areas like Wenceslas Square, then probably (still no guarantees though; I went into some cell phone stores and nada). Many restaurants in have English menus for your benefit. Wandering through the streets, there's a good chance you'll hear some English here and there, though most likely of the UK variety and much more during tourist season. And a good many students are pretty comfortable with English. That's kind of the end of it though.
Up til 1989 (a big year around here), everyone was required to take Russian in school, and almost no one spoke English. Up til a few years ago, there still weren't a good number of English teachers around it seems, so I'm told it's only in the past 5 years that a real effort has been made. Considering all of that, the Czechs here are doing pretty well.
Basically, if you come for a short visit and stay in main touristy areas, you won't have any problems not knowing any of the language. The problem comes in if you need to do some shopping outside a souvenier shop (who'd've know buying a plug adapter would be so hard!), need directions from an obscure corner of the city, or travel outside Prague at all. Trust me, the chances of your bus driver knowing a word besides "hello" are pretty slim. Luckily, I have some good tour guides, and a semi-useful pocket dictionary, not that I have any idea how to construct a sentence!
In the meantime, it's more "Mluvite anglicky?" for me!
1 comment:
That's interesting. I didn't know that about Prague. But then again that is what makes traveling fun, discovering new cultures and people. I found a new travel site, baraaza.com. You can review destinations, upload pics and get info for your next trip. I think yo umight enjoy it.
Nicole
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