so, i have come to the conclusion that czech's have a national characteristic. americans, as seen from abroad, are largely considered to be ignorant to the affairs of the world.
coming from outside the czech republic, i have a more objective opinion of their society and the word i would use to describe it is: PASSIVE.
czechs are passive. it's almost genetic. they are so passive, they lack imagination. they are rarely ambitious in a grand scale - as in highly motivated - and they rarely have the dreams that accompany ambition. they lack imagination. they also lack any tendency to confront problems, constructively or unconstructively.
it's bad to create or maintain stereotypes, but stereotypes exist for a reason. and this is one i find largely true.
trying to get my students (of all ages, mind you - some were largely raised in the post-Cold War Czech Republic) to be creative is about as difficult as pulling the tooth of an uppity lion... it's almost impossible.
i asked one class on monday to think of two prizes, out of anything in the universe. the first one came quickly and was creative - "a lifetime supply of toilet paper" - but not enormously so. the second took about 10 minutes to PULL out of them - "a trip around the world". okay, that's good. but what about a rocketship to another habitable world?! what about being able to name said planet?! what about being a "god", pardon the blasphemy?! nope. plain, simple prizes. maybe it's something that comes with maturity as well.
i know that when i was little i was quite a bit more creative than now, but of course, it was childhood creativity... who would want a swimming pool filled with Kraft Mac n Cheese, really?!
another example, and this deals with their inability to confront problems, that could possibly - and this may be making an unjustified connection - be linked to the Czechs reluctance to take up arms against most occupiers that have ever occupied the country. do you know why old town in Prague is mostly intact?! because the people never resisted and therefore it was never attacked. (that's a rough history, since there were indeed battles fought near old town that are currently part of central Prague, but probably not Old Town.)
anyway, the example:
last school year i started teaching a class with three people registered. the first day i went, all three people attended - two guys and a girl. that was the only time that i saw the girl.
so, the class became a de facto class of two thereafter for the remainder of the year.
another aspect to the class - i was told the first day that they only wanted me to do conversation. why? because they had a native czech teacher to teach them grammar another day of the week. they wanted the native english speaker to do conversation.
so, fine. i did nothing but conversation with the two guys.
great. things went swimmingly for the rest of the year. i told the school that i would be happy to continue teaching them in the fall.
september rolls around and it's time to start teaching my regular classes again. and yes, said class was on my schedule. "great!" i think. "they're a fun couple of guys!"
the first week i get a notice in my mailbox - they don't want to start until october.
okay, great. no problem.
the first week of october, they cancel the lesson a bit too late so i still get paid but i don't have to go. they also inform the school that they don't want to start until november.
this means that the timeslot originally allotted to the class was occupied but since they were cancelling so far in advance, i never got paid. nor could i pick up another class to replace it.
so, i'm up the proverbial creek because i'm not getting the number of hours i've been assigned. i'm not making as much money as i should.
and all because they keep pushing back the start date.
november rolls around and i decide a good first lesson after summer would be to take in my computer with my pictures and discuss - have a conversation - about what we did over the summer. i wanted my computer to provide visual aid.
i arrive to teach and only one guy shows up. the other guy, it turns out, has been fired sometime over the (prolonged) summer.
great. so it's a one-on-one conversation. no problem, i think.
the lesson goes well and he asks me if i can bring the computer back next week.
i say "sure, no problem!"
the next week i get a notice in my box that "they" want a different teacher - they say i'm a nice guy, but i do too much conversation.
did the one guy come to me with the problem?! NO. he makes me miss other possible classes for two months and then ditches me at a time when new classes are scarce.
that, my friends, is where they lack the skills to confront problems. why did he not just tell me that he wanted more structured activities?! because he's too frickin' passive.
and so it goes with most czechs, in my not-so-humble opinion.
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and now for something completely different, here are the answers to my quiz questions from two posts ago!
Posted by iain at November 24, 2004 04:56 PM