Culture Shock! Czech Republic: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette

• Paperback - 30 November, 2005 - Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company
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• By: Tim Nollen
• ISBN: 1558689478

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Reviews by readers

Used for a school trip to Europe

To give an idea of my use of the book, I was assigned to read it for a 3-week semester abroad trip to Europe.We were in Prague for 3 days.
REVIEW
A big issue I had with this book was its introduction. The first seven pages known as "First Impressions" was a good way to start the book, but shortly following this section the reader gets bogged down with a rather dry background on "History, Politics, Economics and Religion." This book is part of the CultureShock! Series in which the books are all formatted in the same manner. A recommendation to this series would be to put this section in the book as an appendix. While it is a logical place to begin, it's not necessary to know for a visit to the Czech Republic. Since the book's structure stands, I recommend reading the book out of order. While this is something I would never usually do, I found it a lot easier to get useful information from the book this way. Since it isn't a novel I let my hang-ups on this method of reading go and indulged in the Czech Republic culture.
One disagreement I had with the author was his feelings on shopping. He makes shopping in the Czech Republic sound like a dreadful outing to the dentist. I found shopping in Prague to be one of the more enjoyable places to shop while we were in Europe. I found items we needed easy to find and quite a variety at that. This may be different for an outsider settled in and living in the country, but this portion of the book was not parallel with my experience.
For someone traveling to the Czech, the resource guide towards the end of the book is very useful. Moving to a foreign place without knowing anyone can make it difficult to find reputable services and places of business. The resource section provided emergency phone numbers, addresses and phone numbers for insurance companies, real estate agencies, childcare facilities, schools, financial services, entertainment, even gyms and cell phone providers.
Intertwined in all of the chapters of the book were phrases and keywords translated from English to Czech. I regret not reviewing them more thoroughly before visiting Prague because they would have been useful for visiting restaurants and shops.
The book definitely clarified why the Czech people are...well the way they are. We encountered Czechs that came off as dry and emotionless people but the history of the people's struggle with communism made this "standoffish" attitude understandable. Another thing this book prepared us for was the food served in the Czech Republic. Czechs are described as carnivores who pay little mind to balanced nutritious meals, and prepare their food with great amounts of fat and butter. Normally I do not eat much meat or food that is deep fried, but I enjoyed the delicious Czech cuisine. The author more than accurately described the native foods' rich tastes. While we were only in Prague for three days and did not visit any businesses, I found most of our encounters to be with the people and food. Therefore this book was very helpful with these few encounters. A CultureShock! book on Slovakia would have been greatly appreciated, because that country was my main focus during this class. I urge the series to make one for Slovakia.

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