One of the hardest parts of this year for me is how separated from people I feel by the language barrier. I'm from the Midwest, where the small talk with the people ringing up your groceries sometimes gets so personal its weird. I'm used to accidentally (and sometimes on purpose) eavesdropping on strangers' conversations on buses and sidewalks and trains. Even though I'm still surrounded by people, the conversations I can't understand all feel like background noise.
I chose to come to the Czech Republic because there's no language requirement to come here. Have you ever met anybody in the US who was learning Czech? Czech is so unpopular in the US and so hard that if this program had a langauge requirement, there would be no applicants! Another reason there's no langauge requirement is because most Czechs under the age of 40 know at least a little English. To graduate high school, Czech students must take two exams: one in Czech language and another in math or in English. English is part of every elementary school, middle school, high school, and college's core requirements, just like math, science, and history! Half of the movies at my local movie theater are shown in Czech, and another half are shown in English with Czech subtitles.
