Most of my students are on Tiktok and Instagram and listen to influencers talking in English.
The high English level in the Czech Republic means that when I try to order at restaurants in Czech, most waiters can tell I'm an English speaker and switch to English. Most often, waiters take my order in a combination of Czech and English. But sometimes, they're excited to practice their English in the real world. They ask me where I'm from and what I'm doing in their small-ish city. When I try new restaurants, some waiters will offer to explain the menu to me or go grab the English menu they keep handy just in case.
But of course, not everyone is excited to practice their English or even remembers what they learned in school. When this happens, I try my best in Czech and the waiters are very patient. And even though I'm talking a lot about waiters, it's not just waiters. It's the people at stores helping me find shoes in my size, packaging the baked goods I'm ordering, or giving me directions. It's these times (as hard as they are) that make me appreciate that I'm a guest in the Czech Republic and that to expect everyone to be able to speak the language you speak is a huge privilege. To travel as easily as I do, a lot of people have to learn English or learn the language of their destination country.
From tiny Czech towns to Malta to Slovenia, I've always known that I could find someone to help me in English. But whenever someone doesn't speak English, I like to take a moment and appreciate the patience of people who don't. Usually that moment happens after the moment where we stare at each other and I try to figure out how the heck I'm going to ask to buy a mechanical pencil with 0.7 lead and a nice eraser.
