Quote:
Originally Posted by roger1818
That is due to a change in political climate. Under soviet control, Eastern European countries couldn't do any trade with the west, so Russian was the second language taught. Now, in the European Union, they have standardized on English as the universal language for trade. Ironic considering the largest English speaking country in the union is exiting. 
Having said that, only a minority of the population need to speak a second language for trade, but a majority are fluent. |
Yeah. Most older people here can speak Russian, in theory. In practice most will probably kick you in the nuts if you try to speak to them with it
.
Also one thing I learned here (that I actually didn't know before)--Czechs are touchy on the regional classification of their country. To them, their country is Central European, not Eastern European. Saying the latter won't get a very positive reaction from most. (It makes sense once you look at a map.. I mean Prague is actually 100 kilometres
west of Vienna).
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