Czechia : A Culture from a Different World

I have never thought of going to Czechia. I know it’s a popular tourist destination, but just the sound of “Czechia” was very foreign to me. For lack of a better explanation, it sounded as unfamiliar as not getting what I want, not getting my way, and people not doing what I told them to. I half-heartedly accepted my fate when the IFMSA randomizer, with all its unfathomable wisdom and insight, sovereignly determined that I will be spending a month in the mysterious and misty land called Czechia.

I consider myself the typical Asian, and to be more specific, Chinese (although in most western minds, they are somehow synonyms). I seem to fulfill all the stereotypes. I cook rice really well (without any measurements, just use finger method haiyaaa), I minimize my spending to the point of compromising my well-being and comfort, I am a mathematics world champion at 4 weeks gestation, I speak 100 languages, and I have a workaholic attitude that disregards mental health, causing occasional bouts of deep dark depression, followed by intense searing guilt for being depressed which somehow brings me out of that depression and back to the insane workaholic attitude. I am also used to the more “communal” (synonym for intrusive) culture of Indonesia. A usual encounter usually involves people asking my religion, asking where my parents are from, probing on my relationships which they heard of from my 7th degree relative, and pointing out that I have gained SO MUCH weight (I am still flabbergasted when people get offended as I nonchalantly returned the compliment!). Please don’t misunderstand, it’s not that they are trying to be rude, they are just rude without even trying. Just kidding, I think it’s the communal sense that we have, so we try to care about other people by trying to know a lot about them.

So here I am, with Asia coarsely rushing through my vein, experiencing a culture diametrically opposite to what I am used to. In a nutshell, and I quote this from my Czech friend, “we just don’t care that much, we just mind our own business”. Imagine walking through the hospital wards, with huge Czech men almost crashing into you, and just continue to go about their business. They are so direct, some of the residents and doctors greeted me with a warm and welcoming “what do you want?”. Not all are like this, some seemed receptive to my stunned expression, and somewhat adjusted to be more culturally sensitive. It was definitely not so with the students who hosted me, having already hosted dozens of people from all over the world. I won’t say they are rude or disregarding, they just have a very low threshold for small talk and non-substantive speech. After a week or so, I am slowly turning Czech. One day, after fidgeting for 17 minutes and 48 seconds in a room full of doctors discussing patients in Czech language, I mustered up the courage to do what in Indonesia, is an abominable act, interrupt them. To which a doctor aggressively walked towards me, and started explaining (with great effort and detail!) in English what they had just discussed! I was in complete awe! They were not even offended! It was just normal interaction for them! The following days, I climbed up the ladder of boldness (equivalent to Asian rudeness), and told my supervisor that I did not like it in the wards, I just want to do endoscopy and ICU. To which he replied, “sure, you can do anything you want here, just tell me what you want, I’m always in the ICU”. Short, Direct, Efficient. In my final week, I had fully adjusted to their style, and was having discussions with almost anyone that I can disturb. They seemed content and happy to leave what they were doing to entertain my questions. I felt like I learned so much, and that this culture is more beneficial academically. Too bad it was my last week here (luckily I still have a month in Poland).

I learned a valuable lesson, a lesson on cultural sensitivity. We are just different, neither rude nor offensive, just,… different. Once I started to understand this, I started making friends, some I’m sure will be lifelong. I shared many memorable moments with my Czech friends, and some even invited me to their homes. Have I mentioned that Brno is gorgeous??!!(totally unrelated, but thats just how my residual ADHD brain works) All in all, this has been a valuable experience, praise be to the Omniscient and Sovereign IFMSA randomizer.