DON’T DO THIS WHEN MOVING TO PRAGUE!

#prague #movetoeurope #czechrepublic
Mistakes when moving to Prague can cost you time and money! Here are the things I got wrong so you don’t make the same mistakes when moving to Prague (or anywhere in the Czech Republic!)

00:00 Intro
00:23 Jobs
03:03 Part-time work
04:52 Learning Czech
07:41 Moving to the Capital city
09:11 Where to travel
10:26 Making friends
12:02 Money
14:33 Taking the leap

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▶ A B O U T D R E A M P R A G U E:

Ahoj! I'm Jen, Native Californian, living in Prague, Czech Republic for the past 9 years with my husband and our rescue dog Tobik. One fateful night, we drank a bottle of wine, threw a dart at the map, and bought one-way tickets to move our entire lives to the center of Europe! Everyday we learn something new, about Czech people, Czech culture, Czech history, Czech language and how to battle the Czech bureaucracy. Dream Prague started as a place to share what we learned with other foreigners living here.

Are you considering a move, a visit, or simply interested in American culture vs. Czech culture? Subscribe and hit the bell to get notified of my latest video each week!

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▶ I R E C O M M E N D

Language Learning:

*Sponsor of this channel

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▶ P L A C E S I N T H I S V I D E O

Headed to Prague? Download my Google Map to check out all my favorite places, seen in this video and more!

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▶ C O N N E C T W I T H M E !

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▶ M O R E V I D E O S Y O U ' L L E N J O Y

➾ The honest truth about my life in Prague:

➾ Are you planning a visit to Prague?

➾ Are you learning Czech?

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FTC Legal Disclaimer - Some links found in the description box of my videos may be affiliate links, meaning I will make commission on sales you make through my link. This is at no extra cost to you to use my links/codes, it's just one more way to support me and my channel! :)

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This video is all about......

[kalic]

Bez "Ahoj všichni!" to není ono. 😜

[jakubholic]

Tedy, Jen, až se stanete občany, bude mi ctí. Víte toho už o téhle zemi víc, než mnozí rodilí Češi a dokonce bych i řekl, že máte k ČR lepší vztah, než spousta z nás "domorodců". Lepší rozšíření naší populace jsme si snad nemohli přát. Tvoje videa mi pomohly koukat na svou zem trochu cizí optikou a třeba i ocenit věci, které někdy beru jako samozřejmost. Díky a hodně štěstí při testech.

[simonedaniek]

As a Czech living in the States I admire what you have achieved and know what it is like. I moved back to the Czech Republic in the 90’s and then lived in Germany for years immersing myself in the culture and the language as well . Now I am back in the states and have been for 10 years. Eventually we will retire to Prague and live happily ever after LOL. The most important aspect to mastering the language is to have as many local friends as possible . This forces you to converse. When living in Germany I had mostly German friends so by my fourth year I was pretty much fluent. Keep at it you will get there!

[michalmarek]

Miluji Tvoje videa :) děkuji za ně. Je v nich vidět Tvoje píle a odhodlání. Jsi skvělá! 🙂

[LindaPalkova]

I used to have an American flatmate and the first thing she did when she moved to Slovakia, was to go to the eastern part of the country, stay with a family, who had no English and take Slovak language courses. I always admired her for this crash course in Slovak (and also for making the effort to learn a language spoken just by a handful of people :)

[zuzka]

Jen, go back to "Ahoj všichni", please. It is kind of your catch-phrase :-) I like your videos very much and watch them from the beginning and always look forward to the next wednesday. Thank you for them!

[vaclavkrpec]

"Why don't immigrants integrate? Because it's so much easier to keep to what you know..." Jen, that's absolutely brilliant observation; I wish _everybody_ listened to you explaining that and was constantly reminded of that. How much more understanding would people be if they spent a few years in the proverbial shoes of immigrants... I'm not joking; this should be carved to stone!

[mariamojdlova]

Děkuji vám za toto video Jen.❤Pomohlo mi v dané situaci kterou řeším.😊

[NamelessGI]

Love the flannel shirt.🦁 Náhoda? Nemyslím si... 😁

[teraforman]

úžasné video. Děkuji za tip, jak se učit vlastními silami cizí jazyk nap. angličtinu. Zkušenosti jsi krásně shrnula do krásného balíčku. Dotkla ses spousty sociálních fenoménů, ale ne víc, než o tom dokážeš mluvit. Pohled na ně je z tvých úst příjemně svěží. Dost možná jsi teď natočila, to nejlepší své video. A jedno z nej na českém Youtubu. Dekuji za neutichající obsah. PS tip na další video; Pověz prosím Jen tvému anglicky mluvící komunitě, kdo je to Jára Cimrman. :-) přeji zdar a sílu. PS: Právě nyní mě napadlo jim také říct o tělovýchovné jednotě Sokol.

[erikziak]

Hi Jen. About language. I have some personal experience (speaking three languages and no I do not consider Czech a foreign language, I am Slovak). One language teacher with whom I had English lessons told me his experience with Koreans. He said that they speak like a machine, they say a word or two, then process how to pronounce the next word, etc. While they speak grammatically correctly (and he assumed that they can write perfect text), they were not able to speak. He told me how exhausting it was for him to communicate with them and the prefer if people make mistakes, but they talk and not stop that often. It was a really interesting observation, at least I think. My personal experience is: Learn to think in the foreign language. Thinking is speaking to oneself in the mind. Once you master this, you can truly become fluent. This is my own personal experience and I really needed to learn to think in a foreign language to feel confident. At any job you can learn phrases that you need for your routine work pretty easy, but try to have a talk with coworkers during lunch break, when you want to tell them a story from a few years ago, when you want to join in on the discussion. If you think the story in your native language and try to translate it as you tell the story, you quickly run into big trouble. I know this from personal experience. I know it is hard to start to think in a foreign language. But once you master that, you really become fluent. Oddly for me, it is easier to have improvised "small talk" in English than in German, even though I use German at work every day. But most of what I read and watch is in English. So when I am thinking about a lot of stuff, I think in English. I am still working on thinking in German and it really improves my small talk abilities at work. Another thing is, I am not afraid to make errors while speaking. I encourage people to correct me if I say something wrong, or if I am not sure if what I am about to say is correct. All people that I spoke to were absolutely OK with that and corrected me when I asked them to. That is the best way to learn. Another language teacher I spoke to told me that she hates it when people speak the so called "Tarzan Deutsch" to foreigners. Like "Ich Tarzan, du Jane". She hated that some people treat others like if they were stupid, as if they were not able to learn some grammatical associations. She told me that even foreigners are perfectly capable of learning the (from my view very simple) rules of the German language if the native German speakers actually communicate clearly and correctly. But if the "native" people intentionally speak a butchered version of their own language, then the they make it impossible for the listeners to learn anything. I have a question for you, Jen. You mention that you do these videos mainly for other Americans and/or expats. Based on the comments section, I have a feeling that most of your viewers are from Czechia. And maybe you have more views from Slovakia than from the United States too. Another thing is that the community that you find in your comments section (or that you encountered in your English lessons) is certainly not a representative sample. So keep that in mind. 🙂 So, the question is: Where is the audience on your channel from? YouTube shows such statistics, but only to you, not everyone. I am a bit curious.

[sylvieskultetyova]

Velmi se těším na každé video od Jen. Má to vždy hlavu a patu, baví mě její postřehy, vždy se dovím něco nového a ještě potrénuji angličtinu. Není to plácání prázdné slámy, přidanou hodnotu to má i pro Čechy. Super jsou také diskuse pod videi. Těším se na 2 věci: až Jen zvládne zkoušku na české občanství a až bude celé video komplet česky.💙💙💙

[StarvingMarving]

Thank you for this video. It is very inspirational and helps me confirm we are doing the right thing.

My wife and I are moving to Prague from Australia in July and can’t wait. We do have concerns about our family here in Australia, but at the same time, you only get to live once and I would regret not trying this. I hope it works out like it has for you guys and that we live the rest of our lives in the Czech Republic 😬

Jen, díky za krásne video. Nie je to ľahké ísť "s kožou na trh". Človek si pri tom uvedomí, že sa nesmie vzdávať. Skúšať a učiť sa nové veci. Ja som sa v 50tke začala učiť programovať a teraz robím technickú podporu a testera v softvérovej firme.

[marketacaskova]

Hi Jen, I have to say that I am really proud of you two !❤
It is never easy to start new life in different country!I know what I am talking about 😁 I experienced that in Australia 10 years ago and than in United Kingdom 5 years ago. All the best, both of you!
Love your videos !👌❤

[kyliewiser]

I love how you state that it's beneficial to learn expressions before grammar - it makes so much sense, as we even learn our native languages that way.

[alcatraz]

I admire you, Jen. Your intelligence and drive on the one hand and your humility and modesty on the other ... Good luck! Vladimír Černohorský

[petrnekolny]

So sweetly nice, intelligently down to earth, honest. Could simply watch DP forever. 👍🏻

[jazzmynnordstrom]

Watching your videos helped me make the move from Washington State. We did something similar where I went first to earn my TEFL and get housing set up, and then my husband came after. 4 months in and we’re successful so far! I’ve got my visa and my husband will soon 😁😁

[stefanvavrik]

I can totally relate to this video. I left Czechoslovakia and moved to the United States, our experiences are identical except reverse. Sometimes you make me homesick after watching you passionately describing the beauty of the Czech Republic.
Love your videos, keep them coming.