Your experience of culture shock in Czech Republic

Learn Some of the lingo. The basics will do to start with. Carry a cute child on your shoulders always helps :-) He takes a lot of the attention  away from me.....

Try to socialise and talk to people. Either the young or the worldly experienced older generation speak English.

Enjoy and embrace the learning of the new culture and get advice and tips from expats community when you are struggling and need help.

One situation I ran into very early in my stay here, I've been here since 2004, was in regards to eye contact. A couple of the books I'd read on Czech culture before I arrived stressed how important good eye contact is in Czech culture, especially when making a toast.

I raised a glass with one of my girlfriend's uncles and made sure to make eye contact. Her uncle happily went about filling other glasses and making other toasts; but my girlfriend asked why I had looked at him the way I had, she felt I had looked rather aggressive.

When I explained what the books had told me about good eye contact, she said "That doesn't mean you have to look at him like you're a cannibal!"

As I've learned, eye contact in the Czech Republic should be approached just as you would in any European culture. No more or less intense. The books I had really overstated it.

That really made me laugh.

"I must master that cannibal look"