What language should I learn
 

Hi I will be in Prague, Czech Republic and have time to learn a few phrases . What is the best language to learn Slovak or??? Thanks

I'd learn Czech as that's what is spoken by 95% of the country

Thank you Alan for such a prompt reply

I was in Prague in 1999 and even then most of the younger crowd spoke perfect English. We had trouble with taxi drivers though.

Czechoslovakia broke into two separate countries. Since you're going to the Czech Republic that's the language you should learn.

Although I agree that English is very widely spoken - and the only taxi drive we found who didn't speak English was doing it to try to cheat us. When I wouldn't let him his English suddenly returned - and very coloful it was.

This reminds me of last May when we were sitting at a Berlin airport, waiting for our flight to Krakow. I had my trusty Rick Steves book out, practicing the Polish phrases he lists in the back of his book--for the delectation of my sister/traveling companion. I looked up and discovered that I was apparently providing entertainment for several of the nearby Poles. They seemed to be amused by my attempts.

I was doing my best, but apparently I wasn't a shining star in the Polish language.

I'm still hoping to learn what is the best language to learn Slovak. I guess English, unless you know another language better.

Thank you for the replies. Maybe I should just stay with speaking English. As for the taxi drivers I've read that they are really practiced at ripping off foreigners so we will walk.

You may find older people (may be 50+) more comfortable with German than English, as in the Communist times, vast numbers of East Germans visited and holidayed in Czechoslovakia (as it was then), but I agree younger people should be comfortable with English.

I noticed that too, many understand and speak German even though they are not fond of Germans.

We never had any problem with taxis as long as we got it from the hotel, so we made a habit of taking a taxi to the furthest point and walking back one way. Eventually we learned the street tram network which was rather fun to take.

OK I accidentally brought up this old thread when I was trying to learn about Settler's apartment refund dilemma.

Czech is an extremely hard language to learn. My son studied in Prague during college for a study abroad term and even the school told them to "try" and learn a few phrases but that they weren't expecting them to be able to pick it up like a French or Italian.