10 MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN LIVING ABROAD -- Tips from an American expat in Prague, Czech Republic 🇨🇿

[@Petr1331]

Nobody will pack up your groceries in Europe, forget it! 😂😂😂 Pay, pick up your stuff, say “na shledanou” amd get out. quick! Made me laugh, sorry about that😉 You are honest, I like it. 30 years ago I felt like this in UK.

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

Emphasis on the word "quick"! I can't tell you how many times I've held up the line because I was struggling with the zipper on my backpack or trying to pick up my guitar and two grocery bags at the same time.

[@ilzekraukle6331]

I had the exact opposite shock when I was in US. All my life I've been putting groceries in the bag myself. And then in US I was sooo confused when another person started to put all my groceries in the bag 😅 first time I was just standing and had no clue why is that person putting my groceries in bags. It felt so wrong 😅

[@skadrys]

@@skeletonkeysprague21 thats why I just throw it back to the trolley as she scans it and I quietly and calmly put it in my bag afterwards haha

[@slidenapps]

Sounds like the Czech Republic is like Germany. I always say in Germany, packing groceries is like an Olympic sport, unlike in Poland where it is slow like in the US. but yes you still pack your own groceries. Having been trained in Germany, I'm real fast.

[@Petr1331]

@@slidenapps It is allways competition between cashier and you packing up fast and furious🥵I always loose, but have to pay with a smile🤣🤣🤣

[@AC1D3Z]

15:50 there is actually a law, that forces the chains to charge for the bags in supermarkets, as it movivates people to bring their own so not so much plastic waste is produced.

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

Nice investigative work ;)...that's an important detail, isn't it? Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[@Deni-mt9bj]

@@skeletonkeysprague21 you can actually buy fabric bag in Rossman or Ikea for example. And when you are not carrying groceries, you can fold it to small pocket and put in in your bag or something so you can always have it with you.

[@AC1D3Z]

@@Deni-mt9bj Yeah I have fabric bag for the groceries and two transparent ones for veggies and pastery. When you recycle you notice you produce significantly less plastic waste

[@crow__bar]

I think your story about the groceries is the best example of why getting in contact with other expats from the same country as you is such a good idea. If you talk to a Czech person, they won't even think to tell you "Oh btw you have to bag the groceries on your own" cause it doesn't even register to them as smth that needs to be said. It's just how it works and nobody thinks that it could be different. And it's these small day-to-day interactions and activities that an expat who has already gone through will remember and know to warn other expats about.

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

Great point. Sadly I was with a group of equally clueless expats who were just as new to the country as I was. The staff at this little Albert in Krč was not very fond of us, lol.

[@t1mastr10]

@@skeletonkeysprague21 Little albert at Krč?! You live at zalesi??? :D if so we are practically neighbours.

[@MacGyver5AF]

Hi, Brendan,
Sir Mac here!
Today, let me ask about three things, which are common in the US, but not that much in the Czech Republic...
1) AC (air conditioners) - I will always prefer to open window, it is cheaper and healthier... I live in Prague, in Strašnice, so I live among trees, bushes a lot of grass and birds are waking me up every morning...
2) Wash dryers - we Czechs use more the racks, ropes to hang the laundry and we fix the laundry using cloth-pegs / cloth-pins. And we use a lot "fabric softener" (czech aviváž)...
3) Everyone has its own bathroom - In houses / flats in the Czech republic, there is always one bathroom per "living unit"... I know, especially in the morning, the fight for the bathroom or toilet is more like "Game of Thrones", where the winner can sit on the "Throne" ... LOL
And extra info for you - tap water in the Czech republic is one of the clearest all over the world. We have the rules and regualtions for the "clarity" of water, which are more strict than in the rest of the world.

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

The lack of AC in the Czech Republic is a huge problem, LOL. It gets really hot here in the summertime and for some houses/apartments even an open window isn't enough to cool off the room enough to sleep. I've resorted to taking cold showers or even freezing a wet towel and sleeping with it. AC is standard throughout the rest of the world, so I don't know why central Europe is so resistant to it.
You're right, every house in the US has a dryer in addition to an enormous washing machine, but I actually don't mind hanging my clothes to dry. It helps them last longer without shrinking and it's not too much of a hassle. And it saves a lot of space and electricity, so I've got no problem with it.
I usually live alone, so the epic bathroom battle isn't so much of an issue for me...but when I lived with roommates in Prague, it would have been nice to have two toilets at least. And I was actually just wondering about the quality of the tap water here...I've never had any problems with it, but I never thought to look into the quality standards. It's refreshing to hear that Czech people take their water quality seriously. Even in the US that's often not the case.
Thanks for an interesting and informative comment! :)

[@mrsheen11]

@@skeletonkeysprague21 imho lack of AC is due to climate which in last 10 years rapidly changed and we werent prepared or better said we havent expected that climate will change so fast. I can tell you when i was young summers were much pleasant than nowadays. Iam from Slovakia and as you mentioned in one of yours videos we were federation with ČR.

[@katerinasofie6879]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us!!

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

:)

[@Meg_A_Byte]

The shopping experience was genuinely amusing! Overall great tips, honestly the dating one is quite clever. Good job!

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

Glad you found it entertaining and useful!

[@BusterGotIt]

Great to point out mistakes. It is easy to show everything easy happy dandy without showing the hardship an outsider goes through. Thanks for doing the goods and bads of your experiences for people who might want to live abroad. Prague has Liftago instead of Uber and people should use credit cards instead of cash as credit card charges about 3%. Subcribed to your channel, looking forward future videos. Keep showing the positive and negative experiences! Cool.

[@lukasloukota8352]

Wooow, great advice! Thanks

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

Glad it was helpful!

[@toddburke2192]

So helpful; thanks!

[@theskywalk7865]

Like your content and explanation.

[@kubiik010]

About the first employment... I'm not sure if you're aware of why you get less money than what's in your contract. The employer pays for your healthcare insurance, social insurance and does your taxes and pays them. So the amount in your contract is "Hrubá mzda" and what you get is "Čistá mzda" (there are calculators online). Also you can cancel the employment contract in the first 3 months without a reason (I believe it's by law but it's usually written in the contract)

[@Greenmarty]

IMHO at the point when you get to know few locals they should tell you that It's more common for locals and much cheaper to rent apartment without (used) furniture, electricity and gas contract. Electricity and gas contracts can be easily signed online and are easily canceled by announcing provider that you are moving out. Mostly foreigners are used to rent apartments with everything included and landlords know foreigners are willing to pay for that extra IKEA bed and cheap tv double or triple apartment rent. Take that local native freshly made friend with you to check new apartment, let them do the talking and then buy that dude beer to say thank you.

[@peterbartos6665]

Hey man! If you read this, I just want to say that I am sorry you get screwed in Prague, particularly if your employer screwed you... Yes, there are people ike these and they search for vulnerable targets, people who don't know local legal and other environments good enough. But you do NOT look stupid to us, citizens of Prague and most of us will treat you wish honesty and respect for comming to our little city :) .
Thank you for comming to live here. We really appreciate nice and decent expats. Your presence is great benefit to our country and society! :)
Please enjoy Prague as much as you can!

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

Thank you, I really appreciate that. I only got mildly screwed, in that my employer changed my contract right before I signed it, and the new contract was one hour short of full time so that they could justify paying me about 15,000 crowns less than my colleague for the exact same job. It was a learning experience and I stopped working for them as soon as I could. 🤷‍♂️

[@jirismid1836]

I tink your video is grat for any person which would like to live/work in Czech.

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

Thank you for the feedback!

[@MrMajsterixx]

you can exchange money wherever u want if you look up the exchange rate which is about 25 Kč for 1 Euro and then just count how much you should get and then go there, say how much u got ask how much u gonna get and if it differes too much, then dont change it there. Easy. But yea I admit that Prague is full scammy exchange places which will give you like 15 crowns for Euro.

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

This works too, but for me its just much more convenient to have an Airbank account and pay for things in Kč. For shorter-term visitors, it's a good idea to figure out which exchange desks will give a fair rate.

[@non9886]

@@skeletonkeysprague21 even for latter one best way is to use atm. just to be carefull and avoid the scam when some atm can ask you to make conversion (instead of bank where you have acc) which you don't want...

[@ketugrahagraha3673]

I've got something to add to Tip 3. Shop around before living your country for a debit/credit card that does not charge you for transactions abroad.

[@eversunnyguy]

Can you advice on where to put the passport while traveling inside Prague \? . Thanks.

[@TheK9Shepherd]

Tip if you use your credit card abroad. While yes, you will get dinged a 3% fee each time (unless you have a credit card that waives this like USAA) make sure you pick the option to let your bank do the conversion. If you go to stores you can be presented with 2 questions when using your card. Let your bank do the conversion or let the store do the conversion. If you let the store do the conversion, you get a bad rate. Letting your bank do the conversion is better because it will use the daily market rate is for Kcs. Also if you use the ATM, let your bank do the conversion. However, ATMs are horrible and charge up to 5 euros and trick you into taking out thousands of Kcs

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

Good tips! I definitely wasted a lot of money on bad conversion rates before I learned this.

[@TheK9Shepherd]

Every day I just went to Siri and said Siri “how many Kcs to the US dollar?” and that would give me the market rate for the day that way you have an idea of what the conversion will be if you use your home credit card. If you haven’t already found it CZcams check out the Honest Guides. They have a ton of good tips for visitors but it also will help people who have relocated there. Have fun. We’ll be back in 2023

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

@@TheK9Shepherd Thanks :) I love Honest Guide, they've been a huge help for me all the way along. Keep hoping I'll run into them out on the streets filming a video, no luck so far... :))
Luckily I long since got myself a Czech bank account and debit card, so the conversion issues aren't such an issue anymore.

[@benediktcz]

for exchange tips see this video from Honest guide
czcams.com/video/rdYhm__yMQY/video.html
(they used to have more of them (and some where better) but they recently deleted all the old videos, you can find some of them here: archive.org/details/Honest-Guide-Archive, eg video nr 81)

[@henningbartels6245]

I might have a tipp for Brendan: It looks he sits to close to the camera. I think the portrait could look more flattering if the lense is further away and then rather zoom in.

[@solaholwa3377]

Hi if I want to stay more than 90 days in Czech Republic is there’s way or kind of special visa that I can apply because as you know tourist visa is only for 90 day after I should leave all Schengen regions and I need to stay more according my health situation

[@jankotolic6011]

Do you have a tram and buses at night which run every hour it takes me half an hour from city center to Vrsovice 🏄🏼

[@PotatoSmasher420]

I don't know how scammed you got with your housing contract, but I can asure you that in Czech republic, it's normal to have rent WITHOUT utilities (so you need to get those separately - the only paid utility would be the house lights in corridors, cleaning of the semi public part.). I you definitely need to check if it's furnished or not, so I can see you might have felt scammed there.

[@sarkaha3679]

Hi I always get a Czech SIM card when I go for vacation and switch back to when I go back

[@guitinwidit]

Thanks for the insights. Are you still living in Prague? Have you managed to do anything with your music there or had any opportunities to jam with some locals or other expats? Díky!

[@guitinwidit]

And another question now that I think of it, and if you don't mind. Would it be possible to avoid some of those import taxes by carrying them across customs in your luggage? Or could you have claimed some kind of artist's "tools-of the trade" exemption? I have some great music gear and I'd love to be able to bring some over there, maybe even little by little on successive trips back and forth. All the best!

[@conceptalfa]

👍 👍 👍!!!

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

😁😃

[@radka9516]

Another tip: Search oon the internet, what is rude to do in public in this new country, for eample kissing on the street, etc. This tip is for tourists, too. ;)

[@defelater1334]

live in Prague 20 years, still wathcing this... :D why?... no idea... :D :D

[@tomrox8921]

Do you work as a English teacher for language school?

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

I did for the first few months that I lived here. Now I freelance as a music teacher and gigging musician.

[@TheStarlitfuse]

At least they didn't yell at you to bag your groceries (in czech)

[@Stepan_H]

15:30 - Getting out of small place first is normal in whole world, I hope... not only from transit but from room, etc... It's logical, becase if small place is full of people, at first some of them must get out, so that some could get in...

[@sirien.neiris]

In many places in the world (including some parts of Europe), there are separate doors for enter and exit in the public transport. For example in UK an AU you get into the bus through the front door and then you leave by the middle/back door - therefore people are "flowing" through the bus from the front to the back (and out). And btw. by my experience, it is at least as efficient and much more convenient. (It is probably related to the fact that you pay to the driver or that there is a payment terminal by the driver's spot, but it works as well/better nevertheless.)

[@slidenapps]

Why did you have to move a lot? I paid 2K to ship my eBike and no regrets. I found my apartment on line and moved right in after arriving. Lucky maybe?

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

Yeah, it just took me a while to find an affordable place where I wanted to live for a longer period of time. Maybe I was unlucky or maybe I just wasn’t ready to commit to something long-term.

[@annathenewt247]

if you guys are looking for a czech bank to make an accout at, i would reccomend Equa bank just because they are fully online based so you can withdraw at any ATMs that belong to all the different other banks without charge.

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

Thanks for the recommendation. I use Airbank personally, so I can't vouch for anything else, but in general it seems like you can't go wrong with most major banks in Prague.

[@t1mastr10]

Btw i'm pretty sure that if you prove that the shipped goods are your personal belongings and you already owned them in US before the shippment. You should be stripped off all the customs and extra vat charges.

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

Hmm, maybe I should have tried to get around the customs/VAT charges. Next time I'll be more aware of this. Thank you.

[@t1mastr10]

@@skeletonkeysprague21 yep they are mostly market restictions for buying goods from US to protect europian manufacturers, but if you for example present documentation like shop bills from buying the stuff long time ago as a personal belonging not to resell it here, you should be stripped of the taxes at least partially.

[@sirien.neiris]

@@t1mastr10 Good luck trying. By my experience, you are lucky if Czech customs office doesn't break your stuff completely (while they unpack it, loose some attached letters, damage the package and pack it again into some ugly generic box - for whatever reason) and it is easier to just go along with all of their bullshit (like when they charged me for something claiming it is "because of the EU", while in Germany there was no such charge at all - for even larger and more expensive shipment) and useless paperwork and pay all their ridiculous additional fees.
Me and all of my friends who ship something from the US on more regular basis usually just let the US shop send the stuff to some friend in Germany or Poland so they can take it and re-send it to us in Czechia as within-EU shipment. It's usually cheaper (or not that much more expansive) and more importantly quicker, more comfortable and safer for the shipment itself. Anything to avoid the stupid customs office.
One other life hack is to send it through regular post office and sign post office the paper that they can represent you in customs - but then you have to rely on Czech post office to deliver it which might be sometimes almost as bad (and I don't know if this option works for all kinds shipments).

[@t1mastr10]

@@sirien.neiris well, it is the same situation like when you travel the world with for example bunch of expensive photo gear as a photographer. You have to have proof of ownership otherwise every time you fly back from US to Prague, local customs would tax your camera and all the stuff again like you bought it in US.

[@PavelSkollSuk]

Planning to move to Ukraine from Prague.
Fortunately I have an Ukrainian GF, do understand the language and know that culture quite well.😊

[@m1kus960]

I moved from Ukraine to the Czech Republic, and also in the last 2 years more Ukrainians per capita have moved to the Czech Republic than to any other country, despite the fact that absolutely all of Europe, America and other countries have been open to Ukrainians for the last 2 years, and still the majority chose the Czech Republic, which means that the Czech Republic is the best

[@PavelSkollSuk]

@@m1kus960 Not the best, but as we don't want African immigrants, we know we could not build a thing without Ukrainians, or have even a functional taxi.

[@non9886]

nice video! as for as request i would like if you can mention the etymology of your nick :-)

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

I'll make a video about it, thanks!

[@vitekadolf1225]

i luv u

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

Za roh :):):)

[@vitozana8659]

Jeden přítel mé rodiny žil a pracoval v Praze na půdě univerzity půl roku bez jakýchkoliv povolení. Přišlo se na to až když si chtěl založit bankovní účet. Dívali se na něj jako na blázna bez identity. Na britském velvyslanectví měli dost práce dát to do pořádku, aby ho úřady nevyhostily. I pas už měl propadlý.

[@lofashej]

Prague and the inhabitants of Prague are already bored, everyone has already had a video about it on the yuotube. But go to Brno, find the old settlers and talk to them in "hantec" (moravian dialect) :D

[@shayach7983]

Why bored

[@elis2714]

'cause your simcards are fricked!!! :D :D :D it's useless, I took my galaxy20 with me to Virginia (plenty of room for additional sims) and got my first US simcard - but NOOOO, american mobile phones companies (I know it's called differet :D ) do lock their simcards to a specific mobile/gadged (IMEI). Really?

[@mibfox]

Hmm interesting, every single nation in europe knows everything about usa. What is the capital city, who is the president, how many states are in the usa, we know about your economy status, health care, immigrants problems etc.
What do you know about us? 99% americans thinks, that CZ is next state in usa somewhere and you can get there by a plane in 2 hours for sure :)
So theses videos seems usefull. Thumbs Up

[@skeletonkeysprague21]

Sadly, I was one of those ignorant Americans even after I had already landed in Prague. I mentioned in one of my videos that I couldn't have located Prague on a map even a couple weeks after arriving here. I am learning a lot by being here and trying to spread this knowledge and awareness as much as I can. Thanks for your support :)

[@vulgoalias4050]

Honestly, it's a matter of scale. Would you be able to pinpoint where North Dakota is and what is it capital? I know I wouldn't. I wouldn't even be able to list all the states in the US. When you look at it from their perspective, it's quite similar. A lot of Americans do know something about Germany, France, UK or Italy and very little about the smaller, less internationally significant countries like Bulgaria, Latvia, or Czech Republic just as we know very little about Washington (not DC), Illinois, Nebraska and so on, and do know a thing or two about California, Texas, Florida or New York.

[@suc125]

I consider ingnorant if someone thinks Europe is a country, but Czech republic is so small and insignificant that I wouldn´t blame anyone that knows nothing about it.
Although I believe some Americans may know it because of our hockey players in NHl

[@m1kus960]

The United States is simply the most popular country in the world, with the most news about it on the Internet and movies and videos

[@m1kus960]

@@suc125 There are much smaller countries than the Czech Republic, but compared to them, the Czech Republic is not a small country, the population of the Czech Republic is 10,503,315 and the area is 78,867 km²

[@paulmarkey103]

Good presentation, but the messy, dark background does you a disservice - not professional . Pull that screen across?!

[@JafuetTheSame]

seksi jaxviň