PragueBuzz!

I’m going tomorrow to Munich to apply for a short-term visa at the Czech embassy and return again, perhaps, the week after. I thought I could go there by myself, but the company sent me a taxi driver to drive me to Munich. Sweet! This experience will get me familiar with another of transportation, driving to another country in Europe. So far, I’ve only used planes, trains and busses.

I recently discover a Czech superficiality, the zealous care for title and formality in the form of “Mr. Engineer.”

Surprisingly, an Engineering degree (US’s Master equivalent) can get you a lot of things in the Czech Republic given people’s strange reference toward it. It’s typical to see “Engineer” printed in the identification cards and on the front doors and some people actually greet these engineers by “Mr. Engineer.” A friend of mine considers changing his ID card to add “ING” (Engineer) to his name thinking that it will help him professionally and socially.

Who knows? The “Mr. Engineer” is not only a superficiality of the Czech but of the other parts in Europe. I visited Croatia, and the first thing I noticed was the “Ing” print on my friend’s front door.

I know this is tradition, but I can not help detesting this ridiculous formality practice. Maybe, it was because I was born and raised in a culture which ate, slept and lived through titles and formality. They did everything in their power, including literally buying and selling, for a shot of a title in a piece of paper.
Everything changes in the US; formality is thrown out of the window and titles are no longer important. Persons are judged by what they can offer and not by the titles on their name tags. Don’t believe me? Wiki Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Dell and a bunch of no-title Silicon Valley startups’ founders. And would two Google’s founders care too much if we forget to address them by “Mr. Engineer?”

But then, this is good ol’ Europe.

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Technorati Tags: PragueBuzz, czech, culture

Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty is an American Congress funded communication organization based in Prague, the Czech Republic, delivering news from most non-EU countries in Europe.

…countries are struggling to overcome autocratic institutions, violations of human rights, centralized economies, ethnic and religious hostilities, regional conflicts, and controlled media. Stability — based on democracy and free-market economies — throughout this region is essential to global peace.

I discovered this website when looking for a job in Prague. There aren’t too many vacancies, and the internship is unpaid. However, job-seekers with journalism experiences and technical skills might find suitable positions. (http://www.rferl.org/about/jobs/)

Contact
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Human Resources Division, Vinohradska 1, 110 00 Prague; Fax: +420-2-2112-3881; Email: jobs@rferl.org; Website: www.rfrl.org

Tags: PragueBuzz, prague, czech, organization, radio free europe

I am reviewing another hotel booking website for Europe, Eurobookings, which offers hotels from top-notch European cities including but not limited to Paris, London, Rome, Barcelona, Prague, Amsterdam, Vienna and Athens.

Pretty much, the site’s design and functionality are the similar to any other hotel booking site you might have visited. You can list the hotels based on popularity, prices and star ratings or on a popular location like your departure/arrival airport, a monument or a district within the city. If you choose the latter option, you will see, next to each hotel, a link to a map showing its position. This feature is especially helpful if you are first-time travelers to a city and have time finding the location of the hotel from its address.

Read Eurobookings’ hotel guide for other travelers’ opinions and reviews to make better decision. It is an excellent read, not just about the hotels but about the city and culture as well. The site’s content is available in 13 languages, thus might still be useful to your friends who don’t understand English.

This is a sponsored post.