Frankly speaking I was not so sure that SME would allow a blog in English. But I thought I would try it because I believe in diversity and I am tired of being asked the eternal five questions that people have when they realize I am not Slovak. You see there are plenty of foreigners in Slovakia, and you would be surprised to find out that those posh general managers of multinational companies who live in comfortable villas near Slavin and spend the weekends in Vienna, shopping, are only a minority. There are plenty of foreigners sharing ordinary flats in panelaky. They look ordinary, just mumble a bit when challenged to use Slovak. Each of them has her/his own reasons to be here. I would like to talk about them.
And now if you are curious what are those “eternal five questions” I was talking about earlier, here they are:
1) Where are you from?---followed by interviewer’s comments about her/his personal experience with my native country, eventually additional questions about politics and economics there
2) So you spent some time in America and then came back to Slovakia?!!!Pane boze, why? (I am not American, by the way)---I haven’t come up with any satisfactory answer yet.
3) How often do you travel home?—followed by “Aren’t your parents missing you?” this is more often asked by what you call “vyhodniari” who still miss Presov or Kosice and feel Bratislava is at the other end of the globe
4) How did you learn Slovak?---followed by “It’s a difficult language, isn’t it?
5) Are you married?---I don’t really understand why I get this question.
Some ask how do I like Slovakia, other just suppose that I must like it very much if I came back to live here after spending some time in the States and England…a to sa nedaJ
The answer for this question is a longer one therefore I will use this blog to give it.
