How did you actually meet your friends?

[baxus]

Don't worry about speaking English in Prague.

It's a city with huge number of tourists present in the city every single day and most people are fine with speaking English.

At least that's my experience from the couple of days I've spent there.

[Arkhangel]

Yeah, I've spent a bit of time in Prague before so I'm not too concerned about getting by day to day with English (although I think it would be rude not to at least try to get some Czech down). Living somewhere is quite different from visiting as a tourist though, and trying to make friends with people is quite different from interacting with shop assistants or asking for directions. I think it's true for almost anywhere that just walking up to someone in their country and immediately talking to them in your own language* will be considered arrogant by a lot of people - imagine how people in, I don't know, some place in Texas would respond to a stranger assuming they must speak Spanish, or people in Sydney would respond to someone suddenly trying to talk to them in Mandarin. Some people might be bemused, or try to be helpful, but a lot of people are going to react negatively. Some variant on the phrase "F*** off and learn English" might well come up. It's the same for non-English speaking places - just because people in tourist towns have learned to tolerate English-speaking tourists doesn't mean they like them :p

*outside of a professional or tourist setting

[Sir Thursday]

I have three major friendship groups:

- Friends from university

- Friends from work

- Friends from my ultimate frisbee team

The first two groups are ones that naturally happened, the latter only came about because I went out and started playing with them. There were two key elements that made that fairly straightforward: because it's a team sport you have to interact a lot with other people anyway, and I already knew how to play so there was something I had in common with them all. I think it probably helps if whatever activity you end up using as your gateway to socialising is one that intrinsically requires some communication/interaction.

ST

[baxus]

Yeah, I've spent a bit of time in Prague before so I'm not too concerned about getting by day to day with English (although I think it would be rude not to at least try to get some Czech down). Living somewhere is quite different from visiting as a tourist though, and trying to make friends with people is quite different from interacting with shop assistants or asking for directions. I think it's true for almost anywhere that just walking up to someone in their country and immediately talking to them in your own language* will be considered arrogant by a lot of people - imagine how people in, I don't know, some place in Texas would respond to a stranger assuming they must speak Spanish, or people in Sydney would respond to someone suddenly trying to talk to them in Mandarin. Some people might be bemused, or try to be helpful, but a lot of people are going to react negatively. Some variant on the phrase "F*** off and learn English" might well come up. It's the same for non-English speaking places - just because people in tourist towns have learned to tolerate English-speaking tourists doesn't mean they like them :P

*outside of a professional or tourist setting

The comparison to Texas and Sydney don't really hold true, since English is the de facto common language worldwide.

If you are willing to learn Czech, I say go for it. It can only be good for you, it will definitely add to the overall experience of your stay in Prague and it will be greatly appreciated by Czech people you meet.

That being said, don't think for a minute that you'll be told to bugger off if you don't speak it.

I can 100% guarantee that would hold true for most "smaller" countries in Europe.

[Fez]

Right now, they all stem from school in a long chain. I started with making friends with classmates in grad school, and through larger events started to become friends with their existing friends. In some cases I became friends with friends of friends, and then friends of friends of friends, etc. However, it all stems back from grad school, and every time I meet people I eventually became friends with, there was always at least one mutual friend also there. So I was never alone in a room full of strangers.

I also have a handful of friends from undergrad who moved into the area, but that's school as well.

Because my office is virtual, I've never made friends through work. We're all friendly, but we barely ever see each other.

And then there's the BWB, although I haven't gone to any events in years.

[MercenaryChef]

i have a couple friends from my days in high school. but as we have moved to other corners of the earth and started families we only really correspond via email and text. once in a while i get to meet up with my best pal when i travel out west.

d&d netted me a small group of super awesome folks when i lived in portland. one of them was a roommate for a spell.

work is an obvious one for me. when spending 60 hours a week at work you cannot help but make friends. i really try to minimize my interactions outside of work with these people though. hanging out to only talk about work is stressful.

the internet has been a godsend. this board in particular has made me some great friends.

soccer has done well for me also. attending matches and kicking the ball around has introduced me to some cool folks.

[baxus]

The ways I've met my best friends (in chronological order):

• lived across the hall from #1
  
• went to elementary school with #2
  
• third went to high school with #2
  
• met #4 in college
  

Other than them, I spend quite a lot of time with some other friends I picked up over the years and friends from my rowing club.

I wish I had more time to spend with them. :(

[Shadow Tower]

I think Baxus is right about (most) people not minding you speaking English to them. It depends more on your attitude how you come across to them not so much on the language used. In fact, there are a lot of people all across Europe who want to get some practice at speaking English since it's becoming ever more important. If you want to learn more Czech joining a language tandem program (which was offered at least by all four European universities I've attended) might be a good idea. I met some very nice people through this and improved my language skills at the same time.