This is a typical Tuesday for me here in Bratislava, Slovakia. Which is call Zoovakia when am I a bad mood and get annoyed by too many toxic stereotypes I see around me.
Tuesdays and Mondays are a lot fun. You can read about one of my typical Mondays in the article where I explain why I don’t need any holidays.
So Tuesdays…
I wake up round six, get ready listening to some German or French documentary.
Then I take a bus to the headquarters of a famous brewery.
At 8.00 I teach one of my most talkative, most ambitious students. This Tuesday we talked about his vacation in Croatia.
About 50 percent of my clients spend their holidays in Croatia.
He is the only one who has something to say about it. The others could only tell me they slept, ate and drank in Croatia, but this guy actually DID something there. And he’s like me, he doesn’t care about looking at nature. He learned something about the cities, about castles and about the tourist sector in Croatia. It’s baffling how many people go on holiday and have nothing to tell you when they come back, but not this guy.
My next student wants to have his lessons in the mall of Polus. There are lots of huge malls in Bratislava, real shopping temples. Polus is just one of them. We have the lesson at a table in the food court. Surrounded by people who stuff themselves with hamburgers we have a lesson on the differences between Common Law and Civil Law. He’s a lawyer who teaches at university.
I have to prepare carefully, because apart from legal terms he also wants to learn slang. So he learns to stay things like ‘we got the piss kicked out of us’ and ‘she’s gobsmacked’ and all kinds of terms concerning litigation. He’s very received and shares personal information only reluctantly, but it’s interesting to work with him, because he’s always very friendly and respectful and is one of the few students who are willing to do a lot of work at home.
After that I teach two more classes at the brewery. The students have the best English of all my students and don’t make that many mistakes. So the trick is to make it as challenging and as complicated for them as possible. Sometimes we play intricate strategy games or we talk about managing people, business, the evolution of Slovakia, etc. They also like to analyze documentaries, like Wild Wild Country. One student offered to try and organize a workshop to let people discover their ‘ikigai.’ He takes this seriously and comes up with all kinds of ideas. He also happens to be the funniest student. Creativity and humor go hand in hand, I suppose.
One thing that’s radically different from Belgium is that several of my students are deeply religious. This means they go to Church at least once a week. Sometimes we have a lesson on a week day and they tell me they got up extra early to go to Church. Being Belgian this is very hard for me to imagine. In Bratislava not a day goes by or I spot nuns or monks on the street or in the bus. The influence the Church has here reminds me of what my father told me about Belgium in the late 1950’s. This gives Slovakia an almost surreal quality in my eyes. I cannot understand what young, ambitious people, often rather driven by monetary gain, can possible find in the doings of a typical church service. I’m convinced it’s more the ritual they need, than what is actually said there, because most sermons have zero to do with any realistically applicable advice for one’s life, even my devout wife is willing to admit that.
Anyway, I left home today at 7.20 am and I am back home at 7.30. I had breaks in between of course and met some wonderful people.
Sounds like a great Tuesday. 🙂
Re Croatia: My favourite destination is the island of Hvar and not only because it has beautiful beaches but also because there are ancient towns such as Hvar and Stari Grad that can satisfy my sightseeing curiosity. I agree it is a pity to spend a vacation in Croatia without learning anything about the local sights and history.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like a great holiday destination. If I would describe my Wednesdays it would be less positive, not entirely negative, but kinda sad, some people are total nitwits, I sometimes wonder how it’s possible. The weird thing is that they seem quite happy that way. They’re not bad people, just don’t ask them about the world, because they are only concerned with the two yards in front of their nose. Luckily most of my students are not like that. How would you compare Slovaks and Croats?
LikeLike
I cannot say I know everything about Croatian people. I do have a weak spot for people from the Balkans, so I keep exploring but I still can get surprised. From what I observed, Croatians are similar to Slovaks in a way that they too tend to be more conservative in general. On the other hand, they are more straightforward, more energetic and less shy than Slovaks. I would say also they are definitely more patriotic and more passionate about their songs. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had to mention songs because one of their popular singers, Oliver Dragojevic, died few days ago and the way the people mourned him and paid respect to him is something I cannot imagine here. It looked almost as if they were saying goodbye to a king.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I think people in the Balkan are much prouder about their culture, and much more emotionally moved by their own culture. Slovaks seem a little apathetic about their own culture in comparison. Much like Flemish people I must say. Slovaks and Flemish people are very similar, except that Flemish people are spoilt, the last two generations benefited greatly from the fruits of the industrial revolution in which Belgium played a pioneering role, from having relative political stability for a long time and from communism. Because of communism the establishment in Belgium was afraid workers would rise up and they were willing to allow social reforms to avoid a revolution. While Eastern Europe suffered under communism, people in the west benefited from it, because the moneyed elite were scared communism might spread, so they tried to keep workers happy. Other than that we also robbed Congo of everything, something Slovakia never did, Slovakia never exploited millions of Africans. In general Belgians have no idea where the material wealth they enjoy today comes from. The elite is now rolling back this social paradise, because the threat of communism is gone, but most working people don’t see this evolution as they are not aware of our social struggles or how it works (the one percent versus the 99 as it has been popularised)
LikeLike
So far my Thursday has been even better, I’ll report on it tonight
LikeLike
My first sexual experience was thanks to a very straightforward Croatian lady so I will always be highly subjective when it comes to saying anything about Croats. I agree with everything you’ve mentioned. I just wonder where they get their energy, talkativeness and free spirit. What happened to Slovaks that they seem to tame or domesticated? Somebody tols me it’s because Slovaks are a people of shepherds and shepherds have a very defensive mentality and often live in solitude. Perhaps the lack of a coastline also fosters introversion… What goes against this theory for me is that the most introverted Belgians are the ones right next to the coast 😉
LikeLike
“What happened to Slovaks that they seem to tame or domesticated?” Again, I can’t say I know the answer. I can only guess. Perhaps it is indeed about the nature – all those mountains that keep reminding you of your limits. The absence of a coastline, especially an ocean coastline, probably plays its role too, since as a land-locked country we had less contact with the world far away in the past. Also, all nations living in southern Europe tend to be friendlier and livelier in general, maybe because of the warmer weather. Compared to the Balkans, we also had less Turkish influence in the past so that might have left some impact too.
But then again, there is this paradox I find interesting. Once Slovaks live and work outside of their home country, often they can quickly become very worldly and adventurous. And they have this ability to adapt to any culture and society from the North Pole to Australia. 😀 But maybe it’s about the individual character. Perhaps you have to have some dose of worldliness and adventurousness already in you to even consider moving abroad in the first place and then it just gets developed further. In any case, I think that when Slovaks don’t limit themselves in their mind, they can really do anything.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Slovakia did not have any colonies in the past probably because we did not have an opportunity to have some. I will just selfishly add that I am quite glad we didn’t have any. This is an interesting topic though. I imagine it still must be a very touchy subject in the western European countries who used to have colonies.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s become your habit to give me plenty of ideas for new blog posts 🙂
LikeLike
Nech sa páči. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person