How Cultural and Linguistic Considerations Affect the Learning of English in the Czech Republic

People worldwide are increasingly faced with a force that drives international communication and globalization. Whether they are directed impacted or more subtly affected they can weigh how the pervasive force of the English language is touching upon essential parts of their own languages and cultures. If you listen to the radio or watch TV in the Czech Republic, you can catch previously unheard words and phrases seeping in, such as “updatovat” or “door-to-door”. This paper looks at ways the Czech Republic has reacted to the encroaching effects of English. It compares both languages and it also more specifically looks at some examples of English words and phrases that have become loanwords in Czech, and at issues of cultural relativity. It uses a series of questionnaires spaced over time to gauge how students at a technical university consider English in comparison to their own language. As a guiding point it looks at some of the findings of renowned sociologists such as Bourdieu, Hofstede, Trompeenaars and E. Hall to use as reference points to generally examine how some cultural factors can influence the approach to learning a foreign language.