Dobrý Den

Dobrý den (Good day), the first greeting I often heard from those unknown people in Czech Republic. They usually used that instead of saying dobré ráno (Good morning), dobré odpoledne (Good afternoon), dobrý večer (Good evening). I am living here for like almost seven (7) months now and still I am amazed from all people here, who were so polite.

I am not used to greet people before, since I was using smile when someone greets me or else just the word “hello”, in my country. I remembered during the time that we were looking for flat to rent, my mother in-law was curious why when someone greet me Dobrý den, I am not responding but instead, I was just smiling or say something like hello, which she don’t understand because she don’t speak English, or at least basic.  I can’t do anything with that, because I am not used to greet people the same way like they did, but then I was sad that I was born to be shy. It’s not that I am being snobbish to anyone, but because I was shy and don’t have much confident to speak a little of their language. Time passed-by, I was learning at home how to speak, how to make it with their accent, which is not that needed, since everyone has their own accent when speaking different language. I made it; I ended up learning much more words than others can do.

I walked somewhere alone when my husband was at the office. I walked out from our door and say goodbye for a while to my quite world. I was at the elevator and thinking what to do when I saw Czech people and what to do if they greet me. Here it come, I was about to open the main door headed outside when someone gets in. The woman said

 “Dobrý den”

 I was surprised when my mouth says the word Dobrý den” in respond to her. I was happy and shocked that I did it without any problem, or hesitation. I walked and arrived to our office but nobody was there. They were in the coffee, so I did go to Chinese restaurant where they always take coffee break. Before I arrived to coffee shop, I encountered again a woman and greet me Dobrý den again, and I again reponded.

The next day after that, we were going home and headed to taxi. I greet the taxi driver dobrý večer, which I am not doing before. Wow, big progress right? I was happy, that moment and I asked my husband,

“Did you hear that honey? I greet the driver dobrý večer.”

He responded to me

“Yeah, I heard that honey, that’s good!”

Oh yeah, since then, I started to just greet people when they greet me too. I realized that I just need to try it at least once then the rest will follow. I just needed to gain confident at least a little to make it better. So everyone, “DOBRÝ DEN”.