Interviewee: Ales Pavlicek
Interviewer: Erman Ermihan
1) How many hours per day do you go to school?
It depends on a day. Sometimes I’m there for 6 hours, sometimes longer- up to 10 hours.
How many hours of homework do you have on weekdays & weekends?
During a week I spend usually about 1-2 hours doing my homeworks per day, on weekend it depends how I manage my time and what I should do. Usually its somewhere between 2-6 hours per day.
How many hours do you have for yourself on weekdays & weekends?
I try to save time for myself as much as I can. For example I play the piano for 1 hour a day.
2) Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Hopefully I’ll be studying. Studying abroad would be the best option for me.
3) What is your favorite thing you like about living in Prague?
Definitely it’s the culture that we’ve got here.
4) What do you dislike most about living in Czech Republic?
That czech people are so narrow-minded. They just don’t want to explore the world and get to know new things.
5) What are Czech students most passionate about?
It depends on personality. Fortunately people around me have got a lot of different interests.
6) What do the students in Czech Republic know about Turkey and how do they view Turkish people?
Usually basic information (Ankara, Atatürk, and some really basic historical and political events). Our opinion about you is basically good, however some people around me generally have got problem with Muslim states and then they don’t differentiate between them.
7) If someone were to visit Czech Republic, where would you recommend they visit first?
Definitely Prague because of its culture and its transport connection with the rest of the country. In Prague it’s good to start with castle which is on the hill and then continue with exploring the rest of the city.
8) Any one interesting fact about the Czech way of life?
We are very creative in making jokes. Otherwise we are still complaining about something, but we don’t make an effort to change it.
9) Economics and/or Politics: What do you think about the current situation of the European economy?
There is a slight difference between countries which are in EU and Euro zone and those which are not. However, every country has to handle with consequences of the recent economic crisis. Basically it is a sign that people have to change their lifestyle because it is not sustainable. People used to buy things on credit although they had not stable work or any financial certainty in case when they would have been in crisis. And then crisis came, many people lost their jobs and couldn’t find a new one. That’s why they couldn’t pay their loans and that made their situation worst. And for EU and Euro zone is also the whole current situation sign that something was wrong. We can see it on Greece. The rules for entrance and being into Euro zone have to be kept strictly (with no exceptions) and there have to be sanctions for their breaking.
However, I hope that EU and Euro zone will survive.
10) Entertainment and/or Daily Life: What kind of music do the youngsters listen in Czech Republic, as a country who raised such famous classical musicians as Smetana and Dvorak? Do you have any comments?
Maybe you are expecting that I will answer that the young people here listen either only classical music or only modern music. The truth is somewhere between. It’s a fact that nowadays you are daily in contact with modern music through omnipresent radio (e.g. restaurants, buses etc.) and most people listen to it thanks to their portable mp3 player. However, I know a lot of people (including myself) who listen to modern and classical music as well. The nice example is our teacher for Czech language. She likes Metallica and Dvorak too.
The main factor is, if you like classical music or not, is also if there is someone (e.g. from family or from your friends) who like it too and who somehow introduce you into it.
