Have you heard about the “grumpy Czechs”? Let’s analyze the attitude of the Czech people towards one of the most basic questions in any language – “how are you”? In Czech we say “jak se máš” and it’s not as easy as you might expect!
In many countries the question “how are you” is just a natural part of the initial greetings in any human conversation:
Therefore, when learning Czech you would probably expect people to say the same:
However, many Czechs tend to go much deeper into this question and when being asked how they are, they start to analyze in their brains how they actually are. You can even find forums on the Internet where people discuss how they should answer this question, looking for some original answers to surprise the person asking (and if possible make them never ask the “stupid” question again).
For a Czech person, adapting to a foreign culture really requires a “switch”. I still haven’t completely mastered the habit of the Spanish-speaking people (for example the new Colombian part of my family) to make this question an indispensable part of the initial “hola”. I still get stuck at the “hola” often, just not being able to get the “Bien, gracias, y tú?” over my tongue.
But back to Czech. Many people try to avoid the question altogether. Just skip it and start talking about the weather (a topic most Czechs are obsessed about, but we will get back to that later). Many people try to ask in a slightly different way to make it sound less like a “cliché”. I will give you some examples:
- Tak co, jak je? [So what, how is?] – This is a more colloquial way to ask the same question. Notice that we don’t ask how the person is, we ask just “how is”. How is what?
- Alternatively, we can shorten this to just “Jak je?” or “Tak jak je?”.
- Jak se dnes máš? [How yourself today have = How are you today?] – To make it easier for the other person (who might otherwise start thinking and analyzing too much) we specify the question about how they are to only TODAY, the question thus becoming less “philosophical”.
- Alternatively, we can play with the word “tak” again and make it into a “Tak jak se dnes máš?” or “Tak co, jak se dnes máš?”.
- Co je nového? [What is new?] – Again, this is a way how to spare the person the torments of thinking how they are by asking them only about what happened to them since you last met.
- You can probably guess it by now, but even this question can be started with the magical “tak”: “Tak co je nového?”
Those were the questions. But the real fun starts with the answers! One of the cultural factors behind all this fun is for sure the Czech sarcasm. Keep this in mind as you are reading through some of the most common answers I have found when doing my research online:
- Ale jo, jde to. [But yes, goes it.] = Many people see this as the most “neutral” way how to answer this question. It means something like “it’s ok” – could be better, could be worse. We have already learned it in our video course (see the video below this article).
- Už bylo líp. [Already was better.] = Another way how to express the general “Czech mood” – not good, not bad.
- Mohlo by být i hůř. [Could be also worse.] = Similar to the previous one, implying that it’s not that good but not that bad either.
- Mám se skvěle. [Have myself great.] = In many cultures this would be the perfect answer to the question, however the Czech respondents were suggesting they say it just to make other people angry and wishing to end the conversation fast. As the Czech people like to complain a lot, being “great” is just somewhat against the culture.
- Čím dál tím lépe. [The further the better.] = The phrase “čím dál tím…” is the Czech expression for “more and more…”. The mood of this one is similar to “mám se skvěle”, simply trying to ruin the other person’s day by not telling them how miserable we are.
- Čím dál tím stejně. [The further the same.] = An answer which grammatically doesn’t make sense. Well, not only grammatically. It seems many people use it as a linguistic joke to avoid answering the question.
- Mám se špatně, ale snáším to dobře. [Have myself badly but tolerate it well.] = Again, the person is just trying to avoid answering by turning it into a joke. Which means they are probably in quite a good mood.
- Ale jo, nestěžuju si. [But yes, (I) don’t complain.] = Complaining is something very common in the Czech culture, therefore not complaining actually means we are doing pretty well!
- Nemůžu si stěžovat. [(I) cannot complain.] = Similar to the previous one – things are going pretty well, so I don’t even have a reason to complain!
- Ani se neptej! [(You) not even ask!] = This seems to be the most straightforward answer of all – people using one of the above answers are actually wishing you never asked J. It suggests that the person is going to start complaining in 3… 2… 1…
Please don’t think that the Czech people are impolite when they don’t ask you how you are or when they reply to you in an unusual way. We just tend to be very honest in everything we say. You ask us how we are doing and we just tend to tell the truth. Co na srdci, to na jazyku. [What on heart that on tongue.]
When learning Czech, you don’t need to learn how to answer in the “Czech” way. Just keep it simple and we will be fine with that too.
Maybe even the Czechs will learn this one day. In the meantime, you can learn about the Czechs and their language in our newest video lesson: