In my first blog post, I want to talk about something that surprised me: the lack of people around in Vaduz, where I've been spending time lately. I thought I'd see lots of locals while taking walks or going to the gym, but it was the opposite.
During my walks, I hardly bumped into anyone, even though I expected the streets to be bustling with activity. And when I went to the gym at the busiest times, which are between 5pm and 8pm it was almost empty. Which was odd considering it could hold way more people, with all the machines there, at minimum 200 people for sure.
This got me thinking about why there weren't more people out. Maybe it says something about how life is paced in Vaduz, or how people their view spending time together. It made me wonder about the culture and what's considered normal there.
These experiences made me realize that cultural differences can affect everyday things like how we interact with others. So, in my blog, I want to explore these ideas further and see what lessons I can learn from them. Perhaps understanding these differences can help me connect better with people from all walks of life.
One of the other things that surprised me was that people are greeting you. Every day when I go for walk and I see a person he says “HOI” and I answer the same despite not knowing the person. I remember that when I was smaller, and I was greeting random people in the Czech Republic I was told it is impolite. Maybe it depends on the people, maybe on the culture.
On the other side, I found Liechtenstein very quiet place, where I can slow down a little bit and enjoy the present moment.
Beyond social interactions, Liechtenstein's tranquil ambiance offered a stark departure from the hustle and bustle of Prague, providing a welcome opportunity to slow down and appreciate the present moment. However, this tranquillity occasionally extended to academic settings, where lectures often commenced later than scheduled—a departure from the stringent punctuality expected in Czech educational institutions such as high schools and universities. I was really surprised that most of the lectures in the Liechtenstein start later than scheduled and sometimes even the teachers come later after the official start of the class.
This experience might be affected by the fact that this happened during the first lessons and the teachers/lectures wanted students to settle down or because only a few teachers are from the University of Liechtenstein, the majority is outsourced from different universities or companies. To be precise, for example from Munich in Germany or Norway. For someone only these few minutes might be nothing, but in the Czech Republic educational rules and norms are stricter and when coming even a minute late after the official start you should apologize and shouldn’t disturb the others while walking in.
The other difference is that when I tried to talk to some peoples for example in the store, they didn’t speak English, same as with the people on the street. In comparison with Prague, where most of the people are able to answer you in English, especially in the city centre. This fact can be due to the border with German speaking countries such as Austria and Switzerland. In Liechtenstein, when there's after one and half hour a break at school, teachers often talk with students in German. For someone like me who doesn't speak German well, this can feel a bit strange. It might make the foreigners feel left out or like they don't belong there, especially when everyone else is chatting away in German. I feel like this separates the foreigners or new students from the students that have been studying at the university for a longer period of time. A few times a similar situation happened when one of my classmates started a discussion with a teacher in German and I haven´t understand nothing from that.
From my perspective of view, it would be better to stick to English since the Master's in Information Systems should be in English. However, I don’t take it offensively when people are talking in their native language.