An inexpensive phrase book is an excellent investment for breaking the ice in the Czech Republic. However, in Prague and the larger towns you will find many multi-lingual Czechs, especially in the tourist areas.

The Czech language can be daunting to a newcomer. It is considered one of the more difficult languages for a foreigner to learn. A Slavic language, it is similar to Polish, Pomeranian, Serbian and Slovak. It is particularly similar to Polish and Slovak; citizens of those countries are often able to converse comfortably with Czechs and visa versa.

A key thing to remember is that in Czech the emphasis is always placed on the first syllable of a word. Czech is based upon the Latin alphabet, with a number of additional unique characters. Once you master the rules of pronunciation for those unique characters, you should be able to read and pronounce Czech words with little difficulty because the language is spoken exactly as written.