It's the moment you've all been waiting for...the second installment of "Getting to Know Your Neighbours."

So, I had a meeting last night with the charismatic and delectable Jennifer Fry of Prague's kick-ass NGO, Ashoka.org.

(By the way, Jen's mega-hot and very pleasant, so if you plan on having a meeting with her, don't eat your lunch beforehand. You're sure to get a case of the twitters).

In any event, I won't say much about her organization, other than to tell you Ashoka does a lot of really good things for a lot of really good people. Bone up on the material at their WWW for deeper insights into the finer workings of this particular non-profit, ya heard?

In any event, what we did get into last night was this: what's wrong with the Czech education system, and what the hell are Czech youngsters actually learning in school that seems to so poorly equip them for life in our Web 2.0 world?

We drafted a list of potential pinch points, what we described as negative characteristics which cause young Czechs to be so verklempt with angst when they graduate in beer-fuelled, condomless euphoria from high school (hopefully you're using birth control):


1) Village or small-town Czech graduates are often rebuked by their Communist-era teachers for making mistakes. Almost akin to getting a spank on the rump every time they commit errors in speech, grammar, or language, Czech youngsters are hardly encouraged to take initiative and aren't invited to serve up fresh ideas when speaking about particular issues, in civic society, business, or Czech affairs. Unlike other "pocket nations" of the world, whose students and citizens are world-beating entrepreneurial types (egs. New Zealanders, the Irish, the Scots, Slovenians, etc.), the negative reinforcement Czechs are subject to at school is staggering. Complexes abound, and it's no wonder why.

2) The wrong foreign languages are being taught in Czech schools. Rather than being encouraged to master the International Language of Business -- English -- in high school, the Czech education system -- at least in the regions -- is geared around placing strong emphasis on foreign languages that have no value in the modern Web 2.0 world. What we've recently heard in the news from The Fox (Ondrej Liska) at the Czech Education Ministry are just a handful of pithy proposals which will likely not be implemented during his tenure. Hard to believe, but Czechs are still being given the option to learn German or French in school, rather than English. Not disparaging these other two languages, but they are admittedly entirely useless in an international business context. All German, French, and even Russian businessmen speak English, so Czechs' inability to do so during business interactions with clients or interlocutors from across the globe is utterly inexcusable.

3) Entrepreneurship is looked upon as sinful or dirty, not as the world-altering or self-actualizing practice it has the potential to be. Jennifer agreed that our country produces too many brainiacs and technical types in schools, wholly bereft of the needed soft marketing and salesmanship skills our Interconnected (read: social networking) Global Economy requires. Don't believe me? Then just try talking about the practice entrepreneurship with young Czechs over coffee, beer, or wine sometime, and within minutes you'll hear a veritable laundry list of reasons why not to engage in a particular business idea, as opposed to why to get stuck into it. Just what kind of youth are we producing here?! What is happening is a mind crime of the highest order. Teachers should be publically flogged. MPs need to be given a dressing down, shouted at, and possibly have a few pies tossed their way. And we need fresh blood in Czech Parliament.

4) The wrong social media tools are being promoted in the Czech market. Yeah, sure, Czech blogs are cool (especially this one) and so are chat apps like ICQ (Israeli-created), Skype (Estonian), and YM. But what I desperately want to know is why no one's talking about things like Seesmic.com, Spokeo.com, Naymz.com, Diigo.com, and the like? Is it because they're in English that young Czechs aren't tapping into them? (See Point #2 above! -- which is completely inexusable, considering Seesmic's CEO is none other than affable Frenchman Loic LeMeur, who is constantly struggling to improve his spoken English, and doing marvellously at it).

5) The wrong pinnacles of professional achievement are being lauded in our society. "Get a job!" "Make a steady income, and shut your dumplings-hole!" "You think you can be a boss?" "You're going to lose your pants!" "You, dear woman, want to run your own company?! Be careful...you're going to find some guy and he's going to knock you up with a child during a drunken business meeting, and then where are you going to be? [I kid you not -- this is what one of my female colleagues tells me her dad tells her every time she goes back to Jihlava/Iglau]" Why is the aspiration in Prague and Brno society, for example, merely to have a straight-line job? Why is comfort the most sought after aspiration for young unmarried, childless Czech young people? Why are we so goddamn lazy about the right things (eg. creating our own opportunities, being masters of our own domain, innovation, becoming a 10 million-strong centre of excellence for technology -- not just the boring kind), and so pathetically industrious about the totally wrong things (eg. being "responsible" at work, and "doing the job well, because I'm responsible," [Hanka, that one's for you, tough guy], or to impress the misogynist boss)? Who in tarnation planted these poisonous seeds into the fresh minds of our youth? Why aren't more women, incidentally, running companies in the Czech Republic?

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Jen and I laid out some more ideas, but I'll let her take it away in the comments section.

By the way, VOTE CZECH IMMIGRANTS!

I love you,
You rock,
Kick moose testicles, always,
ADM