With the kind permission of the writer. The post originally appeared on a list peopled by Slovak researchers. Elaine ******************* I'm an American who for the last 8 months has been living in a small apartment with two 24-year old guys, a Czech from Prague and a Slovak from Bratislava. Here are my observations about Czechs and Slovaks based on watching their interactions and listening to their own words about Czechs and Slovaks: 1) The same sense of humor - The same things make them laugh! I found that strikingly odd, but maybe that has to do with the fact that they are the same age and share the same interests: computers. 2) Mutual intelligibility of the languages - Often they speak "Czecho-Slovak" to one another rather than English, particularly when they get lazy :). Marek, the Slovak, understands Filip, the Czech, 100% of the time. Filip understands Marek about 80% and often has to get a clarification on an unknown vocabulary word. Filip says he never realized that he didn't understand Slovak well. In Slovakia, Slovaks watch Czech TV shows and movies all the time. They are exposed to the Czech language and thus, over time, understand Czech like native. On the other hand, in the Czech Republic, there are hardly any Slovak TV shows on and when there are, they are shown with Czech subtitles. 3) Same types of food - When describing national dishes and preparing foods, the guys describe more or less the same things. The difference is in how the food is named in each language. The one thing that is uniquely different is Slovak bryndzove halusky. Filip said he's only ever had that while on a skiing trip in Slovakia. 4) Surprisingly different histories - Being that their languages are so closely related, one would assume that the histories would be parallel. They aren't. Slovaks have a thousand years of struggle with Hungarians while the Czechs had their hands full with the Austrians. Both cultures developed down their own separate paths. With my two roommates it shows in how they describe traditions like how Slovaks hang "salonky", wrapped candies, on the Christmas tree and Czechs don't. Or that on Easter Monday Slovak boys pour water on the girls and Czechs don't. 5) A united front - Marek describes the relationship between Czechs and Slovaks like this: "Czechs and Slovaks are like two brothers. There is a natural competitive nature between the two but out in the world they will stand by eachother and work as a team." I wrote this after reading what Katarina said: "Just an observations on "sticking together" - in my humble experience, Slovaks & Czechs are one of the few groups that I notice that do not stick together or help each other - at least in NY. We have Polish communities, Jewish, Chinese, etc where an expat can come & settle and find help. Not the Czechs or Slovaks. If someone has had a different experience - perhaps in a different state, I would love to hear about it. I find it very sad that this is the case." I think today we are dealing with a new generation of Czechs and Slovaks. The young people coming into the workforce and society today don't carry the "Czechoslovak" baggage such as living under communism and the inner squabbles of a single nation with two separate peoples. Therefore, these new Czechs and Slovaks are more competative and self sufficient. On one hand this new generation didn't fully experience the hardships under communism and may be "doomed to forget", but on the other hand, they are starting with a clean slate, the future looks bright and the world is their oyster. In clonclusion I'd say that both guys have respect for the other and I have never heard either say any desparaging remarks about the other's culture. But that could also be because both are polite decent people, lucky for me :). Margarete