Tomato, to-mah-to

Mark’s inaugural post underscores a weird point: pretty much any caucasian American family can creditably pass for a Czech family.  There’s really no particular Czech ‘look’. Sure, there are a few Slavic archetypes that recur over and over again, but there are more than enough exceptions and outliers to muddy the waters.

Any time I meet a friend or family member at the airport who is getting off a connecting European flight, I like to look at each person coming out of the gate and guess whether they are a Czech traveller returning home, or visiting from somewhere else and visiting. Then, I crane towards them and try to make out an identifying language, to confirm whether I’ve guessed right or wrong. Generally, I’m wrong. And most often, it’s the phyiscal posture of ‘Boy, I’m glad to be home’ or ‘Whee, I’m visiting Czech Republic’ tells me whatever I’m able to figure out.

1 thought on “Tomato, to-mah-to”

  1. Nooo, I think you CAN guess who is a Czech, the Czechs have that “Czech look”, at least those from smaller cities & villages….but I can’t say it aloud, it’s politically incorrect xD

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