I stopped off in KFC (seriously, don't judge) to get dinner the other night. I was able to greet the guy in Czech and asked, in Czech if he spoke English. The clerk was a little cocky and sorta of smirked and responded, in English, "and German, Russian, and French, too" except when he got to the French part he said it in Czech, and his co-worker burst out laughing. It was sorta funny.
But what kills me is that here are HIGHLY educated people working fast food jobs. They're not the immigrants struggling to make it who take the position out of desperation. These positions are sought after, and are competitive, and you must be able to speak various languages.
Along a similar train of thought - I was talking to someone and remarked that in my classes I feel so stupid, so ignorant, and I'm not a stupid person, but I get so lost... Today I realized, I'm not a stupid American, but I'd make a really ignorant European. Europeans know more about American history than I ever have, and more about their own than I ever will. The educational challenges here are insane compared to the complacency of the American educational system. I wish I'd brought Coral over here sooner and had been able to put her in to the European educational system rather than the American version of the Euro education. She's still getting more than she would back in the US, but not as much as her Czech counterparts.
(addendum - the competitiveness was not taken from observation, but as it has been relayed to me. When McDonalds opened for interviews there were over 800 applicants in line. The pay is better than most positions that student aged workers would receive elsewhere. There is no prestige, but as it offers good student hours and good pay there is a certain level of competition (obviously not for a career) and the workers who are employed here (Czech Republic) are disproportionately educated when compared to the worker employed in the US.)
3 comments:
Hm... I don't really have any reliable statistics so the following is derived from my experience. I know (or rather know of) several "over-qualified" people who ended up working in fastfood chains. They mostly studied liberal arts - fields that look great when you are 18 but don't make employers line up for your services.
As you probably know, Czech students do not pay anything for higher education. One of the results is that some fields are more popular than they would be if students had to pay tuition although the chances of working in the field are low.
I sincerely doubt that someone would compete for a job at McDonalds if they had better options. The pay and the prestige are hardly impressive.
It is a good job for students. 90% of them will never see fastfood again after the school. These 10% end working on better positions in fastfood chain. Fastfoods are considered as a good part time job but not a career. Nobody wants to have it as a fulltime job.
The French part seems rather as a joke. I know/speak French could mean I know french kissing - in czech ,Umim francouzsky, could be used as a double meaning joke:)
Petr
@ Petr... thanks for the insight... that would explain his co-worker's reaction. but eww, at the same time!
Post a Comment