Give them a book and a course

The late-night store run by Vietnamese Nhung Thi Tayet is a shopping target for most people who live in the nearby streets of Dejvice. My roommates call his two handsome sons „beauties“. The Tayets speak a decent Czech and their sons have hardly any foreign accent. Our neighbour was the only one who disliked them for a while after the store owners kindly asked him to stop taking his wolfhound-sized dog inside the store during his morning shopping for fresh buns and newspapers. But he got over it soon. After all, the next nonstop store is two streets from here and the shop assistants there are much grumpier.

The Tayets learnt to speak Czech their own way, without any outside incentives or state requirements, while their sons acquired the command naturally at school. It is common for the first and second generations of immigrants everywhere in the world. But the conditions are expected to change for foreigners seeking permanent residency in the Czech Republic.

„A foreigner seeking permanent residency will have to pass a compulsory language test at the very basic level A1, which is not focused on grammar but rather on the foreigner's ability to handle a conversation at public offices, for instance,“ says Interior Minister Ivan Langer.„The foreigners will pay for about 140 classes.“

It sounds like a reasonable requirement which should not be a major obstacle for permanent…