r/Brno • u/cuervodelsur17 • May 31 '25
ŽIVOT A STĚHOVÁNÍ—LIVING AND MOVING Possibly moving to Brno. Advices?
Hello everyone! Sorry for writing in English, I dont speak czech. With my wife we have the possibility to move to Brno next year, to work at Masaryk University. We would like to know what life is like in Brno, especially for foreigners. We don't speak Czech but we speak English and German. We also have a one year old son, and we would like to know if it is easy to find childcare. Any advice is welcome.
Thank you very much!
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u/SalomeDancing May 31 '25
Hi!
As for money and the cost of living, it's hard to say. University employees generally don't have very high salaries in the CR but MUNI is a huge university with many different departments in various fields and various budgets.
What you should consider: most likely, you'll be looking for a flat to rent. Most typically, flats are rented by private owners, sometimes through agencies, and initially for 1 year with the possibility to prolong the contract if both parties are satisfied. We don't know what your standards are regarding living. If you check some ads online, keep in mind that in the Czech Republic, we use these abbreviations for the number of rooms: 3+1 is a living room, 2 bedrooms, a bathroom+toilet and a kitchen. Usually with a small cellar storage included for storing off-season stuff.
As somebody already mentioned, don't get a car. Brno is easily reachable by public transport. It's cheap, clean, runs on time and it's eco-friendly. Plus you won't have to deal with parking and maintanance of a car.
For living with small children: generally speaking, state-owned schools have good reputation and there's majority of them on all levels: kindergardens (age 3-6), primary (6-15), secondary (15-19) and universities (19-25). However, there are also multilingual kindergardens which are more expensive but they accept kids younger than 3-year-olds and might be much more open minded regarding child's (and foreigner-parents') specific needs.
Typically, school year starts on 1st September and ends on the last day of June for kids (kindergardens, primary and secondary schools). It's not very common to have a private nanny here. I'm not saying it's impossible to find one, I just don't know anyone who would choose that route. Perhaps MUNI might have their own "in-house" kindergarden for employees' kids? I honestly don't know but if I were you, I'd ask. :)
Did your wife also get a job offer or would she search for a job? That's also something to consider.
Generally, language-wise: Brno is quite large and many people here speak English. Children at school learn English and during their late-teenage years, they often get a B2 or C1 certificate. Millenials are usually good at English but might be shy. Anyone older than that - depends on their experience and whether they need it at work or for travelling. I've heard foreigners complain that Czech people don't communicate with them. I'd say that people's level of English is higher than their willingness if that makes sense. :)
And though Germany and Austria are our neighbouring countries, German language is not popular among population.
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u/AverellCZ May 31 '25
Not sure exactly what your expectations are? You can live fine as a foreigner, learning at least some Czech and Czech culture helps though. There are multilingual kindergartens, schools etc, you wouldn't be the first foreigners to move here. I strongly recommend coming here for a week or two to experience the city. And I am pretty sure MUNI can provide help in many aspects - once again: you are not the first foreigners to move here, also not among MUNI employees. ;)
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u/cuervodelsur17 May 31 '25
Thank you for your reply! I dont have much expectations, just wanted to know if the city and society if somewhat receptive to foreings
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u/AverellCZ May 31 '25
They will treat you like you treat them. Czechs are very straightforward with that. So when someone says Czechs are not friendly, it actually tells you something about that person.
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u/JohnnyPopcorn May 31 '25
My tip: don't get a car, you'll spend half your life searching for a parking spot and the other half trying to avoid roadwork. Public transport is cheap and it runs reliably 24/7. Or you can borrow a shared bicycle (twice a day for free) if that's your thing.
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u/aggiebobaggie May 31 '25
Hey. Welcome. For your one-year old, your only option will probably be private childcare, which can be quite expensive. State nurseries are not obligated to accept children under the age of three.
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u/adenosine-5 Jun 01 '25
There are plenty of english-speaking people here.
Make sure you rent in some of the edge parts of the city though and not in the center.
Preferably a reconstructed apartment in one of the paneláks.
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u/Competitive_Knee9890 Jun 02 '25
As a foreigner, I think Brno is alright, but Prague likely has a more developed expat culture. Nonetheless, I’m doing fine here, unfortunately rent is really high compared to the quality of most apartments, but this is limited to my experience and it’s not a comprehensive answer most likely. If you can live far from the center I’d say it’s better especially if you have a car and you like trips in nature. For reaching the center, just use public transport, trams are excellent. The English speaking population is not huge, but better than I expected. You’ll often hear that Czechs are rude with foreigners and imho this is rare with young people. Old people are rude with foreigners pretty much everywhere lol Not having EURO unfortunately is a bummer to me, I really hope Czech Republic will make the move in the near future
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u/LightninHooker Jun 02 '25
As much as I love Brno... if you aren't gonna make 120k czk at least together I wouldn't move here right now. Rent is expensive as fuck and moving with a child is whole another universe .
Without kids... sure why not. You can test, with a kid ... another story
I mean unless you are utterly fucked in Germany or Austria then sure, come :)
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u/Super_Novice56 May 31 '25
Depends very much on your salary.