101 applicants from 31 countries will learn the Czech language, history and culture at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno. They signed up for the Summer School of Slavic Studies, which started today with an introductory meeting. The course lasts four weeks. It ends with a test, the lecturers also evaluate speaking and pronunciation. Applicants will then receive a language certificate, summer school director Eva Rusínová told ČTK.
“We have noticed high interest from Canada, the USA, South Korea and Japan. We also have participants from Australia,” said Rusínová. Traditional people interested in Czech include people from neighboring countries, such as Germany or Poland. Slovaks have not yet registered any. “Young foreigners from 14 to 80 will participate,” she added.
Based on the initial test, the foreigners are divided into several groups, from beginners to moderately advanced to very advanced. After that, every weekday he attends morning teaching courses and afternoon professional lectures. On them, the lecturers will discuss, for example, Czech comics, dialects of the Czech language or the novels of Milan Kundera. They will also go on a journey through Brno’s pubs and their names. The additional program includes, for example, an excursion to the Javoříč Caves near Litovla in Olomouc.
According to Rusínová, the motivation of foreigners to learn Czech is the effort to understand Czech literature, for example the works of Kundera, Franz Kafka or Karel Čapek. “The reason is also musical icons such as Leoš Janáček or Antonín Dvořák. This year we have 12 students from Japan who, in my opinion, know our culture much better than the Czechs themselves,” said Rusínová. This is also confirmed by the German musician Leh-Qiao Liao, who will learn Czech as his first Slavic language. “I have already learned Italian in Rome. I am looking forward to getting to know Czech opera and Bohemia,” he described.
Czech roots or moving to Brno, where foreigners have family or work, are also an impetus for studying. According to Rusínová, for example, a lawyer or a priest participated in the courses.
According to Marcela Poučová, a teacher of intermediate levels, the biggest difficulties for people from abroad are inflection and tenses. Perfect and imperfect verbs are also a problem, said Poučová. Students are mainly afraid of speaking. “It is difficult for me. Everyone reassures me and motivates me to speak, but I know that I make mistakes,” said Polish Ewa Staniszewská.
Source: www.tyden.cz
