Ninety Students of Czech studies from 36 countries are headed for the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. They will undergo an intensive study programme of Czech and get acquainted with Czech culture and history.
The Institute of Czech Studies at CU FA organizes from 24 July to 20 August 2021 a traditional educational event popular among foreign Czech linguists that offer for its participants 120 hours of teaching Czech, regular phonetical consultations and workshops. The students will see the national cultural monuments and may choose from the offered lectures from literary history, economic history to media theory. They will be under the supervision of local academic experts and prominent people of the Czech cultural life.
“The last pandemic year was not in favour of the summer school organization which, unfortunately, did not happen. This year, we have designed a more modest and as safe as possible summer school season. We are constantly monitoring the development of the epidemic situation. But we still hope that the foreign students take home from Prague what they usually do: significantly better language proficiency, though, mainly beautiful memories of places where they would not set foot as tourists but also new friends. From the fellow Czech linguists from abroad, we know that four weeks in Prague bind the students to the studies – and, therefore, to this country – bind as few things do,” Svatava Škodová, the head of the Summer School of Slavonic Studies, says.
“The summer school has in this matter almost a diplomatic function. Besides showing students what is marvellous about Czech culture and cannot be overlooked, we present to them the current topics of the Czech society. There are different interpretations of national identity and present-day political issues, we also discuss the state of the Czech media landscapes and compare them to other countries. During the lectures and informal gatherings, we ask students to give it some thought with us,” Svatava Škodová says. “We believe that similar sharing is the basis of the feeling that ‘our’ culture’ is also ‘their,’” she concludes.
The Summer School of Slavonic Studies officially welcomes the students on Saturday, 24 July 2021 at 1 pm in the Great Hall at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, in nám. Jana Palacha in Prague. The programme is commenced by the Dean of CU FA, Michal Pullmann.
If you have any question regarding the event, please, contact the Spokesperson of CU FA, Zuzana Válková: zuzana.valkova@ff.cuni.cz, +420 737 457 672.
