Czech summer courses bond countrymen from all parts of the world

They know that they come from the Czech Republic. They used to or still hear Czech language from their parents or grandparents. They live abroad but they established local communities and follow Czech traditions and holidays. They also regularly attend the Czech language summer course in Dobruška na Rychnovsku to hone their Czech language skills.

Czech language courses for countrymen living abroad are held every year by the training centre of the Charles University. It’s a four-week long intensive study course that also offers cultural and social events and provides trips to interesting places in Czechia. Students experience Czech culture as well as nature.

The whole course costs 1 420 EUR, food and accommodation included. The Ministry of Education also offers a special scholarship for 60 students chosen by a committee, applicable once for each student. Most students come from the USA but you can also meet Czech descendants from Argentina, Russia, Greece, Croatia, the South African Republic and even Paraguay.

The age of participants varies as well. It’s not uncommon that teenage students sit next to pensioners in the classroom. Most students attend the course regularly for several years. This year the course was held for the 28^th time and because Czech is one of the hardest languages, it needs to be reviewed repeatedly.

“I came here to learn how to speak and also how to write properly because in the Serbian language, there aren’t any carons above characters. We have a simple alphabet. However, Czech contains carons, acute accents and also distinguishes soft I and hard Y in its grammar. We can’t understand that,” said a participant of the language course in Belé Crkvi for the server iDnes.cz.

Next year, however, students meet in Poděbrady. The training centre in Dobruška is closing down and many students are sad about it. For older teachers it means the end of their lecturing. “For me personally it’s as sad as letting your adult child leave home. I’m not going to move because it’s impossible in my old age so I’m really going to miss it,” confided Alena Obstová, the course founder, for the server iDnes.cz. Still, the change of location shouldn’t have any influence on the course quality.