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Jindřich Foltas: "I had never encountered such commitment in teaching as Mrs. Malá demonstrated."

Teaching Czech is a common activity for secondary school teachers, but how do they cope with the new position of a teacher of Czech as a foreign language? Jindřich Foltas takes care of pupils with a different mother tongue at Bílovec Secondary School and for a long time he was looking for a course that would help him answer his questions. He found the right one at the Institute of Language and Preparatory Studies.  

Jindřich FoltaJindřich had never expected that as a Czech teacher he would teach Czech to foreigners, but the war in Ukraine and the growing number of pupils with different mother tongues in his school changed everything. An almost unused dormitory near the school was turned into a hostel for Ukrainian refugees, and the teachers first started helping the war victims by teaching them basic Czech phrases in the evenings. As the number of Ukrainian students in the classes gradually increased, the teachers went above and beyond the call of duty to teach Czech to the foreign secondary school students. 

Jindřich, a Czech teacher by education, found out during his preparation for the lessons that the view of Czech through the eyes of a foreigner was completely different and that he had to change his current approach to teaching the subject. "I needed to find out how to proceed, how to teach best, but I couldn't find a course with the necessary scope and content anywhere in the area.

At Charles University I had previously expanded my pedagogical education in history, pedagogy of special needs and social sciences, so I eventually headed back to Prague," says the Czech teacher. Jindřich finds great support for his efforts in the headmaster of his secondary school, who agreed to adjust his schedule so that he could attend the Two-Semester Methodology Course for Teaching Czech as a Foreign Language (ZKUČ) once every two weeks.

What was the most inspiring thing about the course for Jindřich? Signal grammar presented by Barbora Štindlová, but as he told us, he liked all the lectures related to grammar, and the practically oriented lecture by Martin Prošek, director of the Institute of the Institute of the Czech Language of the Czech Academy of Sciences, was also excellent.  

"You are all so energetic here that even if one wanted to doze off, it would be impossible. I had never in my life encountered such commitment as Mrs. Malá showed."

Jindřich Foltas

According to Jindřich, the most inspiring aspect of the course is the fact that it brings together Czech teachers, experienced teachers of Czech as a foreign language and inexperienced volunteers. However, thanks to the concept of a balanced proportion of theoretical and practical teaching, everyone gets a chance to speak and everyone leaves with their share of inspiration and new knowledge. "You are all so energetic here that even if one wanted to doze off, it would be impossible. I had never in my life encountered such commitment as Mrs. Malá showed," said Jindřich, summing up his impressions of the lessons.