When I talk to family members and friends from back in America, I often get the question, “So do you really go to school there?”, or “What are you learning/ studying”. Well let me just set the record straight, I do actually attend classes while studying abroad haha, things are just structured a little bit differently. One of the main goals of the study abroad program is for us as students to have the opportunity to travel and gain experience interacting with people from different cultures. For this reason our classes are scheduled to allow us to interact with our home community of Olomouc Czech Republic and to also do personal traveling around Europe.
We go to classes from 15:00-18:00 Monday- Thursday and 9:45-13:00 on Friday. Our early classes on Friday allow us to catch a train, plane, or bus in the afternoon to begin our weekend travels. Our classes during the week are scheduled as such to allow us to explore and experience Olomouc by eating at local restaurants and sitting at adorable coffee shops planning trips and doing homework/blogging (by the amount of blogs I have posted, I bet you can guess what I actually spend most of my time doing).
Besides the scheduling of our classes the structure is much different than my classes back at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. All Nebraska students that are on this study abroad trip attend the same classes. The classes are taught by professors from Palacký University Olomouc history department and other guest lecturers who are experts in their fields. Our program focuses on European History and the Czech Language. The hardest part about the structure of the classes is that the professors are basically guest lecturers that we see anywhere from 1-5 times throughout the semester. So some lessons are done in one class period of 90 minutes and some professors will continue a common theme throughout their several lectures that are spread out throughout the semester. Basically, these professors are condensing a semester long class into a 90 minute lecture. So sometimes it can be a little bit challenging to switch back and forth between so many different professors and topics, but flexibility is the name of the game. The positive side of the set up of our classes is that we as a group get to learn from experts in the field that have intense passion for subjects such as economics, religion, politics, history, and education.
We have two professors that are sponsors for the program, so our group gets to learn from them during class but then also on our class field trips! Jan and Martin are our sponsors and they are just amazing. We have so much fun with our group while also connecting what we learn in class to the historical landmarks that we visit while on field-trips. Equally as much, it is amazing and so much fun to have the ability to learn about historical sights in class but then also be able to visit the place where the history took place. To put my fingers into the holes that the bullets left in the buildings and to feel the ominous feeling surrounding me when entering places were massacre occurred. To walk the streets of cities and stumble upon stolpersteine stones still gives me chills as it puts into perspective the magnitude of the impact that the holocaust made in Europe. (A stolpersteine is a small memorial placed in front of the houses of murdered Jews who lost their lives in the Holocaust. I talk more about these stones in my previous Amsterdam blog.)
The classes are very lecture based and in most lectures there is minimal interaction between the professor and students, which I think is one large difference from my classes back home in Kearney compared to here in Olomouc. However, my favorite part about our classes in the Czech Republic, as I mentioned just a second ago, are the opportunities that our group gets to actually visit the places that we learn about during class. Not to mention that we also get to learn from professors who have lived during the time of the historic moments we discuss and have participated in the revolutions that evoked change in the Czech Republic. Hearing stories of their personal experiences versus reading about an event from a textbook makes the history feel so recent and vibrant in emotion.
One class that is structured a little differently is our Czech Language class! Our professor, Pavla Poláchová, does an amazing job of keeping us on our toes during class by popping out random questions or phrases in Czech that we must then respond to. The Czech language is very difficult and frustrating at times (most of the time) but Pavla does such a great job of encouraging us and laughing with us when someone really butchers a word or phrase. We have learned basic conversations such as asking someone how they are, where they are from, and what they do for an occupation. We also have learned how to order at a restaurant as well as the proper pronunciations of traditional Czech dishes. We know general foods, numbers, how to give our email and telephone number to someone, and several other things. If you want to learn some basic Czech just “CZECH” out the phrases I have added below. ;)
- Dobrý Den = Good Day
- Na Schledanou = Goodbye
- Jak se máte? = How are you?
- Vybornĕ = Excellent
- Ano = Yes
- Ne = No
- Prosím = You’re Welcome
We are graded in an untraditional way as we do not have any quizzes or test throughout the semester. Instead we are required to keep blogs recording our experiences and how the culture of different countries affect our thoughts and feelings. We will take a final exam on our Czech Language course, which the whole group is a little scared for! Haha Lastly, we will have to write two separate essay papers discussing either religion, politics. economics, history, or social/educational. These papers are used to see the connections that we as students have made between all the lectures that we have had over the semester!
I hope that this blog helped to answer some questions about what I really am doing over here going to “school”. If you want to know more about any topic that I spoke on or have any additional questions I would love to hear from you! Just click on the chat box at the bottom of the screen!
Blessings,
Annalise