Czech for foreigners

What I offer

I enjoy in-class teaching for small groups at the language school. But I also offer private lessons, online (using Google Meet) or in person, in Prague. I can draw on my experience with different texts and on my various hobbies and interests to make the lessons relevant and entertaining to help students truly understand the Czech language and culture.

Why and how I teach

I first taught Czech for foreigners for a few years when I started university (studying English literature) – it was fun being able to explain some things to different people in their own language (I speak English, German, French, Russian, and later I added some Irish and a little Japanese and Chinese). I have since then spent most of my professional life as a translator, focusing on literature for adults, children, some economic and later also legal translation, books on psychology and pedagogy, film subtitling etc.

When a returned to teaching, I studied a two-semester course for teachers of Czech as a foreign language at the Charles University to learn about current methodology and started teaching at a language school. I have since come to learn that teaching involves much more than just explaining and practising a language. People have varied needs depending on their language background, but also age, sensory abilities, temperament, various life situations etc. and their colourful life stories often call for attentive individual approach, which is informed by the fact that I am also a translator and a qigong instructor.

While I know that it is often desirable to reduce any intermediary language to a minimum and teach Czech only through Czech, my experience is that many students appreciate the availability of detailed explanation through English, and it is sometimes helpful to point out equivalents in the languages they speak to understand specific grammar or vocabulary issues.

I make sure that students learn to speak about things they are interested in and want to be able to express and that they gain insight into how the Czech language works.

If you are interested in Czech lessons (or need translation or interpreting when dealing with Czech authorities, for example), you can contact me through Whatsapp, call, or send an e-mail:

(+420) 605564509

kopicova@gmail.com