Intensive summer course

[Michael Trittipo]

On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 12:26 AM, Katia McClain <kmcclain at gss.ucsb.edu> wrote:
> I have a colleague who is interested in doing a summer intensive language
> course in Central or Eastern Europe. . . .  She is looking for a
> language program in a city that is interesting and also super affordable.
> She is just doing this for her own enlightenment (and fun) and is flexible
> as to location and language. (She doesn't mind a program that is primarily
> for undergraduate students, as long as they take non-students too.

I'm not sure where the line is between "very affordable" and "super
affordable," but she might enjoy learning Czech in either Brno or
Olomouc. Each location offers a four-week "summer school of slavonic
studies," primarily Czech courses at all levels.

Here's a link to the Brno summer school:
http://www.phil.muni.cz/kabcest/en/summer-school.php
And here's one to the Olomouc program: http://lsss.upol.cz/en/index-en.html

Either Brno or Olomouc will be more reasonably priced than Prague, and
each is an interesting city.  I went to the Olomouc one in 2000, and
to Brno in 2007, and each program included non-students and
non-specialists.  In Olomouc, for example, there was a retired British
barrister and a retired high school teacher from Japan; in Brno, there
was a professor who teaches Polish language and literature in the
U.S., and a French diplomat maybe six or seven years into his career
out of college.  And -- old Marx brothers jokes notwithstanding --
they each accepted me, although I have no current academic
affiliations and haven§t taken a grad course for credit since 1981.

Olomouc would likely provide the more intimate environment of the two,
being a smaller program in a smaller (and cheaper) town (about 100k
vs. 400-600k).  The Brno students were notably more into partying the
summer I was there.

One thing making each more affordable is that each includes board (in
Brno, breakfast and lunch in a college canteen; in Olomouc, in the
form of meal tickets good for lunch and dinner in about half a dozen
local restaurants) and accommodation (albeit in shared student dorms
-- although in each, one can pay extra to not have a dorm-mate).

There is a similar program in České Budějovice, which I might consider
next summer as it is only three weeks long ( info here:
http://www.ff.jcu.cz/studium/lsss/the-summer-school-of-slavonic-studies
), as well as the one in Prague.

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