LŠSS classes are taught by members of the Institute of Czech Studies along with the academic staff and PhD students from Charles University’s Faculty of Arts, and long-term partners of the CU FA Institute of Czech Studies who teach classes within the Czech Studies courses and courses for foreign students at CU FA.
Adamovičová Ana
PhDr. Ana Adamovičová, Ph.D., is a specialized lecturer at the Institute of Bohemian Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. She has also regularly taught Czech language, literature, and culture at the Tampere University in Finland. She is the author of many textbooks of Czech for foreigners. She has participated in multiple projects and focuses on linguistic and didactic aspects of teaching Czech as a foreign language, as well as research of spoken Czech, especially the use of particles in spoken language. She has been teaching at the Summer School of Slavonic Studies (LŠSS) regularly and with great enthusiasm since 1991!
Bischofová Jana
Long-time employee of the Institute of Bohemian Studies at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts, currently an external collaborator of the Czech Studies program. She has extensive experience teaching individual and group lessons for various levels of proficiency. She specializes in the utilization of sociocultural aspects and authentic texts in language education. She has experience in teaching Czech at foreign universities (e.g. in the USA, the Republic of Korea, Finland, etc.). She is the author and co-author of several Czech for foreigners textbooks.
Boumová Eliška
I have graduated in Czech Language and Literature, History, and Teaching Czech as a Foreign Language at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. I have focused on the topic of Czech culture and history and on editorial work. I have been teaching Czech for foreigners since 2016 in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts, Charles University (Erasmus, Czech Studies, Summer School of Slavonic Studies, courses for the public), as well as private language schools. I currently work at the Memorial of National Literature / Museum of Literature as the secretary for The Most Beautiful Czech Books of the Year competition and also collaborate on other cultural events organized by the institution.
I enjoy the atmosphere of the Summer School – students from all over the world come together to explore one culture while sharing their own. I love meeting interesting people and the opportunity to contribute to mutual understanding through the Czech language. It’s a rewarding experience.
My hobbies include dancing, languages, reading, gardening, cooking, and going on trips.
Bučková Aneta
Aneta Bučková studied linguistics of Germanic languages at Freie Universität in Berlin, teaching Czech as a foreign language at Charles University, and drama in education at The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU). In 2023, she defended her doctoral thesis on Czech-German language contact at University of Regensburg. Under the Programme for the Support of Czech Cultural Heritage Abroad, she teaches Czech language and literature in Thuringia. She focuses on multilingualism and applying drama techniques in teaching Czech.
Bučková Tamara
Tamara Bučková studied Czech and German Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, and completed her doctorate programme at the Faculty of Education, Charles University. She currently teaches at the Department of Germanic Studies at the Faculty of Education, Charles University, and gives lectures on drama pedagogy at the University of Cologne. She specializes in literature for children and youth, media adaptation of literature, didactics of literature, and drama pedagogy. Since January 2022, she has been a student of Drama in Education at DAMU in Prague. Her academic work is published in German and Czech.
Červeňáková Hana
She became a teacher of Czech as a foreign language six years ago by chance. She is very happy she did, because it is a profession and field of study that fulfills her and she learns something new every day.
The Summer School of Slavonic Studies (LŠSS) is a dream come true for her because it’s like a camp in the center of Prague, and she enjoys every moment with the students, whether it’s teaching, evenings with tastings, or trips into nature.
She spends her free time with her dog, traveling, creating photo albums, playing board games or volleyball.
Jiří Hasil
Jiří Hasil has taught Czech to native and non-native speakers alike for a long time. He is interested in language didactics, particularly in the relationship between culture, history, and language. His other interests include history, especially the 19th and 20th centuries, Czech morphology, and language cultivation theory. His first experience with LŠSS came in its 22nd year in 1978 when he worked there as a community interpreter. Since then, he has held several positions at LŠSS (director in 2009–2016). He likes to spend time in his home in the country near Prague and only very reluctantly leaves its peaceful environment. He never leaves his house without his ID, driver’s license, and house keys. He loves history, historical monuments, music, theatre, and especially opera. He loves his family, too. The older he gets, the more morose he is and the more he loves his granddaughter.
Hejlová Hana
We will meet at the summer school in the classroom for beginners, in the kitchen while cooking Czech specialties, at the game workshop at Kajetánka, and on trips. I’m really looking forward to it! I teach Czech for foreigners throughout the year, as well as English for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, and I also lead movement classes. Work is my hobby, and hobbies are also somewhat my work. I enjoy going to the ballet and lounging (preferably on a beach chair by the sea) and reading whatever comes my way.
Höppner Ruben
Ruben Höppner is a former student of the LŠSS and a research assistant at the University of Postdam. He studied in Berlin and Prague. His work focuses on Czech hip hop and subcultures and he is currently writing his doctoral thesis on the representation of Roma in Czech rap.
Hrdlička Milan
Doc. PhDr. Milan Hrdlička, CSc., a Czech scholar and lingual didactician, specializes in linguistic Czech studies, particularly in the morphology of contemporary Czech, as well as issues related to the description and presentation of Czech to non-native speakers and the theory of literary translation. He has lectured and taught at numerous domestic and foreign universities, with long-term engagements at the Université libre de Bruxelles in Brussels and the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. He is affiliated with the Institute of Bohemian Studies at Charles University in Prague and the Department of Czech Language and Literature at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. He is the author of a number of studies, monographs, and Czech for foreigners textbooks, and he also engages in literary activities (Riita 2020, Ozvěny z hlubin času 2021).
Hudousková Andrea
Languages have fascinated her since childhood. Later, she began to take on a theoretical interest in them and teach them in practice. As a linguist and teacher of Czech as a foreign language, she has been doing so for more than twenty years now. She has taught at several summer schools, which attract her with their friendly atmosphere and unique students. From her, you can expect not only grammar but above all sincere enthusiasm for all the questions that do not always have a satisfying answer. She loves nature, culture, and people. She herself doesn’t know which of these she loves more, so she constantly moves between Prague and the countryside. She never leaves home without a backpack, she is optimistic, enthusiastic, and completely imperfect.
Huleja Jan
As a child, he wanted to become a garbage collector or a conductor. At the age of ten, he discovered his desire to work for National Geographic and move to the Paraná River basin. At fifteen, he spent all his time playing football, and at twenty, he immersed himself in books and wanted to be a poet.
Then, for fifteen years, he spent his time in academic circles. He studied Czech language, history, and aesthetics, and later conducted research and taught.
He has been actively involved in teaching Czech as a foreign language for a long time, and he greatly enjoys working with people from all over the world, which is why he looks forward to the Summer School every year!
Whenever he can, he enjoys hiking in the mountains, traveling to the Balkans, and visiting stadiums. He knows where to go for a beer. He never leaves without something to read. He is sincere, liberal, and curious.
Christou Anna
Mgr. Anna Christou, Ph.D., works in the Department of Lexicology at the Czech Language Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, and is involved in the preparation of the Academic Dictionary of Contemporary Czech. At the same time, she has been devoted to teaching Czech as a foreign language for several years, leading courses at various proficiency levels, and serving as an examiner for language exams. Currently, she teaches Czech courses for international academic staff at the Department of Language Studies of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Kalenská Petra
Mgr. Petra Kalenská, Ph.D. LL.M., completed her master’s and doctoral programmes at Charles University, studying law, and the programme of international human rights law at Lund University (Sweden). She teaches courses at the Charles University’s Faculty of Education, Faculty of Arts, and occasionally at the Faculty of Law. Her professional focus extends not only to the areas of law, human rights, discrimination, environmental law, and gender equality, but also to Czech literature and its interpretation from a feminist perspective.
Kenderová Karolína
During her studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, she alternated between teaching Czech as a foreign language and French for a long time, until she realized that she saw herself more in front of a chalkboard than behind a microphone in the European Parliament. However, her desire to travel never left her, so she anchored herself at a university in Poland for three years, where she gained new friendships, a love for industrial architecture, and a Slovak husband.
She initially attended the LŠSS as an interpreter, then as a language teacher, and eventually as a coordinator of the teaching team. This year, she is looking forward to teaching in the mornings and sleeping in the afternoons. She never goes out without a coffee cup, books, and various teaching aids. She is cheerful, calm, and diplomatic.
Kessler Vojtěch
PhDr. Vojtěch Kessler, Ph.D., studied history at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, and currently works as a researcher at the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Department of the 19th Century). He completed internships at the Department of Economic and Social History of the University of Vienna. His research interests include the history of everyday life, collective identities, and memory studies in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. He is the author of several monographs and editions, a member of the Society for Military History Research, and the curator of the The Database of the History of the Everyday.
Krejčík Přemysl
Mgr. Přemysl Krejčík, Ph.D., has written several poetry collections and novels in which he explores, among other themes, the possibilities of language and slang. His novel set in the rap scene, Malej NY, was nominated for the Jiří Orten Award, and his most recent published book is the novel Srab. He has received several domestic and international artistic grants, including in Krakow, Poland, and Worpswede, Germany. He has presented his texts multiple times before international audiences, in Krakow and Melbourne. From 2015 to 2021, he served as the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Partonyma. He is also involved in book editing and has been featured in various anthologies.
Kocjančič Antolík Tanja
Tanja Kocjančič Antolík is a researcher at the Institute of Phonetics at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. She is mostly interested in speech production, especially acoustic and articulation speech characteristics in foreign languages and speech disorders. Her other interests include research into the usage of ultrasound imaging to help teach correct pronunciation in foreign languages and to fix pronunciation in speech disorders in children and adults.
Kodadová Ludmila
I always said I didn’t want to be a teacher. When I graduated a few years later in Czech and German language and literature, I started teaching. I found it to be an incredibly fulfilling and creative job. I have been teaching adults and children for several years. When teaching languages, I enjoy inventing all kinds of activities to help students learn more complex grammar.
I taught my first summer school class seven years ago. I fell in love with its vibe. There is nothing more pleasant than walking into a classroom full of smiling students every morning. In my few years at the summer school, I have met many inspiring people, made several friends and learnt about the culture of other countries.
I am currently fully engaged in the ups and downs of parenting and look forward to meeting you at the linguistics workshops this year.
Kunová Kateřina
Since 2011, when she started teaching Czech as a foreign language, she has experienced many moments of euphoria, drank hectolitres of coffee, created many worksheets, and woken up sweating from a dream in which she was explaining a grammatical rule. In recent years, she has also been working on Czech culture seminars.
She likes to make collages, travel, and read about books she would like to read. She never leaves her apartment without making sure she has closed the skylights. She is communicative, curious and creative.
Lacina Štěpán
I grew up in Jaroměř.
I’m moving to Pelhřimov.
I have two children.
I teach at Gymnázium Evolution in Prague.
I enjoy beer, books, sports, and theater. I like cooking and hiking.
I perform at the Orfeus Theater in Smíchov.
I dislike shallowness, bureaucratic interactions, and creating profiles.
Ludwicki Antoni
He started his summer school adventure as an interpreter, with an emphasis on assistant and staff member duties. Last year he made his debut as a teacher. At the Faculty of Arts, he teaches not only the beautiful standard Czech, but also the commonly spoken language that interests him the most. Rather than in the library, you’ll find him in pubs or in Prague’s Žižkov district, where he says there’s a gate to another dimension, and his favorite bakery and market. He also spends a lot of time at the Riegrovy Sady Park (colloquially Riegráče).He always carries a notebook for overheard colloquial expressions and can’t imagine a morning without coffee. Passionate grower of various houseplants and exotic plants, queer, feminist.
Malečková Kateřina
She studied teaching Czech and French at Masaryk University in Brno (2003) and didactics of French as a foreign language at Aix-Marseille University (2020). Since 2011, she has been working as a Czech language and culture lecturer abroad (Lycée Daudet in Nîmes, Université Paris-Sorbonne, Czech and Slovak School of Sydney, Aix-Marseille University). In 2017/2018, she also taught in Prague (ÚJOP, Meta). She is interested in the education of bilingual students and leads methodological seminars for teachers for the association Česká škola bez hranic (Czech School Without Borders) and participates in the creation of language olympics. She always looks forward to inspiring meetings with LŠSS students and mutual language and cultural enrichment.
Náměstníková Světlana
She graduated in Teaching Czech Language to Foreigners at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. She has been teaching Czech as a foreign language since 2007. She has worked as a lecturer in programs such as Czech Studies, Institute of Czech Studies (ÚBS) for Ukraine, and LŠSS 2022. She is confident that regular attendance and completing homework assignments are the guarantee of students’ progress.
Pastoukhovitch Elena
For over 20 years, she has been teaching Czech to foreigners, both here and abroad. And she still considers this profession to be her favorite hobby. She can explain even the trickiest grammatical phenomena in a simple way. She opens students’ eyes to language being a living organism that is constantly evolving, which every individual can cultivate for themselves, like a flower in their own garden.
She constantly develops her teaching methods. In her work as a lecturer, she combines the best traditions of Eastern and Western schools.
She never leaves home without a good mood and without bidding farewell to her bilingual dog. She is positive, empathetic, and friendly.
Pešička Jiří
After grammar school, I graduated in English and German at the Charles Unviersity’s Faculty of Arts. I’ve been teaching since 1978 — first 8 years at a business secondary school, and then, after 1989, I’ve been teaching (now as an external teacher) at the Institute of Czech Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University. I’ve led many practical seminars there over the years. Altogether, I’ve spent 6 years teaching Czech as a foreign language abroad, at universities in Berlin, Frankfurt and Yongin (South Korea). I also spent some years as a member of a small team creating A Frequency Dictionary of Czech (published in 2007). For over 30 years, I’ve been teaching at the Summer School of Slavonic Studies. I enjoy history and music, which I also try to make.
Poledníková Marie
I can’t imagine summer without the summer school. I can’t imagine life without chalk, a blackboard, a computer with presentations, and without students. I enjoy playing with language, grammar, and literature. I’m just a normal Polednice.
At the summer school, I prefer “mixed” groups – we discuss life, art, sports, or cooking, we play language and tabletop games…
I like to relax by working in a large garden in Beroun. I take pleasure in speaking foreign languages that I have learned at some point in my life, especially French. I enjoy going to the theater, not only opera.
I never leave home without headphones, I have discovered the magic of audiobooks. I am hardworking, reliable… and people say I’m funny.
Popperová Nikola
I am currently studying for a Master’s degree in Teaching Czech as a Second Language, but I have been teaching foreigners for several years. I teach at The Institute for Language and Preparatory Studies at Charles University and I work as an examiner for language exams. I find teaching foreigners very fulfilling and I am excited about meeting new people, cultures and languages. With my colleagues, I am working on a “first aid Czech manual” for Thai speakers.
I like to spend my spare time in nature or baking desserts (especially cakes), listening to music, and exploring the beauty of other languages.
I dare say that I am a very patient and cheerful person. I am very much looking forward to new experiences at LŠSS.
Slowik Miroslav
Mgr. Miroslav Slowik, Ph.D., is a linguist focusing on Spanish and Czech studies. He works in the didactics workshop (Didaktická dílna) at the faculty of education in Liberec. He’s interested in new teaching methods, learning approaches and strategies. He researches polite speech as a pragmalinguistic system which forms the culture and idiosyncrasy in communities defined by language. He loves Czech.
Starý Kořánová Ilona
I’ve been working at the Faculty of Arts’ Institute of Czech Studies for over 20 years, and even longer at the summer school. I’m still friends with some of my LŠSS students. I like to use humor in teaching and I create teaching materials, such as Česká čítanka, for that purpose. My field is cognitive linguistics, language didactics of Czech as a foreign language, semantics (that’s why I’ve been researching grammatical aspect of verbs, which is semantically fascinating), and corpus linguistics. I don’t believe linguistics can get by without corpus data nowadays. Apart from the Charles University’s Faculty of Arts, I’ve also taught abroad: in Sheffield, Los Angeles, Tampere, Tokyo, Ghent, Santiago de Compostela, and Leipzig. I try to help my students develop not only academic knowledge, but also their talent for drama, music and art in a drama seminar I’ve been leading at the institute for a long time.
Škodová Svatava
Mgr. Svatava Škodová, Ph.D., works at the Institute of Czech Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, and also at the Department of Czech Language and Literature at the Technical University of Liberec. She received her PhD in philology at the Institute of Czech Language and Theory of Communication (ÚČJTK) at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University (Pseudo-coordination in the syntax of contemporary Czech). In her research and teaching practice, she focuses on Czech grammar from the viewpoint of Czech as either a foreign or first language. She participated in creating many Czech learning materials for foreigners. She also took part in creating the Czech learner corpus CzeSL and the phonetic app ProCzeFor. Furthermore, she participated in making Czech Radio programs available with automatic transcription in parallel with the audio as part of cultural heritage preservation projects. She is interested in anything related to non-native speakers’ Czech, but also in other linguistic deviations.Further details at: https://ubs.ff.cuni.cz/cs/o-katedre/vyucujici/mgr-svatava-skodova-ph-d/
Vališová Pavlína
She has been teaching Czech to foreigners for sixteen years and still enjoys it. Currently, she is discovering the countless possibilities of the online world and finding numerous advantages for language teaching there. She has always strived to bring authentic language into her teaching, which she seeks out in linguistic corpora, among other sources. The summer school has thrilled her with its fantastic summer atmosphere and the opportunity to meet students from all over the world in one place.
Veroňková Jitka
Jitka Veroňková works at the Institute of Phonetics, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, in Prague. Her research focuses on the sound structure of language and speech (with a focus on Czech). She teaches courses at the Phonetics and Czech for Foreigners programmes. Her research interests include Czech prosody and the sound structure of Czech spoken by foreigners, and she also focuses on the culture of spoken language. She is responsible for the phonetics module at the Summer School of Slavonic Studies and for the Czech Studies programme at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. She co-develops teaching materials for the Czech for Foreigners courses and is the head of the ProCzeFor (Pronunciation of Czech for Foreigners) project.
Vinš Ondřej
My name is Ondřej Vinš, I’m working on a PhD in Czech literature and I teach written Czech for the Deaf. I’m interested in humor from various angles, for example what it says about our world view or how it reflects our historical experience. I taught foreigners for two years, so I also like to learn about the humor of other nations, cultures, and ethnicities.
Vojvodić Sonja
I graduated in Czech Language and Music Pedagogy from the University of Zagreb (2019). During my studies, I completed two Erasmus exchange semesters at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, and attended two Summer Schools of Slavonic Studies (Brno, České Budějovice). Since 2019, I have been actively involved in teaching Czech as a foreign language at various proficiency levels. Since 2021, I have been teaching at Czech Studies (Faculty of Arts, Charles University) and at the Institute for Language and Preparatory Studies (Charles University).
I have a strong interest in pedagogy, language structure, and intonation. I bring joy to the classroom.
Vondráčková Pavlína
She gained her first experience in teaching Czech to foreigners at the Institute for Language and Preparatory Studies of Charles University’s branch in Liberec. Her desire to travel and gain work experience took her all the way to China, where she worked at the Shanghai International Studies University. She has grown fond of Asia and she enjoys returning there. She focuses on the methodology of teaching Czech to Asian students in her dissertation. At the summer school, she primarily teaches beginners using a playful and entertaining approach to make students fall in love with the Czech language. She never leaves home without a good mood. She is friendly, empathetic, and creative.
Vučka Tomáš
Tomáš Vučka is a literary historian who – when not immersed in books – likes to wander around Prague, especially through the labyrinth of the Old Town streets, where he meets The Golem of Prague, Franz Kafka, Rabbi Loew, Geza Včelička or The Headless Templar.
Zasina Adrian
Joining his passion for linguistic corpora with foreign languages, he now uses corpus methods in teaching. Whether as a Slavist, Bohemist, Polonist, or badminton player, he is always 100% enthusiastic about any activity and surpasses many of us with his perseverance and tenacity. As a former participant of the Summer School of Slavonic Studies (LŠSS), which was the greatest adventure and an opportunity for him to establish many international friendships, he will surely convince you soon that the summer school is the beginning of every friendship. The first letters of the first, third, and final sentences conceal his middle name.
Never out of the house without his phone, he is cheerful, sociable, and diligent.