40 Years of Czech at the University of Sheffield

On the 10th and 11th October 2014 The University of Sheffield celebrated its 40th anniversary of teaching Czech as a foreign language. The department marked the occasion by inviting current students and alumni to come and share their experiences of studying Czech, as well as a talk given by distinguished guest HE Michael Žantovský, the current Czech ambassador to the UK.

It’s pretty obvious but if Sheffield hadn’t offered Czech, and if I hadn’t been persuaded with Becherovka to study it by one of the department’s inspiring teachers, there’s no way I would have ended up learning to speak the language and developed an interest in the country’s culture. So like so many others, I owe a lot to the Czech department at Sheffield and was delighted to be invited to celebrate their 40th birthday.

The celebrations were essentially split into two parts. On the Friday afternoon, the Czech ambassador gave a talk to those who had already made the journey up to Sheffield, as well as to current students and member of the thriving Czech and Slovak Society of Sheffield.

I was unfortunately unable to attend the talk as I was at work, however I am reliably informed that the ambassador shared his thoughts on the last 30 years of Czech history, with particular focus on the separation of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic’s place as an independent nation in a modern Europe.

The second day was dedicated to the anecdotes and memories of former and currents staff and students of Czech at Sheffield. Professor Neil Bermel gave an interesting overview of how the teaching of Czech had evolved over the 40 years.

I had no idea that for much of this time, Czech was taught by Slovaks sent from the Comenius Institute in Bratislava. How strange it must have been for those young Slovak teachers to be sent abroad to teach a language that wasn’t even their own!

One of my favourite speakers was Dr Rajendra Chitnis from Bristol University. He assured a long standing inkling of mine that nobody, it seems, sets out with the intention of studying Czech, but rather winds up studying due a to strange twist of fate, leaving them incapable of answering the most commonest of questions: Why did you study Czech?!

Personally it was great to catch with a few friends whom I’d not seen for a while and after the anecdotes we headed to the Old Queen’s Head, a pub in Sheffield which has started serving Czech cuisine. The food that was put on was delicious and we had a great time chatting about our time studying at Sheffield.

Sheffield is one of only a handful of universities in the country which offer Czech as part of an undergraduate degree. It is testament to the hard work and enthusiasm of the staff there that the department has lasted for such a long time.

I am very grateful for the trips, projects, film nights and many other things organised by the department, often in conjunction with the Czech and Slovak Society of Sheffield. I hope that the department goes from strength to strength, and when they start a Czech Masters program, I’ll be first to apply!

For the official account of Sheffield’s 40 years of Czech celebration, see the article on the university website.

Utz- Bruce Chadwin

Time for my second book review and I can honestly say Utz by Sheffield born author Bruce Chatwin is like no other book I have ever read.

On the surface this novella seems like the perfect match for me, combing my two favourite cities: Sheffield and Prague. In that respect it didn't disappoint. After an unsure start I was soon taken in by Chatwin's unusual prose, ultra short chapters and larger than life characters. In only 127 pages Chatwin manages to tell the intriguing and captivating story of a porcelain dealer desperately trying to hold on to his wondrous collection despite the perils of Soviet Czechoslovakia.

The story is told through a first person narrative, who recounts episodes of Utz's life and how he came about possessing such a valuable and impressive porcelain collection. However, in keeping with the novella's unusual tone, our narrator seems to become somewhat hazy of the details of the story and begins to fill in bits with guesses, for example,

"Did he have a moustache? I forget. Add a moustache, subtract a moustache: Nothing would alter his utterly nondescript appearance"

The novella not only tells of Utz and his obsession with porcelain, but also of his slightly reluctant, semi-romantic relationship with his maid Marta, the only person who seems to truly to love him. Marta is a typically bizarre character, who, according to the book, once fell in love with a goose.

"[Marta] was thought to be simple: especially when she fell in love with a gander...Some morning, at first light when no one was about, she would swim with her lover in the lake, and allow him to nibble her long fair hair."

In the end it turns out that there is a bit more to both and Marta and Utz than meets or the eye (or indeed, the narrator can remember) and the ending is bittersweet and somewhat lacking in resolution. For me the joy in this short book is the vivid picture painted of Prague during Soviet time, eccentricities, troubles and all. Chatwin's characters are bright, real and, at times, Dickensian in their quirkiness, making Utz a delightful short read.