Student of Czech offers useful tips to learners
It's time again to take a break from new vocabulary and listen to someone who decided to study Czech at university and has a few useful tips for learners of the language. Karl Anderson comes from Sweden. Recently he took a bike trip from Stockholm to Budapest and stopped in Prague for a few days, the city, as he says, which had become his second home. I first asked Karl what had made him take up Czech.
"When I was 22 years old, I started to study Czech in Stockholm. Well, it was just an impulse actually. I had done my first Inter-Rail through Europe the summer before and when I came to Prague I just loved it and I also loved the language, so when I came back to Stockholm I just knew I wanted to study Czech."
How did Karl's studies develop after he enrolled at university?
"The first two semesters in Stockholm were very hard because you had to learn all the grammar and especially the cases which is really hard since you have 7 of them. And I must say that after that year I studied one more year in Prague and that was when I really learnt Czech. But I think I had to have this ground, this base, that I learnt in Stockholm to be able to speak in Czech when I was here."
As an advanced student of Czech, who has been learning the language for 5 years now, does Karl have some useful tips for less advanced learners or beginners, which he could share?
"I would really recommend to learn the hard grammar before you go to the Czech Republic, even if it only takes a month, but to work really hard during that month. If that is my first tip, then my second is to really go to the Czech Republic, to stay in the country, because I think you have to. And of course, the basic tip is to have a boyfriend or girlfriend in the Czech Republic who is Czech."
See also Living Czech.
