Faculty of Transport Engineering
The Language and Culture Scheme (LaC) has provided me with the opportunity to visit a partner school in Germany twice, and after that to welcome German students to our university in Pardubice. The programme in Germany involved excursions to local companies and, for example, also a visit to a job agency, which presented us with the possibilities of the German job market. Thanks to non-formal meetings with the German students, we were able to exchange experience related not only to study. It was a perfect opportunity to practise what we had learned in our German classes at home. My study stays in Germany have a special place in my CV and I have been happy to be able to mention my experience from the LaC programme in motivation letters used in various selection procedures. At present, after gaining my bachelor’s degree in Pardubice and 5 years after my first stay in Germany, I am studying a follow-up master’s degree at the University of Applied Sciences Ravensburg-Weingarten in Germany. So, if I were to evaluate short-term mobilities with a grade, it would definitely be an A!
Monika Snítilá (Faculty of Transport Engineering: Transport Management, Marketing, and Logistics – graduated in 2020)
Faculty of Economics and Administration
For me, the stay in the Swedish town of Visby was one of the first university experiences and, even in hindsight I can honestly say it was, together with the Erasmus+ mobility, one of the best experiences from my whole study. Today, I draw from the experience in my professional as well as personal life.
During the week-long stay we had an opportunity to see and experience a completely different way of teaching and approach to education than the Czech one we are familiar with. The efficiency, interconnection, and practicality of the entire education opened my eyes in many ways and inspired me to look for an opportunity to become a part of such system. I was excited about the approach of teachers to students as well as about the relationships between students themselves, delighted to see the enormous motivation of students, the useful projects, and the overall view of education. The students’ work was meaningful and appreciated, the teachers were more like mentors and the whole education system seemed to make much more sense to me.
It was difficult to go back to the typical Czech teaching, but thanks to this stay I realised the importance of stepping out of one's comfort zone and following what seems meaningful. I can honestly say that this experience shaped my further decisions regarding studies as well as my personal life. At the moment, I am living abroad, working in an innovative start-up company, and I am still in touch with the students who I met at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. I love to reminisce about this week-long trip, not just about how different the education was, but also how the whole trip was filled with great activities organised by amazing pedagogues from our Language Centre and what wonderful experiences we had with other students. I am incredibly happy I was able to participate in this programme and I recommend it to other students with all my heart.
Eva Ryšánková
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
My participation in the Language and Culture Scheme at the Swedish University of Uppsala has brought about many positive aspects. Getting to know a foreign culture and cultural habits during the week-long stay made me reorganise my current life and set my future goals. My summer jobs turned into part-time work where I used my knowledge gained during the study at the faculty. Communication in a foreign language on a daily basis helped me to step out of my comfort zone and present myself more not only in the academic world, but also in real life and on social networks. The methods of the Swedish education system showed me the possibility of enriching theoretical knowledge with practical experience. More importantly, this experience has helped me realise there are so many opportunities in the 21st century, and I certainly intend to take them.
Ondřej Chrbolka, FEEI (Visby, Uppsala University, 2019)
During my university studies, I participated in the Language and Culture Scheme twice and I would recommend it to literally everyone! It is a truly unique opportunity to practise your English skills in a foreign country, where you cannot simply switch to your mother tongue. At the same time, LaC gives you the chance to get to know people from other countries and learn about their culture which can be very different from ours. To all students who are going to use a foreign language in their future job, this programme offers excellent experience that will increase their value in the labour market. Study abroad always looks good in résumés and helps you distinguish yourself from the other job applicants.
Miroslav Jiránek
Faculty of Health Studies
I see the contribution of my stay at the Universidad de Alicante in Spain within the Language and Culture Scheme mainly in the possibility to get to know how certain things work in a country that is quite different from us. The thing I would like to point out most was the rich programme that had been prepared for the students from the University of Pardubice, University of Central Lancashire and Universidad de Alicante for a whole week. We participated in the activities in mixed groups of students and that was very beneficial for me in terms of learning to acknowledge other worldviews – perhaps different, but not wrong – being able to communicate in an interdisciplinary multilingual team and deal with students from different cultural backgrounds.
As for the programme content, the most interesting for me were activities related to social responsibility and management (with a focus on product development, advertising, financial planning and final distribution). Together with the Czech students we also prepared a lecture for the others focusing on the basic Czech phrases, culture, industry and the traditional Czech cuisine.
Vítek Blanař
Faculty of Chemical Technology
The Language and Culture Scheme is a fantastic and beneficial programme, and for me personally - being a student of the Faculty of Chemical Technology, where I spend almost every day in the laboratory - it was the only option to go abroad without missing a significant amount of time in experimental work, and therefore research time for my thesis. During my studies at the university, I have participated in this programme twice: at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston during my bachelor’s degree, and at the Stellenbosch University in Stellenbosch during the master’s programme. If I could, I would personally tell every single student to join because this experience is truly life changing. You get out of your "mother tongue comfort zone" and get the best hands-on practice of foreign language communication (English in my case) because you have no other option! Considering that nowadays every good job requires fluent communication skills in English, the experience is invaluable. Secondly, the activities at the university were also challenging - presenting in English in front of about 120 people resulted in a significant professional improvement, as it positively impacted my skill to talk in public and ability to present my work at scientific conferences. An unexpected visit to the Department of Chemistry & Polymer Science has offered me insight into chemical research at Stellenbosch University and created a unique connection in the scientific network and hopefully an opportunity for future cooperation. Finally, getting to know the people from different parts of the world, their culture, way of living and mentality has made me more open-minded, considerate, and grateful both in my personal life and working sphere. This particular development is in my opinion essential, considering how diverse and multicultural is the working environment of the 21st century in Europe. In those short 7 days, there was an enormous amount of new experience, people, culture, skills, thoughts, knowledge, emotions, and challenges that will stay imprinted in my memory forever.
Natália Gira (Farbárová)
Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
In 2018, during my bachelor’s degree, I participated in an international mobility to Preston within the programme called Language and Culture Scheme.
During a week-long stay we not only managed to explore interesting sites in the north of England such as Manchester, Blackburn, Liverpool, and Preston itself, but we also joined in the programme prepared by the University of Central Lancashire. Within the framework of the intercultural seminar we visited the local mayor, who told us very engaging stories about the life of a politician, we appeared on BBC Radio Lancashire, and we actively participated in the classes which were under way at the university. We got to cooperate with other students, not only the local ones, but also other international students. A very interesting experience was meeting Ms. Milena Grenfell-Baines, who was among the last children saved from the Nazi holocaust by Sir Nicholas Winton.
During the week-long programme, communication in English was a must not only with the local students, but also with the British public. This fact helped me to get rid of my fear of performing in public and expressing myself in a foreign language, which turned out to be crucial for my future academic career. During my master’s degree study I went to Spain and a year later to France with the Erasmus+ programme. Today, pursuing a Ph.D. degree, I am planning a traineeship in the French capital again. I am therefore happy to say that the Language and Culture Scheme was just the thing that opened my eyes and convinced me to go abroad, get to know the local culture, people, learn a foreign language, express myself independently and deal with an unknown environment. I owe my experiences gained during my international stays to the programme Language and Culture Scheme, which showed me the way to self-actualisation.
Martin Zelený
