You can study Czech (with Slovak) at Oxford in combination with French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian or Spanish; please note that you can only be a beginner in one of your languages of study. You can also study Czech (with Slovak) with Classics, English, History and Philosophy. It is not possible to study Czech (with Slovak) at Oxford without a second subject. The course normally lasts four years, with the third year spent abroad, at least half of it normally in a Czech- or Slovak-speaking environment.
For ambitious linguists, Czech is a fascinating language to learn. It is highly inflected - among non-Slavonic languages you may know, it is structurally most similar to Latin, Greek and German, which has been quite influential in its development - and has a relatively high proportion of vocabulary unfamiliar to English speakers. At the same time, it is an Indo-European language that works very similarly to English and other European languages you may have learned, and our students normally achieve a very high level of fluency and competence. While knowledge of Czech and Slovak will make learning other Slavonic languages (like Russian and Polish) much easier, graduates of Czech have also found the intellectual training valuable in tackling unrelated but similarly complex Middle Eastern or Asian languages.
Typically four to six undergraduates come to study Czech (with Slovak) each year. All teaching therefore takes place in small, informal groups, which ensures plenty of flexibility and individual support. In language classes, you are constantly involved and stretched, and we can easily identify and give special attention to aspects that you are finding difficult. Though it may appear that there is a limited variety of options, in fact the broad framework of our literature papers allows unparalleled scope for you to choose the texts you study and the specific thematic, cultural, historical and socio-political contexts in which they are discussed. You may also choose to study the history of the Czech and Slovak languages.
Most undergraduates who study Czech at Oxford are complete beginners, but we also provide appropriately tailored language teaching for native speakers or those with existing knowledge of Czech or Slovak. You receive three hours of intensive Czech language classes per week. First Year classes focus on understanding and using Czech grammar in context and developing writing and translating skills. You will be well supported and have a constant sense of progress and achievement, probably quite different from your experience of slower-paced language-learning at school.
In First Year, you will also have two weekly hours of literature classes throughout the year. These are closely tied to your language learning and develop your ability to read in Czech, building your range of vocabulary and introducing you to a variety of styles and registers while discovering some of the most interesting Czech writers and works. Alongside these classes you will also attend a weekly lecture-style class that places Czech literature in the broader context of Czech history from the Middle Ages to the late twentieth century.
The Year Abroad
You will normally spend at least half of the year abroad in a Czech- or Slovak-speaking setting. Unlike some universities, Oxford does not require students to study or to spend time in a specific placement; instead, we allow you to plan your year abroad independently, with advice and support. Students of Czech (with Slovak) typically study and/or work, but also find time to travel widely within the Czech Republic, Slovakia and elsewhere in Central Europe.
We currently offer study placements with Masaryk University, Brno, and the University of Ostrava; in return, we host students from those universities who attend classes with you at Oxford. We also offer a volunteer teaching placement at a leading grammar school in Brno. While, since Brexit, it has sadly become very difficult for students with UK passports to obtain paid work in the EU, our students have proved very resourceful in finding interesting and rewarding volunteer internships, for example, with charities or research institutes.
In addition, each year you can apply for Czech government scholarships to study for one month at a university summer school, in a variety of locations throughout the Czech Republic.
Reading Lists
The primary language textbook we use throughout the degree in Czech is:
- James Naughton, Colloquial Czech (Routledge, 2010).
Please ensure that you obtain the MOST RECENT (3rd) edition.
For reference purposes throughout your studies in Czech, we also recommend you acquire:
- James Naughton, Czech: An Essential Grammar (Routledge, 2005)
You may be able to obtain these and other recommended books second-hand, via websites like AbeBooks or the Used section of Amazon.
Dictionaries
The best single-volume English-Czech/Czech-English dictionary currently available is:
- Josef Fronek, Anglicko-český a česko-anglický slovník (Prague: Leda, 2012).
The best readily available large English-Czech and Czech-English pair of volumes are currently:
- Josef Fronek, Velký česko-anglický slovník (Praha: Leda, 2013).
- Josef Fronek, Velký anglicko-český slovník (Praha: Leda, 2016).
It may be cheapest to buy these dictionaries direct from the publisher, Leda.
Throughout your studies, you will find that it is normally cheaper and often only possible to buy Czech-language books, including e-books, direct from the Czech Republic. For new books, the most widely used on-line bookshops are Kosmas, Academia and Dům knihy.
For second-hand books, MůjAntikvariát will search second-hand bookshops throughout the country. Unfortunately, many of these do not currently accept on-line payments or post to international destinations, so this option may prove most useful when you are based in the Czech Republic.
First Year Prescribed Texts
Poetry:
- Karel Hynek Mácha: Máj (1836)
Available with a translation at: https://czech.mml.ox.ac.uk/karel-hynek-macha-maj-1836
- Karel Hlaváček: Mstivá kantiléna (1898)
Available at: https://czech.mml.ox.ac.uk/karel-hlavacek-mstiva-kantilena-1898
Drama:
- Karel Čapek: R.U.R. (1921)
Available at: https://web2.mlp.cz/koweb/00/03/34/75/81/rur.pdf
There are many translations available, notably Rossum’s Universal Robots, translated by David Short, with a foreword by Arthur Miller (Hesperus, 2011). Other good translations include R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), translated by Claudia Novack-Jones, with a foreword by Ivan Klíma (Penguin, 2004) and Four Plays: R.U.R., The Insect Play, The Makropulos Case, The White Plague, translated by Peter Majer & Cathy Porter (Methuen, 1999).
Short Prose:
- Jan Neruda: ‘Jak si pan Vorel nakouřil pěnovku’ (1876)
Translated by Michael Henry Heim as ‘How Mr Vorel Broke In His Meerschaum’ in Prague Tales (Central European University Press, 1993).
- Růžena Jesenská: ‘Mimo svět’ (1909)
Translated by Kathleen Hayes as ‘A World Apart’ in A World Apart and Other Stories: Czech Women Writers at the Fin de Siècle (Karolinum, 2001, 2021).
- Milan Kundera: ‘Falešný autostop’ (1965)
Translated by Suzanne Rappaport as 'The Hitchhiking Game' in Laughable Loves (Faber & Faber, definitive revised version, 1999).
- Jan Balabán: ‘Kluk’ (2004)
Translated by Charles S. Kraszewski as ‘Boy’ in Jan Balabán, Maybe We’re Leaving (Glagoslav, 2018).
- Milena Slavická: 'Sestra' (2018)
Learn More about the Czechs and Slovaks
History
The following books (listed alphabetically) will help develop your understanding of the history of the Czechs, Slovaks and Bohemia and Slovakia in their various incarnations:
- Agnew, Hugh, The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (Hoover Institution Press, 2004).
- Demetz, Peter, Prague in Black and Gold: The History of a City (Penguin, 1998).
- Heimann, Mary, Czechoslovakia: The State that Failed (Yale University Press, 2011).
- Pánek, Jaroslav et al. (eds), A History of the Czech Lands (Karolinum Press, 2011).
- Seton-Watson, R. W., A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (Hutchinson, 1943).
- Teich, M. et al. (eds), Slovakia in History (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
Literature
At no other time have so many living Czech creative writers had works available in English translation. Of these, the best known or most interesting include Daniela Hodrová, Petra Hůlová, Jáchym Topol and Tomáš Zmeškal. At the same time, the range of writers from earlier periods available in English is also expanding: from the Communist period Ladislav Fuks, Václav Havel, Bohumil Hrabal, Josef Jedlička, Milan Kundera, Arnošt Lustig, Josef Škvorecký, Ludvík Vaculík, from the earlier twentieth century Karel Čapek, Jaroslav Durych, Viktor Dyk, Jaroslav Hašek, Vítězslav Nezval, Ivan Olbracht, Vladislav Vančura, and from the nineteenth century Karel Jaromír Erben, Jiří Karásek, Božena Němcová, Jan Neruda… Recently published anthologies include:
- A World Apart and Other Stories: Czech Women Writers at the Fin de Siècle, selected and translated by Kathleen Hayes (Karolinum, 2001, 2021).
- Povídky: Short Stories by Czech Women, edited by Nancy Hawker, (Portobello, 2006)
- And My Head Exploded: Tales of Desire, Delirium and Decadence from Fin-de-Siècle Prague, selected and translated by Geoffrey Chew (Jantar, 2018).
- Beyond the World of Men: Women’s Fiction at the Czech Fin de Siècle, selected and translated by Geoffrey Chew (Karolinum, 2024)
Slovak literature has become more available to English-speaking readers only in the past decade or so; it is quite different in style, themes and humour from Czech literature and very much worth discovering. Two excellent recent anthologies are:
- Into the Spotlight: New Writing from Slovakia, edited and translated by Magdalena Mullek and Julia Sherwood (Slavica, 2017)
- The Dedalus Book of Slovak Literature, edited by Peter Karpinský (Dedalus, 2015)
Contemporary writers now available in English translation include Balla, Jana Beňová, Ivana Dobrakovová, Mária Ferenčuhová, Mila Haugová, Jana Juráňová, Daniela Kapitáňová, Uršuľa Kovalyk, Peter Krištúfek, Peter Pišťanek and Pavel Vilikovský. For a regularly updated list, see Slovak Literature in English Translation.
Film
Czech cinema has enjoyed an outstanding international reputation since at least the 1960s. Two Czech-language films have won the Best Foreign Film Oscar: Ostře sledované vlaky (Closely observed trains, Jiří Menzel, based on a Hrabal short novel, 1966) and Kolja (Jan Svěrák, 1996). The first Czechoslovak film to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film was in fact Slovak: Obchod na korze (The Shop on the High Street, Ján Kádár, Elmar Klos, 1965).
Other recommended Czech-language films from the post-Communist period include Petr Zelenka’s Knoflikáři (Buttoners, 1997) and Ztraceni v Mnichově (Lost in Munich, 2015), Pelišky (Cosy Dens, Jan Hřebejk, 1999), Otesánek (Little Otik, Jan Švankmajer, leading Czech animator, 2000), Štěstí (Something Like Happiness, Bohdan Sláma, 2005), Katka (Helena Třeštíková, leading Czech documentarist, 2010), Alois Nebel (based on Rudiš/Jaromír 99 graphic novels, Tomáš Luňák, 2011), Rodina je základ státu (Long Live the Family!, Robert Sedláček, 2011), Hořící keř (Burning Bush, Agnieszka Holland, 2013) and Cesta ven (The Way Out, Petr Václav, 2014).
Other recommended films from the 1960s ‘new wave’ include Menzel’s Skřivánci na nití (Larks on a String, 1969) and Postřižiny (Cutting It Short, 1981) (both based on Hrabal stories), Miloš Forman’s Lásky jedné plavovlásky (A Blonde in Love, 1965) and Hoří, má panenko (The Firemen’s Ball, 1967), Sedmikrásky (Daisies, Věra Chytilová, 1966), Marketa Lazarová (František Vláčil, based on a Vančura novel, 1967), Všichni dobří rodáci (All My Good Countrymen, Vojtěch Jasný, 1968), Spalovač mrtvol (The Cremator, Juraj Herz, based on a Fuks novel, 1969) and Ucho (The Ear, Karel Kachyňa, 1970).