Reviews

I was in the intensive course the reviewer below refers to, and while I respect her opinion and experience (and her facility with colloquial Czech, which far exceeds mine), I want to say I was very satisfied with the class. I can't speak for our other classmates, but for my money we got a comprehensive review of grammar plus plenty of opportunity for conversation and vocabulary building. I have had the same teacher, Magdalena, for regular classes at CLT since January and she has helped me tremendously. As for the books I guess I didn't mind that so much as I already owned them for my evening classes.

The course I took at Czech Language Training (CLT) was excellent. The pacing was perfect and the teacher was masterful. There was a good mix of grammar and conversation, as well as fun activities within the class. I never got bored and was able to experiment with the Czech langauge while I did my homework. I plan on taking another course in the future. Anyone considering a language program should seriously consider this school. The only possilbe down side was that it was a bit of a walk from the city center, but I was in a hostel that was 10 mins walk away, so it was no problem.

This language school is in a convenient location. It is near Olsanske Namesti, close to metro Flora. You can get there from Muzeum (A line) or Hlavni Nadrazi (C line) by tram 9. It is also at a walking distance from Flora (A line). The place is friendly and cozy. There is a lounge downstairs, in front of the office, where you can prepare coffee or tea and, if you have a laptop, surf the internet through the free wireless connection. Staying in the lounge waiting for the class to begin gives you a chance to improve your Czech: almost each item you will find in there is accompanied by a yellow label next to it, and on this label you can read the Czech noun for the item.

I was attending a class for beginners. Ludek, the teacher, immediately focused on providing us with basic communication skills. This allowed me to go out and talk to people using what I had learned in class. Grammars was explained, but that was not the main focus. For a beginner, what is mostly important is pronounciation, vocabulary, and verbs. Pronunciation is important because Czechs are not used to hearing foreigners screwing up with their language, so they will hardly understand you if you don't pronounce correctly. Also, you must become proficient with the core of the language (the little big words) as soon as possible. This will allow you to react quickly to every question, and be able to say at least something. 

The most important thing: don't be ashamed of doing mistakes. Try to speak. Czechs will not care for the mistakes. Rather, they will admire your heroic efforts to learn their language.

I was very happy to finally find somewhere to study Czech that made me want to study and learn, rather than finding it a chore. Learning with my teacher, Petra, was a lot of fun and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend CLT to anyone who wants to quickly improve their knowledge of Czech.