Specials
 

British Czech and Slovak Association

Special activities

This section contains the latest information on our competitions and charitable donations.

Writing competitions

2011 Writing Competition

The winning entry in the 2011 writing competition was 'Paul Craw 1433' by Milan Kocourek. His entry breaks some new ground, being about the martyrdom of the Hussite Paul Craw in Scotland in the 15th century.

Second prize was 'Adventures in my Beetle' by Jack Mullin in which he recounts a journey he made to Czechoslovakia in the 1970s.

2012 Writing Competition

Fiction or fact – both are welcome. A first prize of £300 and a second prize of £100 will be awarded to the best 1,500 to 2,000-word pieces of original writing in English on the links between Britain and the Czech/Slovak Republics, or describing society in transition in the Republics since 1989. Topics can include history, politics, the sciences, economics, the arts or literature.

Enquiries about the 2012 competition should be addressed to the BCSA Prize Administrator, 24 Ferndale, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN2 3NS, England, or by email to prize @bcsa .co .uk.

2010 Writing Competition

A Night with the Vixen has won the first prize of £300 in the BCSA’s 2010 writing competition. The author is Jitka Jenkins.

It consists of the musings of a man of 70 as he listens in London to Janacek’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen, and thinks back to an idyllic visit to Olomouc in Moravia in 1962, and to a meeting with a woman who was lovely but out of reach.

Born in Hradec Kralove, Jitka worked in polymer research for nearly 20 years in Prague, before she married a British scientist and has now long lived in Britain. Her work is as a technical translator and interpreter, and she also writes for Czech geographic magazines.

Two second prizes (of £100) were awarded this year. One went to Frances Jackson, a student at Oxford University. She wrote Letter from Moravia, some wry observations on what it is like to be a young woman there while on an exchange at Masaryk University in Brno.

The second was won by Gerta Vrbova-Hilton. Slovak-born, she has long lived in London. She is a Professor of Neuroscience. She won with Our First International Meeting in Prague. This is a moving memoir that tells not only of a physiology conference held in Prague in 1956 but also of her own first meeting with her British husband, against the background of the restrictions imposed by the Communist regime.

Gerta’s story, and that of her remarkable escape from Communist Czechoslovakia in 1958, can be read at greater length in her new book ‘Betrayed Generation’ (subtitled ‘Shattered hopes and disillusion in post war Czechoslovakia’. This has just been published by Zuza Books (ISBN 978-1-907890-10-9).

2009 Writing Competition winners

The Laugh Is On Me is the story that has won the first prize of £300 in the BCSA’s 2009 writing competition run by the British Czech and Slovak Association. The author is Zuzana Demcakova.

It’s a fictional letter to a friend, inspired by stories from the book In The Castle Full of Fools by Vladimir Skutina. It starts with an uncompromising account of the treatment in prison of a political prisoner in Communist Czechoslovakia. This is followed by the reflections of that former prisoner when living in England after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. The story can be read on our Reviews page.

Born in Slovakia, Zuzana is a writer, translator and au pair who now lives in Worcester. In 2008 she won second prize in the BCSA competition, so in 2009 she went one better.

Zuzana received her prize from the BCSA’s Competition Administrator, Edward Peacock, at the Association’s 2009 Annual Dinner in London.

The second prize, of £100, went to Pearl Harris, a South African who now lives in south Bohemia. She wrote Driver Beware! , an outsider’s entertaining observations of Czech driving habits and road manners.

2008 Writing Competition winners

The first prize was won by BCSA member and former talk-giver Clarice Cloutier, with an essay called 'A Scottish Harvest in Bohemia: Edwin Muir's Return to Hope'. It is an analysis of two poems set in the Bohemian countryside, written by the Scottish poet Edwin Muir (who served as Director of the British Council in Prague from 1946 to 1949).

The second prize goes to another BCSA member, Zuzana Demcakova. She has written a rather moving short story called 'The Leander Bud', which mixes personal reflections with the running of a Communist-era-themed restaurant in London.

2007 Writing Competition winners

The winning entry in our 2007 writing competition was 'Old Honza's Day Out' by James Gault, who runs a firm in Prague that teaches Business English.

The second prize has gone to 'Preserving National Identity among Czech Jewish Children in Britain during World War II'. It is by Bethany Croy. Ms Croy is a graduate of Amherst College in the US, now living in Prague 2. Her undergraduate thesis was on the migration of Jewish refugees from Bohemia and Moravia.

2006 Writing Competition winners

The winning entry in the BCSA's 2006 writing competition was Mayor Sulc's Astounding 2010 Directive, a short story by Adam Daniel Mezei.

The story set in a Prague in 2010, which secedes from a Czechia which is controlled by a Communist revisionist government, and which in turn is part of an imperial Euro superstate. It explores the extraordinary consequences of political changes in the far from distant future where Language Police patrol restaurants, and where Prague (Mayor Sulc's "Inner District") resorts to a helicopter airlift to take passengers to the airport to avoid the random searches and hefty tolls imposed by the Communist authorities. It's one of several stories Adam submitted to the competition that tackle rather different, often unsettling subjects.

Adam is a writer from Canada who now lives in Prague. His latest publication is We Are the New Bohemians: The Post-Communist Collection.

The second prize, of £100, was awarded to Jarmila Hlavkova, of Zilina in Slovakia, for Home Cooking in Britain and Slovakia - Traditional or International?. This is a most appetising account of some of the high points of Slovak and British traditional cuisine, from the dumplings, sheep's cheese and bacon of Slovenska bryndza, through the thick soup of kapustnica to orange marmalade and the full English breakfast. The essay also reflects on Slovak and British responses to the advance of fast food.

2005 Writing Competition winners

The winning entry in the BCSA's 2005 writing competition was The Czech Republic in the European Context: What are the Problems of Freedom and Democracy? by Michal Sarapatka.

The essay is a fascinating analysis that challenges assumptions about the validity of Western liberal democracy in a country such as the Czech Republic that has just emerged from Communist totalitarianism. It studies how civil society has been affected by Marxist theory, Communist reality and "the capitalist high road to democracy", and reflects on why sixteen years after the Velvet Revolution many feel a weariness with Czech domestic politics.

Michal is from Prague. He graduated from the London School of Economics in the summer of 2005 with a BSc in International Relations.

A second prize, of £100, was awarded to Deborah Richards, of Cornwall, for I’d Like to Get to Know You Better. This is an account of her discovery that her family roots lay in what is now the Czech Republic, roots in a German-speaking world that had ended after the Second World War. The narrative describes her confusion and excitement as she discovers the culture of her ancestral homeland today.

Charitable donations

Support for schools in the Czech and Slovak republics

The BCSA launched an initiative in 2003 to support schools in the Czech and Slovak Republics in their teaching of the English language and/or culture. This builds on our experience in helping two schools affected by floods in 2002 and discovering how these donations can make a difference.

2009 Award went to 21st Elementary school in Plzen, Czech Republic

In 2009 it was a Czech school's turn to receive our annual donation for teaching English which we alternately award to a Czech or a Slovak school. The selected school is the 21st Elementary school in Plzen (21.Základní škola v Plzni).

At present the school has 650 pupils in 27 classes. The school has 50 year long tradition in teaching languages and English is taught from the 1st year. Our donation will be used to purchase an interactive smartboard and additional materials to get the most modern ITC technologies into learners´ life and make lessons more interesting. We will bring you more details after a visit will be made to the school.

2008 Award went to Spisske Vlachy, Slovakia

In 2008 it was  a Slovak school's turn to receive our annual donation for teaching English which we alternately award to a Czech or a Slovak school. We had an excellent response, and in the final round there were four Slovak schools competing for the bursary. Some of their proposals for the use of the money were rather original, like setting up an English theatre or teaching English to the unemployed. After careful consideration we decided on a primary school in a small East Slovak town called Spisske Vlachy which was more modest in its presentation. However it is a school which has been recommended by the British Council as a high performer in teaching English.

They take part in various English festivals and competitions but they do so under strained circumstances. The four English teachers in the school have to cope with 380 pupils. There aren't enough books in their English library either for the pupils or the teachers, they need more dictionaries, reading books, books on new methods to teach English and don't even possess such a basic teaching aid as a Flipchart. So we felt that our gift of 1000 pounds could really make a difference to them. We have asked the British Council to arrange a visit from the British Embassy to the winning school sometime during the next academic year, so let us hope that will take place.  Next year it is a Czech school’s turn.

2007 Award went to Bakalka school in Brno, Czech Republic

BCSA donation of a thousand pounds in 2007 was after a careful selection awarded to an elementary school in Brno, called Bakalka, to the delight of its headmistress, PhDrYveta Gašparcová.

At present the school educates 620 pupils in 24 classes with good results in gaining places in further education colleges. English is taught from the first year and some subjects like IT and Employment are taught in English. The school takes part in projects such as Socrates, Erasmus, Argonauts and Cambridge as well as in various competitions at regional or national level with excellent results. The school enjoys a very good reputation and is heavily oversubscribed.

The school decided to use the donation for the purchase of a digital projector for their language laboratory. From their own funds they bought a computer and a screen to create a high quality language laboratory, which will allow incorporating modern technologies into teaching. The rest of the donated money was used to buy some simplified English books for the school library.

Our donation was met with great excitement at the school which was further intensified by the British Ambassador in Prague, Linda Duffield’s visit to the school in February this year. This was demonstrated by the warm welcome and a very exciting programme prepared by pupils and teachers. This included a performance of two English songs sung by the youngest children in the school, a visit to the language laboratory where amongst other things we saw a short video called Harry Potter in Brno with very impressive performances by the students. Older pupils of the school, Julie Danková and Jan Doubrava welcomed the Ambassador with an eloquent speech and presented her with presents. To conclude our visit we were invited to a reception arranged by the school in the presence of the Mayor of Brno-Central, Dr Dagmar Hrubá, representatives of the Education Council of the City Council, chairman of the Parents Teachers Association and a number of the teachers from the school.

The Ambassador enjoyed her visit to Základní škola Bakalka in Brno and was impressed by what she saw, which she summed up as follows: “I was greatly impressed by the quality of English spoken by the children in all age groups and by their evident enthusiasm for learning English. This came across in the musical presentations by the younger children, the two short films in which the students spoke with confidence and fluency and by the older students who made an impressive welcome speech. I was struck too by the commitment and dedication of the English language teachers and their interest in using new tools and methods to build up the students' confidence in spoken English.”

I am very grateful to Linda Duffield for her continuing support of the BCSA and for making the long trip to Brno despite her busy schedule.

Ruzena Holub, June 2008



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Last updated 15 January 2012. Copyright British Czech and Slovak Association. Registered charity 1049411
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