Specials
 

British Czech and Slovak Association

Special activities

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

Writing competitions

2008 Writing Competition

The BCSA’s 2008 writing competition is under way. Have a go yourself, or encourage someone else to enter. Fact or fiction – 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.

The writer of this year's winning entry will be presented with the prize at the BCSA’s annual dinner in London in November 2008. The piece will be published in the December 2008 issue of the British Czech and Slovak Review.

Submissions are invited from individuals of any age, nationality or educational background. Entrants do not need to be members of the BCSA.

Entry is free. Entries should be received by 30 June 2008. An author may submit any number of entries. The competition will be judged by a panel of experts. The writer of the prize-winning entry will be notified by 30 September 2008.

Further information can by obtained from the BCSA Prize Administrator, 24 Ferndale, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN2 3NS, England, or by email to prize AT bcsa DOT co DOT uk.

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.

Offers

Anthology of entries for our 2005 competition

Copies are available (free) of a 62-page booklet containing a selection of entries to the BCSA's writing competition in 2005. Competitors were asked to write about the links between Britain and the Czech and Slovak Republics, or on society in transition in the Republics since 1989. Subjects include the political and economic development of the Czech and Slovak Republics since the fall of Communism, the emotions of someone of Sudeten German background contemplating a visit to the Czech Republic, a comparison of Robin Hood and the Slovak outlaw Juraj Janosik, the ruminations of an Englishman on how to mark his 40th birthday in Slovakia, different aspects of the Czechoslovak experience during the Second World War, and comic stories involving a Czech (rather than a Polish) plumber, a ravenous goat and unhappy housemates.

Apply to the BCSA Prize Administrator by clicking here, or writing to 24 Ferndale, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 3NS, England.

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.

Donation to Elementary School at Levocska Street in Stara Lubovna (2007)

"Why us? Such an honour! Nothing like this has ever happened to us before!" the staff of the Elementary School at Levocska Street in Stara Lubovna kept repeating when I went to see them on behalf of the BCSA this January.

The staff were worried about the protocol. The children in folk costumes were singing, dancing and giving out bunches of flowers. Their mothers had baked trays and trays of a Slovak delicacy, poppy-seed and nut rolls. There were journalists from the local television company - yes, Stara Lubovna has its own TV channel. The mayor came to the school and the headmaster had booked a separate room for lunch in a restaurant the like of which you can hardly see in Bratislava or London.

Before you gain an erroneous impression of my importance, I hasten to add that it was not my appearance that caused the commotion. It was due to the presence of the British Ambassadress to Slovakia, Judith MacGregor.

Judith MacGregor has always been an ardent supporter of the BCSA. She is a regular reader of the Review. She hosted a group of us when we visited Bratislava on the leg of the BCSA trip to Slovakia in 2004; was the speaker at our dinner in 2005, and in 2006 she flew from Bratislava specially to attend the next one. It was on that occasion that we invited her to visit a Stara Lubovna school which had just received a BCSA donation of a thousand pounds: a gift that the BCSA makes every year to support the teaching of English in an elementary school either in the Czech Republic or Slovakia. In 2005 the money went to a Czech school and in 2006 it was Slovakia's turn. The cash was already in the school's account and in the New Year we were going there in person to see how it was spent.

Judith MacGregor is a good sport. She accepted out invitation immediately although Stara Lubovna is 400 km away from Bratislava and it meant that on her next trip to Presov and Kosice she had to get up at dawn to squeeze in the school between nine and ten in the morning. She was also unwell on the day but, in the best of British tradition of the stiff-upper-lip, nobody would have guessed it. She chatted to the teachers and children in Slovak, showed interest in everything they did and even sang to them in tune and, oddly enough, in German: a little girl asked her for a song at a German lesson to which we were taken after having witnessed ample examples of the children's prowess in English.

But it was not only because they were being honoured by a visit from the highest representative of Britain in Slovakia that the staff were bemused.
"How come we got the donation?" they kept asking.
"On the strength of your proposal for what your English department would do with a thousand pounds."
"But did you ask every school in Slovakia for the suggestion?"
"No, only very few."
"So how come we were one of them?"
"The British Council drew up the short-list for us and you were on it."
"The British Council? How come the British Council has taken notice of us? We are only an ordinary elementary school in an obscure town under the Tatras."

They were too modest. The answer was clear from what I could see around me.

Children as young as six learning English, German or French. By the age of about eight or nine they speak the language with a rather impressive accent and a good mastery of the grammar. The teachers are Slovaks but they sound like native speakers of the language they teach.

The little children play games, read fairy tales and watch videos in the target language in well-kept airy rooms full of teaching aids. They have special state-of-the-art-equipment at their disposal to improve their pronunciation: I am proud to say that it was bought from our donation, in addition to numerous sophisticated English and bilingual dictionaries, An English Alphabet, an English globe, a teaching aid on Basic Facts about Great Britain, videos on London, on Introducing Great Britain and one entitled "Only in America".

Some of the money was used on books for the children to read. For the little ones the teachers went, curiously, for Alladin, Goldilocks and The Three Bears, and for a tale that I had never encountered, entitled Three Billy Goats. Why they did not consider such jewels of English children's literature as Winnie the Pooh, Wind in the Willows, Paddington Bear, or Beatrix Potter's masterpieces? They had never heard of them, they said. I had often noted that these enchanting stories are unknown to teachers of English to the Slovak children. The teachers at Levocska were, however, eager for any suggestions for English reading material and carefully noted them down.

But the greatest portion of our gift was spent on a mini-camera. Every year the children put together a video-postcard on their region in English for an international competition. They had already won it once. How much better they are going to do now, they said, when they have the latest equipment. I watched last year's entry. The beauty of the Tatras and the melancholy of the accompanying east Slovak folk songs could not fail to move any judge, whatever the camera, I thought. The English of the children, clad again in east Slovak folk costumes, was also very fluent as they sang praises to their native region.

All in all, the school in this godforsaken little place, which does not even have its own railway station, is the seventh wonder of the world. It has the atmosphere of an exclusive British private preparatory school. Yet this is a run-of-the mill Slovak elementary school where two-thirds of the children follow the same curriculum as children elsewhere in Slovakia. A few years back it was allowed to provide extended language teaching for one third of its intake. Just like their British counterparts battling to get their little darlings to the schools of their choice, the parents of Stara Lubovna fight with all their might to get their children into these classes. However, they don’t have much say, as the selection is carried out by a psychologist. Some of the former pupils are now in the Slovak diplomatic service.

So had we brought coals to Newcastle? Have we just given money to a school which was doing well even without it?

Stara Lubovna belongs to the region of Presov, which is the most poverty-stricken locality in Slovakia. Many Slovaks desperately looking for a menial job in England come from this area of very high unemployment. The region also has a large Roma population and the school told us that there were Roma children among its pupils. These facts played part in the decision of the Committee to grant the money to this school, in addition to the very good impression created by the school's prompt, well thought out and detailed plans for the gift. We might have thought that the money was going to revolutionize the quality of English lessons in a disadvantaged school. Instead it went to a school which was one of the best in Slovakia anyway.

But, on further thought, we could not have done better. This school has a no larger budget than any other Slovak elementary schools with extended language teaching. Its achievements are the results of good management by the capable staff, who have put the money to good use. The head of languages, Mrs Bobulska, who had planned the use of our gift, belongs to the rare breed of organizational marvels. A thousand pounds in a poorly-run school would have disappeared into a black hole, like so much European money, such as that, for example, sent to improving life in the East Slovak Roma settlements. These shanty-towns would not have looked out of place in the worst part of Calcutta in 1989 and they look the same today, despite huge European subsidies. In this school, the money has helped to make it even better.

The intake of Roma pupils in the Levocska elementary, that impressed the Committee, has, however, turned out to be a red herring. There were only eighteen in the school which serves about 400 children. The psychologist, who test the children at six, packs the little Romas whose first language is often Romany, off to a special school for the educationally subnormal if they are found wanting. None of the eighteen children in the school, who got through the tests, were in the classes with enhanced language teaching, for which our contribution was used: all of them were following the ordinary curriculum. They are not suitable, said the headmaster resolutely, they can hardly cope with mastering Slovak. Most of them will reach the school-leaving age without getting to the top class, as they have to be kept back in the lower forms several years running. They are a burden, the staff said, fortunately most of the Roma are elsewhere, in a school near the settlements, where they form over 90-per-cent of the intake.

When the teachers saw the horror on my face which I found hard to hide, I was quickly reassured that the Roma school was very well off as it had been in receipt of vast sums of EU money. And here, at Levocska, the staff had been doing their utmost to help their Roma pupils but it had been a thankless task, they said.

Sensing the embarrassment attached to the issue, I quickly changed the subject. Fortunately, this discussion took place after the Ambassadress' departure.

The award will go to a Czech school next year and to Slovakia again in 2009.

Zuzana Slobodova, March 2007



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Last updated 22 June 2008. Copyright British Czech and Slovak Association. Registered charity 1049411
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