Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, France, has had a Czech section for a long time in one its schools, _le lycée Carnot_ [lycée = senior grammar school + college]. One of the former students of this Czech section, Lukas MACEK, 28, is now the director of the East-European branch of the Paris Sciences-Politiques _grande école_ "great school" [a special category of French university-level institutions]. This branch is located in Dijon.
Evian, students are recruited every year in the Czech Republic, and other East-European countries, to join their national sections at the _lycée Carnot_ of Dijon. By the way I can tell you that Dijon is a beautiful, but quite staid city. The perfect place to study. Better be in Prague to enjoy yourself. :lol: Henry MILLER, the American writer who wrote Nexus, Plexus, Sexus, The air-conditioned nightmare, Quiet days in Clichy etc. was appointed as English assistant at the_lycée Carnot_ of Dijon before WWII. He left after a few months, in the middle of winter, comparing the inhabitants to the gargoyles of their churches. :lol:
I must say.... for a Frenchman, your English is excellent . I have tried to find Czech related courses in Brisbane, Australia but have been unsuccessful. France seems like a great place to study, visit and even live. I have not visited Burgundy but have visited cities of Paris, Amiens, Marseille and Nice. I like everything about France - especially the culture and people. I can't seem to understand why so many Americans, Australians etc. seem to generalise the French as an arrogant and rude society - that is completely wrong.
In the states, there are only 9 out of over 8,750 colleges and U's where you can study Czech....not a very popular langauge...
Thanks a lot, Evian. The funny thing is that the French have the same generalization except that for them the Anglo-Saxon world is a pack of arrogant, rude and dangerous hooligans to be watched 24/7. :lol: As regards the teaching of Czech in France, it is not that common. Only great universities and the INALCO (originally the school of Oriental Languages) have courses of Czech. The majority of students who take Czech have started with Russian. During the Communist period, when visas to Russia were next to impossible to obtain, many French students of Russian attended summer courses of Russian in Prague. It must be also noticed that the so-called Prague school of linguistics (1926-WWII, a movement dealing with rational linguistics) has made Prague famous among students of languages. Its best-known exponents were Roman JAKOBSON (a Russian Jew) and Nicolai TRUBESTSKOI (a Russian Prince). P.S. I knew the French professor of Russian (he's dead now), Dr. CASTAGNOUX, who gave a lift to Roman JAKOBSON across the border to Austria when the Russians invaded Prague in 1968. JAKOBSON (who had by then a US passport) was visiting Prague, and his former university, to attend a conference. The French prof. only had a 2CV Citroën car! He had a hard time keeping ahead of Russian tanks, but eventually succeeded in carrying his colleague to Vienna, from where JAKOBSON flew back to America.
