Czech

Is anyone here studying Czech, and if so what did you put in your personal statement to show your interest in the language? Particularly for those who applied to Oxford. Also, what was your grade offer?

Reply 1

Liberties

Bump. I'd like to know too.

Reply 2

Anatheme

This thread has basically no replies, maybe you could actually check the Oxford subforum, I think I came across a couple of people studying it and that could help you a bit more than here.

Reply 3

xmarilynx

estrella88

....

Estrella has a place for French and Czech at Oxford, so she'll probably be of more help than me!
From my (limited) knowledge, all offers from Oxford are AAA, and showing the interest in the language could be shown by reading literature, newspapers etc in translation, travel to the countries that speak it, etc.

Reply 4

estrella88

Larry123

Thanks for alerting me to this xmarilynx!

Yeah I'm going to be starting Czech at Oxford in Oct, my offer was AAA.
In my personal statement I explained why I am interested in Czech, why I love learning new languages, evidence of my liguistic ability, and that I would be able to cope with a language as difficult as Czech. I also said that I had been teaching myself the basics of Czech grammar and expanding my vocabulary. Also, any trips to the Czech Rep. should be mentioned. When I wrote my PS I hadnt yet been to Czech Rep. so I put that I would be visiting in October and how much I was looking forward to visiting Prague.

I would really recommend teaching yourself the basics of Czech, a good book is Colloquial Czech. The author is also who interviewed me for Czech at Oxford! It also comes with tapes/CDs so you can hear the language, and it is not too complicated to understand.

Something that I did before interview, but after I had done my PS was I read something by a Czech author in an english translation. For me, this was The Memorandum by Vaclav Havel.

Where else do you want to apply for for Czech? I applied to Bristol and UCL as well.

:biggrin:

Reply 5

kopi, ffs

estrella88

,,,,,,,

Esta-reeeellla!

I study Czech too, you and I are going to be acquainted in the near future, it's a pretty small department. ^_^

OP, I got accepted with AAB (Advanced Higher), those were definite grades though cos I took a gap year, and besides the B was in chemistry and no Czech scholar ever made it in the world with a pipette under his arm. My Czech interview was not very taxing. We spoke about some Czech classical music and I read some Czech from a book and we had a basic conversation to see what I had learnt off my own back. But seeing as you start from scratch, you need to more or less just have something to say to back yourself up, and not just sit there like a goon. (estrella's ideas are good, read a book in translation, talk about visits and that.) In my opinion, the choice is more or less completely based on the other language you have chosen (in my case, French) - my interview for that was much more demanding, and there's a grammar test and essays and that too. So, I think that if you make it in the other lanaguage and show that you're good at it, they'll know that you're good at languages and give you a chance with Czech too.

Anyway, definitely apply, it's the best language ever!

Czech

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