Czech Studies
Czech is the language of a dynamic country in the heart of Europe where the history of the East meets the contemporary West. Its literature, film, history, and sport make Czech a rewarding language to learn and the Czech Republic an outstanding destination for study and work.

Here at Sheffield we have a strong record of excellent teaching and student satisfaction. We are a close-knit department and form a real relationship with our students, which means that you will learn quickly but that your classes are also genuinely enjoyable. You will start the study of Czech from scratch - either at Level 1 or 2 - and by the end of your course you can achieve the fluency needed to use the language in your professional life. You will also have explored the history and culture of the Czech lands and its language. If you already have some knowledge of Czech, please contact us and ask.
The local Czech and Slovak community has a full programme of speakers and cultural activities that students often attend. Every year, students have the opportunity to attend fully-paid summer schools in the Czech Republic.
Find out more about Czech at Sheffield
Undergraduate degree combinations
- BA Modern Languages & Cultures
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On the BA Modern Languages & Cultures you can study:
- Czech language & culture with one other language & culture
- Czech language & culture with two other languages & cultures
Choose from these languages:
- French
- German
- Russian
- Spanish
- Portuguese
- Catalan
- Dutch
- Luxembourgish* (from second year only)
- Italian
- Dual Honours (with a non-language subject)
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As a Dual Honours degree:
- Czech language & culture with a non-language subject
- Czech languages & culture, a second language & culture, and a non-language subject
Combine your study of German language & culture with one of the following:
- Business Management
- Economics
- English
- History
- Linguistics
- Music
- Philosophy
- Politics
Find out more about our range of dual honours degrees.
Why study Czech at Sheffield?
We asked some of our students why they chose to study Czech at Sheffield:
Module information
What if I already have some Czech?
We can in certain circumstances offer alternative pathways or modules if you know Czech from home or have learned it independently. Please ask us directly for advice.
You will study 40 credits in language and culture at beginner level.
In your first year, you'll get a thorough introduction to Czech grammar, and learn essential speaking skills with a native Czech speaker. You'll also use our interactive online exercises to consolidate your learning.
By the end of the year, you'll have a solid grounding in the language skills (at a level equivalent to A2 on the Common European Framework of Reference - CEFR) needed to communicate with Czech people and get around in the Czech Republic.
Our first-year culture course explores the history of the Czechs and Russians, introducing you to the events and cultural works that have shaped the Czech nation and its people.
Beginner's Czech
Title |
Credits |
Core/Optional |
---|---|---|
Czech Language Beginners You will gain the skills to speak Czech in everyday situations. We take an integrated approach to language learning, so you will develop all four language skills - speaking, listening, reading, writing - in your work in class and at home. Our emphasis is on communication and you are encouraged to use the language from day one. |
20 | Core |
Russian and Czech Cultures in the Age of Empire and Beyond This module gives an overview of Russian and Czech cultures with a focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It will critically examine the concepts of statehood, empire, nationalism, totalitarianism and democracy by studying the two nations' different experiences through visual sources, literature and language usage. It thus introduces students to topics dealt with in greater depth in optional modules at Levels 2 and 3, and helps them to learn how to analyse cultural artefacts and sources of different kinds. |
20 | Core (if you are studying Russian and/or Czech) Optional (if you are studying Czech with two other languages not including Russian) |
Schoolwide Modules
Title |
Credits |
Core/Optional |
---|---|---|
Comparative Visual Cultures Visual literacy is a key skill and visual culture remains one of the most accessible and important modes through which we represent, understand and critique our world. This module provides an introduction to some of the major trends within visual cultures in European languages, and the development of visual media. Students will work on a selection of visual texts across national frameworks and historical periods to examine their conditions of production, distribution and reception and to explore how meaning is constructed and critiqued in visual culture. In seminars we will engage with detailed analysis of core texts and with critical materials. Students will be encouraged to consider country-specific, transnational and comparative trends through a critical lens. |
20 | Optional |
Czech Language Intermediate
Modules in Year 2 focus on expanding your vocabulary, deepening your knowledge of the grammar, and developing your speaking ability and knowledge of the Czech Republic.
The Level 2 language course is taught by an experienced tutor, who will support you in your journey towards fluency in Czech. By the end of the year, you'll have the knowledge and skills to make the most of your time in the Czech Republic equivalent to the B1 level on the CEFR.
In your culture classes you will study a variety of texts in English and Czech, which will improve your reading skills and understanding of Czech culture.
Title |
Credits |
Core/Optional |
---|---|---|
Czech Language Intermediate |
20 | Core |
Depending on your degree programme and language combination you may also take:
Title |
Credits |
Core/Optional |
---|---|---|
Prague at the Crossroads of East and West The module examines iconic places in Prague as starting points for investigating the history, culture and society of the Czech lands and their relations with other European powers, especially Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Visual arts, architecture, historical documents and literature will be used to understand the sources and influences, both domestic and foreign, that define the Czech identity and how the Czechs negotiate a place for themselves between larger and more powerful neighbours. |
20 | Core/Optional |
Language and Society in Luxembourg and the French Borderlands With a focus on the French borderlands, this course explores the status and function of the French language in relation to its speakers and to speakers of other languages. We will apply key theoretical insights to issues concerning linguistic minorities in the officially monolingual country of France, in addition to the bordering multilingual countries of Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. In this way, we will investigate how language becomes the target of struggles and debates that are embedded in broader socio-political issues. More broadly, this module underlines the necessity of questioning the presupposed homogeneity conveyed by the use of labels such as the ‘French language’ and ‘French-speaking countries’, which potentially mask the social and linguistic complexity inherent to the social world. |
20 | Optional |
Language at Work This course provides the basis for understanding communication and communicating in multilingual (work) settings. After completing this module, students will - know the basic properties of language and communication and their relation to culture; - be able to characterise the relationship between English and their other languages; - be able to describe the difference between everyday language use and institutional language use; - be able to describe the differences between communication in monolingual and multilingual (intercultural) settings; - be able to differentiate between characteristics of communication involving native speakers of a language and communication involving non-native/foreign language speakers of a language; - use systematic methods to carry out simple investigations of language, communication and culture (and their implications for foreign language learning); - use digital technology to communicate academic work to non-specialist audiences. |
You will have the option of spending part of your year abroad in the Czech Republic. We have links with Charles University in Prague - the oldest university in central Europe - and with Masaryk University in the second largest Czech city, Brno.
Your year abroad is a chance to become part of life in another country, broadening your horizons and learning new skills. You will speak Czech and be surrounded by Czech culture, so naturally your language skills will develop quickly. Thanks to the year abroad, we also find that our students come back with a more confident approach to life beyond the classroom.
Study at a university
Studying abroad at a university allows you to experience the familiarity of student life with the excitement of living in another country. University life varies enormously across the world, however wherever they go, our students develop international networks and life-long friendships. Courses at international universities expose our students to new ways of studying, learning, and interpreting the world.
Gain work experience
Work placements provide you with the opportunity of gaining employment experience as both a professional and an internationally competent graduate. Types of work experience may vary hugely, from translation to consultancy and everything in-between. Work experience may be paid or voluntary, depending on type of work, organisation and location.
Czech Language Advanced
In Year 4 you will consolidate the progress made during your stay in the Czech Republic. You will further develop your conversational skills and learn to use Czech in a variety of environments. Within the four years of your degree you will be able to achieve B2/C1 on the CEFR, which allows you not only to live in the Czech Republic and communicate in everyday situations but also to use Czech in a professional environment.
Units on Czech history, politics, film and literature complement units on language and translation.
You will have the option to write a Czech Studies dissertation, allowing you to explore your own areas of interest in real depth, and there will be a further option available with Czech content as below.
Title |
Credits |
Core/Optional |
---|---|---|
Czech Advanced / Higher Advanced What are the different styles and varieties of a language? You will explore, using a multimedia online course developed here at Sheffield, how to use and understand the different types of Czech they meet in everyday life. Real-life translation projects and regular conversation classes develop your language skills and transferable skills. |
20 | Core |
Dissertation or Project You can explore an in-depth topic that you choose, define and research yourself, in the area of Czech language, literature, history or culture. |
20 | Optional |
The Slavonic Languages: Structure, History and Variation This module investigates the grammars and histories of two Slavonic languages, Russian and Czech, introducing students to the discipline of linguistics through the languages they study. Selected topics in the grammar of Slavonic languages highlight how structures of Russian and Czech have developed differently, how they are changing in the current world, and where they came from. Among the topics are case meaning and case forms; aspect; verb conjugation; animacy; and word order. Students learn how to design and implement their own linguistic research projects using corpora and experimental methods. Knowledge of EITHER Russian OR Czech is needed. |
20 | Optional |
Comparative Critique of Consumer Culture Critiques of consumer cultures are as old as capitalism itself. This module takes the long view, starting in the eighteenth century and tracing our conflicted identities as modern consumers into the present day. Especially applying German cultural theory to European cultural history, we shall ask what is meant by economic and social liberalism, and whether even culture owes a debt to consumer society. Consumerism can entail complicity in exploitative modes of production (causing poverty and displacement, and profiting from serfdom and slavery). It has been both celebrated and satirised for enabling hedonism and individual bad taste (or kitsch). And consumption has been nationalist, yet also cosmopolitan; today, it threatens our shared environment. Theory, the visual arts, and literature have all been critical of capitalism - but ironically, they can themselves be packaged as consumer goods. Examining a wide range of primary texts (including film and caricature) and critical reflections, you will translate and write a commentary on a historical source, and submit an essay on a topic of your choice. |
20 | Optional |
Social Approaches to Multilingualism This module provides students with an overview of key topics in multilingualism, with an emphasis on the ways in which issues of language are linked to broader socio-political practices and debates. It allows students to gain insights into how theories of nationalism and globalisation may be applied to the analysis of texts and images in multilingual settings - with a particular focus on those in which Romance and/or Germanic languages play a central role - and it shows how debates about language are bound up with struggles over social equality and reactions to social transformations. |
20 | Optional |
The content of our courses is reviewed annually to make sure it is up-to-date and relevant. Individual modules are occasionally updated or withdrawn. This is in response to discoveries through our world-leading research, funding changes, professional accreditation requirements, student or employer feedback, outcomes of reviews, and variations in staff or student numbers. In the event of any change we'll consult and inform students in good time and take reasonable steps to minimise disruption.
Information last updated: 7 September 2022