Na přelomu roku probíhá tradiční hlasování Lidových novin o slovu, které co nejvýstižněji charakterizuje události, trendy a témata končícího roku. Čtenáři vybrali slovem roku 2018 Rambohafíka čili jméno pudla exministryně obrany Karly Šlechtové (ANO), jehož si vyfotila a zveřejnila na svém Instagramu, jak sedí u věnců na hrobu neznámého vojína na Vítkově. Vzbudila tak vlnu negativních reakcí a dopomohla si tím k ukončení svého vládního angažmá.
Although in other countries this myth is often thought of as a relic of the 1990s, Czech students still have an idealistic view of the native speakeras a teacher who is basically better than the Czech one. In many Czech language and state schools there are absurd situationswhere a 19-year-old American with a high school diploma and a poor knowledge of the language (for example, unlike in Czech schools, in the USA and the UK, linguistics is not part of the curriculum) is paid twice as much as a Czech teacher who has studied philology or education and has 10 years of experience in teaching the language. The most disadvantaged are teachers who do not tick any of the boxes, for example, a Spanish girl with a degree in English Education and a CPE certificate will find it very difficult to find a job on the Czech market. Favouring native speakers and discrimination against teachers of other nationalities is even known in the professional community under the term ‘native-speakerism’ (for example, more details here: https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/a-linguistic-prejudice-called-native-spea…).
Although there can be many advantages to learning with a native speaker, the choice of a teacher should not be based primarily on his or her background. The fact that a teacher was born in a country where the language is spoken does not automatically qualify him to teach the language. According to this logic, a miner from Ostrava, for example, would be a qualified teacher of Czech just because he is a native speaker. For this reason, our teachers also have to go through a multi-stage selection process in which their knowledge of the language and linguistics is tested, regardless of whether or not they are native speakers. It often happens that Czech teachers score higher in these tests than native speakers.
Mgr. Tereza Najberková, Language School Methodologist