5 things every English teacher in the Czech Republic can relate to

This article was originally published in 2018 and has been updated.

Teaching English in Prague and the Czech Republic comes with its own set of rewards — an active work week that doesn’t involve sitting in front of a desk for hours on end, the chance to meet interesting new people who are actually willing to pay you to sit around in cafes and talk to them for 90 minutes, and the opportunity to live and work in a stunning international setting.

There are challenges, too. The impact of the current global pandemic has hit English teachers particularly hard (read more about how here) while many teachers are finding online work in these stay-at-home times, adding Zoom exhaustion to the list of daily TEFL-teacher battles.

These are just five aspects of teaching English in the Czech Republic that will have local language teachers nodding in recognition:

Navigating a complicated schedule and constant cancellations.

Students who worship at the altar of good grammar

We’ve all experienced Czech students who are sticklers for proper grammar (and fail to appreciate or participate in our brilliant ice-breaker games!). But many language instructors will encounter students who value grammatical correctness above all — even being understood. It’s worth mentioning that native-speaking teachers are able to grasp aspects of the language that are just as important as the grammar: the subtleties (irony, satire) of a language, how to use colloquialisms naturally and demonstrating good pronunciation.

The clash between British and American English in the classroom

The sheer torture of writing a Czech invoice

After correcting CzEnglish for months you actually find yourself using it, too!

You spend your days combatting false friends, words like “accurate” vs. akorát (just enough), misuse of prepositions (“Yes, I’m counting with you.”), and missing articles until you suddenly hear yourself saying things like: “I went to the doctor for control yesterday.” What’s happening to your English? This painful phenomenon has plagued many English teachers of Czech students.

Are you a teacher looking for students? Create an Expats.cz Teacher profile to find students looking for teachers.