Spanish language gaining ground in the Czech Republic / El idioma español gana terreno en la República Checa

Jardín del Palacio Wallenstein, sede del Senado de la República Checa.

There's an article in Spanish here from Radio Praha on the growth of Spanish-language education in the Czech Republic, with some parts translated by me.

El idioma español sigue ganando terreno. En el más reciente informe del Ministerio de Educación de España se dice que el interés y la demanda por la lengua española en la República Checa continúa aumentado. Se trata de la única lengua extranjera que presenta un crecimiento anual en número de alumnos en la enseñanza secundaria. Se trata de la única lengua extranjera que presenta un crecimiento anual en número de alumnos en la enseñanza secundaria.

The Spanish language is gaining ground. The most recent information from the Ministry of Education of Spain says that interest and demand for the Spanish language in the Czech Republic is continuing to grow. It is the only foreign language that has shown an annual growth in the number of secondary students learning it.

and:

Q: ¿Existen en la República Checa buenas condiciones para impartir clases de español, me refiero a si existe una infraestructura amplia, si hay suficientes profesores?

Are there good conditions in the Czech Republic for teaching Spanish classes, that is, is there enough infrastructure, are there enough teachers?

“Eso es un problema, por me lo pregunta supongo. La infraestructura, es decir los estudios universitarios para los futuros profesores no son tan buenos como podrían o deberían ser, para responder al auge que existe ahora, es decir que hay pocos estudios, en la Universidad donde se puedan preparar los futuros profesores. En Praga, por ejemplo, en la Facultad de Pedagogía, creo que no existe la posibilidad de estudiar el español como preparación para la carrera de un profesor. Entonces hay pocos profesores con cualificación universitaria que dan clases de español, y eso es un gran problema”.

"That's a problem if you ask me. Infrastructure, that is university studies for future teachers, are not as good as they should be in order to meet the boom that exists now. There are few studies in the University where one prepares future teachers. In Prague for example in the Faculty of Pedagogy, I don't believe there is the possibility of studying Spanish as preparation for a career as a teacher. Then there are few teachers with university qualifications giving Spanish classes, and that's a big problem."

The article then gives the following numbers for languages studied in the Czech Republic:

	Total	Primary	Secondary	University
Spanish	25,744	1,256	17,297	7,191
English	1,091,454	577,936	413,621	99,897
German	460,505	148,187	276,823	35,495
French	58,579	7,303	42,977	8,299
Russian	31,917	7,342	16,191	8,384
Italian	3,110	1,499	1,532

The large numbers for German and Russian (normally you don't see Russian students outranking those learning Spanish) are easy to understand of course. The Czech Republic is bordered by Germany and Austria:


and Russian is a Slavic language as is Czech, making it fairly easy to learn compared to others with a different linguistic background. Here's a comparison of the two languages from the Czech Wikipedia (the beginning of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights):

Russian (written in the Latin alphabet):

Vse lüdi roždajutsa svobodnymi i ravnymi v svojom dostoinstve i pravach. Oni nadeleny razumom i sovestju i dolžny postupatj v otnošenii drug druga v duche bratstva.

Czech:

Všichni lidé se rodí svobodní a sobě rovní co do důstojnosti a práv. Jsou nadáni rozumem a svědomím a mají spolu jednat v duchu bratrství.