Limba română la Universitatea Carolină din Praga

Founded in 1348, Charles University in Prague is among the oldest academic institutions in the world. Teaching the Romanian language has a longstanding tradition as well: it was established by the Czech philologist Jan Urban Jarník (1848-1923) within the Romance Department in 1882. Thus Charles University in Prague became the fifth university outside Romania that began teaching Romanian language (following those in Torino, Petrograd, Vienne and Budapest). A key moment for learning the Romanian language in Prague, as well as for the Romanian - Czech relations altogether was the foundation of the Romanian Language and Literature Section in 1950, within the Faculty of Arts. A year later, on the basis of a Romanian Ministry Agreement the activity of the Romanian language lectureship was inaugurated. This implied the ongoing presence of a Romanian language lecturer detached from a university in Romania in order to teach mainly practical courses to the Check students. Starting with 2009 the Romanian Language and Literature Section is part of the South-Slavonic and Balkan Department next to the Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian, Bulgarian and Albanian language, literature and history. In the academic year 2012 - 2013 the Romanian lecturer is the only full-time employee and within the section have a part-time Mr. Mircea Dan Duță (the director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Prague) and Mr. Jiri Nasinec (translator) for the Romanian language subjects and Mrs. Libuse Valentova and Mrs. Jarmila Horakova (PhD student) for Romanian literature subjects. The lectureship itself provides practical courses for the first and second year students that have Romanian as their major language (A); also a creative writing seminar for the master students and optional courses in Romanian language for the students from all specializations of Charles University. There are 18 students who are currently learning Romanian officially at Charles University and 8 more PhD students or other.