Czech and Slovak Language Classes for Adults

Michael Trittipo studied second-language teaching theory and methods at the University of Minnesota (for teaching ESL) and the Defense Language Institute (where he taught French 2019-2020). The DLI also happens to be where he first learned Czech as a soldier during the Cold War, with zero background. (You can learn it as an adult, too!) He maintains it with reading and listening, and occasional months at one of the Czech “summer schools,” where he follows a “no-English” rule. He looks forward to helping you begin to learn this wonderful language.

Tess Dajc was born in Kolín, Czech Republic. She has been teaching Czech for ten years. In her spare time, she likes to write poetry and was recently published in several literary journals.

Luboš Mareš was born in the Czech Republic in the small town of Milevsko. After elementary school he continued to study at the Central School of Engineering (SPSS) in Tabor and ended his educational journey in Prague at Czech Technical University (CVUT). He has been living in Minnesota for 23 years. Luboš is a teacher of kung fu, tai chi, qigong and mindfulness at Sokol Minnesota. Teaching Czech language gives Luboš the opportunity to bring the Czech Republic closer to our hearts.

Renáta Tichá, PhD, has been teaching advanced Czech at Czech and Slovak Sokol Minnesota, for the last eight years. She is originally from the Czech Republic and enjoys supporting Czech learners in Minnesota on their Czech language journeys, including for preserving their Czech heritage, speaking Czech with their family, or wanting to study or work in the Czech Republic. She is also a research faculty in special education and disability services at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Integration.

George Hoffman has studied Slovak for about 12 years, and has taught it for two years. He has a Ph.D. in Classical Languages and taught Ancient Greek and Latin in college in the 1970’s, after which he went to work for the Minnesota Department of Human Services. His favorite Slovak writer is Dominik Dán, the author of an extensive collection of murder mysteries set in Bratislava. George‘s maternal grandparents were both Slovaks from the Námestovo area, who immigrated to the US in 1903 and lived in Chicago. He has been to Slovakia twice, in 2015 and 2017, and visited Námestovo.