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MU holds Czech Cooking Class for foreigners from virtual winter schools

How do you bake Czech bread and cook kulajda, a traditional Czech soup? Students at this year’s virtual winter schools organized by MU got to find out at an hour-long cooking workshop.

American Erin Anna Smith and Martin Glogar from the MU Centre for International Cooperation organized a culinary workshop and a virtual tour of Brno for international students.

This winter, Masaryk University held two virtual schools for foreign students from across the globe. The Human Rights and International Law and the International Relations and Threats to Global Security virtual winter schools were attended by a total of 34 students from different parts of the world, mainly from Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, Iran, Ukraine, and Great Britain.

The three-week-long programme included not only lectures and project work, but also virtual trips to the UN Office in Vienna and Radio Free Europe in Prague. The organizers also offered cultural events, such as a virtual tour of Brno and a cooking workshop.

“Students from different countries and continents logged in to our virtual schools, and many of them had never been in the Czech Republic or even Europe before. For them we held a Czech cooking class. We wanted to give them a taste of Czech cuisine,” say organizers Erin Anna Smith and Martin Glogar from the MU Centre of International Cooperation, who appear in the video.

You can watch a recording of the Czech cooking class on Masaryk University’s English-language YouTube channel.

Even a virtual form can be successful

Masaryk University held the first virtual schools in summer 2020 in response to the pandemic and travel restrictions. There was surprisingly great interest in these courses. They proved to be successful and gave students who could not travel the opportunity to gain an international education.

Since then, MU has held a total of 10 virtual summer and winter schools that have been attended by more than 150 students from 34 countries. The organizers have received very positive feedback from participants. Some students have even attended multiple virtual courses. For example, Malina Grube from New Zealand’s University of Auckland enjoyed a summer school offered by MU so much that the following winter she signed up for another virtual school for six credits. You can read about her experience here.