Levels of knowledge of the Czech language. CEFR language proficiency levels: A1, A2, B1, etc.

The Czech Republic is one of the most beautiful countries in Europe, which has long been famous for its higher educational institutions. However, recently Czech sociologists have started talking about the fact that there is a demographic crisis in the country and Czech universities cannot fulfill the state order for training specialists in various fields. Right now, Czech universities offer everyone who wants to study within their walls and receive a European-level diploma. Education is absolutely free, but the only requirement for future students is knowledge of the Czech language.
If you or your child wants to receive a European-style education, study at the expense of the host country, then you have a chance. All you have to do is learn the language and pass the exam.
Many will immediately rush to look for tutors. However, this is not quite the right solution. Pay attention to Czech language courses here on the website http://lady.tut.by/catalog/obrazovanie/inyaz/czech/. Course teachers will professionally teach you the language, teach you how to perfectly recognize spoken language, and how to respond accurately in any speech situation.
Although our languages ​​are very similar, this is not enough for living and studying in the Czech Republic, so Czech language courses will give you the necessary foundation and will allow you not only to get an education, but also to find a well-paid job.
The situation is somewhat different with those wishing to get an education in the Scandinavian countries, namely in Sweden. Recently, universities in Sweden have been trying to accept foreigners for study, for whom scholarships have been introduced, and there are also courses where you can study Swedish, but bad luck, these courses are taught in English. Remember that European education is undoubtedly highest quality and the opportunity to study for free, regardless of your citizenship. To enroll, applicants must contact the international department of your chosen institute or university directly. Regardless of citizenship, all applicants participate in the competition on a general basis.
An interesting fact is that there are no entrance exams as such in Swedish universities, and they accept everyone on the basis school grades and, of course, success in specialized subjects. However, one problem arises here again for us. Children in Sweden go to school for 12 years and are wary of our 11th graders abroad. But if you have studied at least 1 year in your homeland, then the doors educational institutions are open for you.
Know that if you decide to return to your homeland after studying, it will be much easier to find a well-paid job than with a diploma from any domestic university. And if you want to work in any European country, you will not need to confirm the level of your knowledge to European employers.

I’ll warn you right away, there will be a lot of bullshit here. Baikal has not yet been completed, and I don’t know whether it will be.
At one time, when we were just going to take this exam, which is the only certified exam in the Czech language, there was not much information on the Internet and I promised that after passing I would describe in great detail the procedure for passing the exam. The surrender has passed. Whether it’s successful or not will be known in three weeks, but for now I can describe it.
The exam is conducted by Charles University. In Russia, the exam takes place only in Moscow and, as practice has shown, once a year. In the Czech Republic, it is possible to take a language test almost every month, or even twice a month. There are also centers for delivery somewhere in Germany, in Warsaw and in a couple of other cities, as far as I remember. You can read more about this at http://ujop.cuni.cz/cce/index_ru.php. There are also sample test options there. In particular,
The B2 level exam consists of five parts - reading, listening, vocabulary and grammar test, writing and speaking.
However, this is something that you could find out without me. Now about something that is difficult to find on the Internet. After recording with you email An employee of the Czech center in Moscow contacts and gives details about payment. You need to pay 200 euros (not in rubles, but in euros) no later than a month before the exam date. Everything would be fine, but they DO NOT support bank transfers or any other payment methods remotely. Therefore, the only option left is to come to this center in person or ask friends and pay. However, when I wrote a tearful letter saying that no one I knew would be there before the specified payment deadline, I was allowed to pay a little later. In the end, this was not needed, because an acquaintance unexpectedly went there and paid for it.

Consultation

About a couple of weeks before the exam date, you receive a notification by email that the consultation will take place then and there, and the exam for your level will take place then and there (initially two days are known on which four different exams will take place for levels A1, A2, B1, B2 and if there are those interested in C1, and on which days which level becomes known only a couple of weeks before the exam). At the appointed time we arrived at Third Tverskaya-Yamskaya, the Czechs settled there. There is even a Czech cafe there, entry to which, however, is only possible if you are a student at the Czech center. In general, we arrived and were greeted by friendly Czech girls and Russian girls who spoke Czech. After sitting for half an hour (since we arrived earlier, everything started on time), they let us into the audience and began to talk in accessible Czech with gestures. From what we didn’t know yet and we were very interested to find out, the pass rate is 85. In general, not bad. Separately, I would like to say about two girls - masters who conducted the presentation and subsequently the exam. Two beauties, a perfect match. They are very smiling, friendly, but at the same time strict. There is no other way, it’s a certified exam.

Exam

The exam for our level was held on Sunday at 10 am. We were told to arrive at 9:30 to register. Naturally, we were there already at 9 :) We were warned in advance that we would definitely take with us a receipt for payment and an identification document for Latin, valid. In our case it was a foreign passport. They said that without such a document, passing the exam is impossible. We went through, registered, sat down to worry - wait until the others registered and the exam began. A little about him. You can only write with a regular pencil; you can use an eraser and a sharpener. There may also be water on the table and a passport. That's all that can be on the table. It is highly advisable to take a wristwatch with you; cell phones are not allowed, and there were no watches in the classroom. However, we didn’t have a watch with us and didn’t have time to buy one. We didn’t suffer much, the remaining time was announced at the right moments.

Reading

As I already wrote, the exam consists of five parts. The first of these is reading. There are four tasks in total, the tasks for which can be read in a demonstrative version. If in the test version there were ambiguous tasks, then in the exam itself the texts were not quite complex, the answers were unambiguous, and the task about arranging passages of text in the right order, in my opinion, could generally be solved correctly by someone who had just started learning the language. All in all, I have a feeling that I scored, if not 100, then more than 80 points for sure. The atmosphere was quite comfortable, it was clear that the examiners wished only the best and did not want to interfere with successful completion exam. Everything was perfect, no problems. However, the same can be said about the remaining four parts.
How did I prepare for reading? There is no purposeful way, since there are no such tests other than an indicative version. I was just reading. Everywhere. On the Internet, books, subtitles, etc. :)

Listening

After reading, we were given 10 minutes to rest, we unwinded and with renewed vigor we went to write the second part of the exam - poslech s porozumenim. Contrary to expectations, unlike exams in English language, there weren't even computers in the classroom. So we all wrote together on pieces of paper and listened to the same tape recorder, on which dialogues and monologues were played from beginning to end without stopping. Everything was audible, no problems. The listening session again contains four tasks. Again, the answers were quite clear and the dialogues and monologues were not very complex. In our general opinion. Here, too, I would like to hope for more than 80. This was the end of the rather simple part of the exam, and after a 10-minute break...

Lexico-Grammar test

If in the tasks of the previous block, when you had to enter the correct answer yourself, spelling was not taken into account at all (the main thing is that you be understood), then in this block if you forgot a glass or gachek, the answer is incorrect. Despite the fact that only two of the four tasks were to choose an option from those proposed, the remaining two were to write in yourself. Some of the tasks were very similar to the tasks from the demonstration version. In general, it wasn’t a big deal, but I was in a hurry, left early and then realized that I had done at least three tasks incorrectly. Here, at least get more than 60 percent. The condition for passing is to write each part at more than 60 percent, while one of the written parts (not speaking) can be written at 50 or more. However, the average percentage should be 60 or higher. I feel like the half hour allotted for this part is quite enough, because what you know, you write, what you don’t know, you guess. :)

The next item on our program was writing, which consists of two tasks - a letter and an essay. We were immediately warned that there might not be enough time and that we should keep an eye on it. Every half hour we were told that they had passed. This part lasts 80 minutes and despite the feeling that this is a lot, in fact it is not enough. I fit in tight in time. Examiners immediately advise not to write everything on drafts because there may not be enough time. Write only the structure.
In the writing assignment, you had to write a request to your boss to allocate funds for you to take a course. Moreover, in addition to the standard address, first and last sentence and signature, four aspects had to be disclosed. All this in at least 100 words. Naturally, I didn’t keep up with them. I think I got about 130. Nothing good, of course, but it revealed everything. In advance, we learned all types of address, the first and last sentences in a letter and signature. So all that remained was to come up with the main part. As I understand it, at the B2 level official letters are always written, at the B1 level - more often personal ones.
Essay. Two topics were proposed - Kdo chce vic, nema nic (which I chose) and Chyby cloveka uci. We thought of writing and memorizing a more or less general introduction and conclusion in advance, so having changed them a little, we only had to write the main part.
The topic is very important in writing assignments. If you do not comply with it, you are given zero points without further assessment on other parameters.
I cannot say how many points I will have for this part. But again I would like to hope that it is more than 60.

AND last part - Speaking

According to the order in which you registered, everyone is divided into pairs. At first, you can ask that you go in pairs with a certain person, but due to anxiety, none of the 10 people who took the exam did this. In some strange way, it turned out that all the couples consisted of a boy and a girl. But then we ourselves redistributed and went a little differently. The speaking schedule appeared after the reading and I knew that I would go at 2:20 pm with some young man. In total, 20 minutes are allocated for the couple. First we came in and took turns talking about ourselves. I couldn’t think of anything to tell from such a huge amount of information. Prepare your speech in advance. Next, you are given the topic of the monologue, you prepare (they don’t give you any papers: () and after the monologue of the second examinee, you tell it. I got to tell you why I chose artificial intelligence as a training program and what I am going to do after training. Things went better here. My partner was told prepare a dialogue on the topic of ecology, since he entered this specialty. Then they loaded him with questions about what he himself does to maintain the environment and how in the modern world the country treats it. Misha got a monologue on the topic of the benefits and disadvantages of studying in the Czech Republic and Krasnoyarsk.
The last task is a dialogue with a partner. It did not take place as described in the model version. We were simply given the task of agreeing to rent an apartment, agreeing on who will do what around the house and what the rules will be. Overall it went smoothly. Misha had the task of agreeing on a joint trip.
The atmosphere was quite good, but both I and Misha were very worried. Excitement in this matter is absolutely unnecessary and I advise you to be absolutely calm, there is nothing to worry about. It's easy to say, but not so easy to do.

The exam results will appear on the Internet in three weeks; if successful, certificates will be sent in a month. In general, I really liked it and there was a feeling of a friendly atmosphere.

According to Milan Kubek, president of the Czech Medical Chamber, more important than the numbers themselves is the fact that foreign doctors are hired as cheap labor and work without supervision from qualified specialists.

“The problem is not with foreigners as such, but with the fact that, in violation of the law, they work without qualified supervision. Every foreigner, according to the law, has the right to work only under the direct supervision of a local medical specialist. Thus, the law is violated by both hospitals and their founders, that is, regional administrations. And the Ministry of Health not only turns a blind eye to this, it itself is one of the organizers of such a scheme.”, says the head of the Czech Chamber of Medicine, Milan Kubek. The Chamber, he said, intends to file a complaint against the Ministry of Health in court.

The health department denies such accusations: foreigners from countries outside the European Union received a one-year deferment in order to learn the language and pass all the necessary exams.

“The deferment, of course, will not be extended. And to ensure that the quality of medical care provided remains at the proper level, it is the responsibility of local specialists who monitor the work of foreign colleagues in each specific department. Of course, in individual cases there may be a mistake, but in general this is how everything should be.”, says Deputy Minister of Health Roman Prymula.

The department is confident that attracting doctors from abroad is one of effective ways solving the problem of shortage of medical personnel in the Czech Republic, especially in border regions. The largest number of Ukrainian doctors are employed in the Ustecki, Karlovy Vary, and Moravian-Silesian regions.

The head of the Czech Medical Chamber, Milan Kubek, lists where you are most likely to meet a foreign doctor: “These are internal therapy departments, surgical departments, as well as anesthesiology and intensive care departments. That is, the key areas that no hospital can do without.”.

Czech healthcare needs doctors from abroad. According to Deputy Minister Primula, even if the level of salaries turned out to be such that it would not be profitable for Czech doctors to go to work in the West, there would still not be enough of them.

“First of all, it is necessary to start with medical faculties. Not only must the number of students themselves increase, the problem with the shortage of teachers must also be solved. The government has already taken up this issue. Well, while we are training our own young doctors, which may take six or eight years, we will temporarily have to hire medical staff from abroad. But I completely agree that he should have the necessary qualifications.".

According to the Ministry of Health, there are 50 thousand doctors working in the Czech Republic. Only a percentage of them, that is, about 500 specialists, received their medical education in countries outside the European Union.

Speaking Czech at a conversational level is the dream of many. But you can only learn to speak Czech fluently in the Czech Republic. And to do this, you need to pass a state exam in the Czech language, a certificate of which is often required when applying to Czech universities or when looking for a job. We present to you an interview with Tatyana, a Czech language teacher from Perm. Tatiana will talk about how she took the Czech language level B2 at the West Bohemian University in Pilsen.

Tatyana, hello. Please tell us why you decided to confirm your knowledge of the Czech language and take the state exam at level B2? What were your motives?

Hello. I teach Czech language in my hometown- Perm. I wouldn’t say that we have many Czech language teachers and translators, but when people come to a meeting for the first time, they are interested in my qualifications. I studied Czech at the university, went on several internships at the West Bohemian University in Pilsen, but telling my entire track record every time is tiring. The certificate speaks for itself in this regard. So I decided to get it.

In addition, there are thoughts about organizing your own language school, and here a document on language proficiency will obviously not be superfluous.

How did you prepare for the exam?

As with any of my classes, only more intensively - I read a lot of texts, wrote, and repeated a little grammar. Every day I tried to tell myself what I did and what I thought, using Czech. There are many sample exams on the Internet, which are also a good help.

What parts did it consist of and what were the specifics of each of them? Which stage was the most difficult for you?

The exam consisted of four parts: reading, lexical and grammatical part, writing, speaking. All channels of language perception, all situations of its use are involved. The most difficult part was probably the written part. To clarify, two interesting questions are given - one of them, for example, was the topic “Is there a place for tradition in modernity?” These questions raise a lot of thoughts, and besides, I generally tend to think about such traditions in my spare time. And it was very difficult to compress thoughts into a short text, even in Russian, and translating all this into Czech was even more difficult. Listening was easy for me; I can listen and recognize speech. The grammar part was a little surprising: there were questions that could be solved in several ways, but only one was offered. This caused a little difficulty.

Were there any surprises during the exam? What surprised you most?

I wouldn’t say that there were any surprises, except for the workers who were repairing the road very close to our building. Therefore, when after each part I went outside to breathe and relax, it didn’t work out very well: a jackhammer is not the best soundtrack for relaxation.

What categories of foreigners do you think require a Czech language exam at level B2? What social groups predominated among the people taking it?

Mostly there were guys who needed to pass the Czech language to enter certain Czech universities. On the same day, the C1 exam was held - it was dominated by older people who needed a certificate to confirm their language competence already at work in the Czech Republic. At B2 everyone was relatively young. I think that this exam would be useful for people whose business and whose work is connected with the Czech Republic.

Has a certificate confirming your knowledge of the Czech language helped you? If yes, then with what?

Of course it helped! Now students come to me, and I no longer need to explain to them who I am, why and why. A certificate from Charles University fills them with due awe, so to speak.

And there’s still more to come with the language school!

In this article I want to tell you about the system of levels of foreign language proficiency called “ Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), which is an analogue of the levels of knowledge of a foreign language that are familiar to most of us, such as Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced.

This system of foreign language proficiency levels will be useful to those who plan to receive higher education in one of European countries or wants to take language courses in Europe. The main purpose of creating the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages ​​was to provide a common assessment method suitable for all European languages. This system simplifies life for those who, for example, live in the Czech Republic and want to study in Germany. Having passed the level exam German language in one of the Czech language schools, and having received a certificate indicating the level of language proficiency, the student can go with this certificate to Germany and thus confirm his knowledge of the German language.

In my article I would like to talk about the levels of proficiency in Czech as a foreign language in accordance with this system. I would like to immediately note that the levels I described below are suitable for both Czech language and other European languages.

In total, the CEFR system has three levels (A, B, C) and six sublevels (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2). In individual sublevels, the level of knowledge of the Czech language by a foreigner is assessed on the basis of his understanding oral speech and listening, reading, speaking in Czech, and writing written works in Czech (essays, reports, essays).

In the Czech Republic there is a separate textbook for each of the sublevels, but I have not yet seen textbooks for levels C1 and C2 here. Apparently they haven't been released yet. Let me move on to the characteristics of individual levels.

A1 - entry level (Czech začátečník, English Starter). At this level, the student understands basic phrases in foreign language and knows how to use them in specific speech situations. The student can introduce himself in a foreign language, ask simple questions to maintain a conversation, and independently answer questions such as: where do you live, what do you have, who are your friends. Can communicate very easily with native speakers, provided they are patient and help him. Passing an exam on knowledge of the Czech language at level A1 is required when applying for permanent residence in the Czech Republic.

A2 - advanced level (Czech: mírně pokročilý, English: Elementary). At this level, the student understands sentences and frequently used expressions related to the topics family, shopping, the city where I live, work. The student knows a set of standard phrases and can very simply talk about his family and his wants and needs. Student can read simple texts and navigate the menu, begins to use the past tense in his speech.

B1 - intermediate level (Czech středně pokročilý, English Pre-Intermediate). At this level, the student can participate in conversations about simple topics that we encounter at work, at school, in free time. Can write simple, coherent text on topics covered or on topics that interest him. Can talk about his experiences and achievements, dreams and goals, can briefly talk about his views and plans. The student begins to use in his speech conditional mood.

B2 - level above average (Czech: vyšší pokročilý, English: Intermediate). The student understands the main ideas of complex texts on concrete and abstract topics, including scientific texts in his subject area. Can easily participate in conversations with native speakers, speaks fluently and without preparation. Can write detailed texts on a wide range of topics and express an opinion on a current problem, indicating the advantages and disadvantages of different ways to solve it. At this level, the student can read unadapted literature in the language. Level B2 is the minimum level of language that you must have when applying to a Czech university.

C1 - confident knowledge (Czech: pokročilý, English: Advanced). At this level, the student reads complex long texts in English without any problems. different topics, understands their hidden meaning. He easily understands information transmitted on radio and television. Easily explained in the language without searching for additional words in the dictionary. Uses language effectively when communicating and writing essays and reports. Can write well-structured, detailed texts in complex topics and at the same time actively uses complex structures, connecting expressions, and means of cohesion.

C2 - native speaker (Czech jazykově způsobilý, English Proficient/Professional). This level of language knowledge can be safely called “native speaker”, since when you speak a language at this level, you understand everything you hear or read. You can combine information from different written and oral sources and present it in a logical order. You react spontaneously to different speech situations, can explain yourself fluently and accurately, distinguish shades of word meaning even in complex texts, and use idiomatic expressions.

Most students language courses completes his studies of the Czech language, reaching level B2. However, I believe that for the most comfortable subsequent study at a university in Czech and everyday communication, it is better to finish level C1.

I also wanted to note that you may also encounter levels such as A1/1, A1/2, A 2/1, A 2/2, etc. I came across a similar breakdown when studying German and it is more detailed than just levels A1 and A2.