Why Masaryk University?

Many people ask about where you work now, where you study now, where you live now… But only few manage to discover why. Little children ask why all the time, because they want to understand. Adults don’t need to understand that much, they need to know. Simple information, simple replies, and simple statements about how the world is. But why the world is? That I do not know. What I know is why some people study at Masaryk University, and I will tell you.

The adult fact is that they already study here and that they are from abroad. My childish curiosity inquired why and I understand how international students manage to pick us out. It is only simple information picked out of the profound presenting that MU pursues abroad. Or is it not?

“My wife and her family have all attended Masaryk University and they recommended it,” says Daniel, one of our truly adult students. It really is people who shape our decisions. Ywet, on the other hand, didn’t know anything about European universities: “My educational background was equivalent to the requirements that were given by MU, and so I chose that one.” Some students, however, seem to seek and hunt and chase information so that they know everything. “The international teachers with a bunch of experience made me finally decide for the Faculty of Social Studies,” recalls Maja. Not only university reputation and teaching techniques, but also the city which shelters all the faculties has its advantages, as “the location of Brno seems to be in the center of Europe,” points out Kawa. It may be the official image that Masaryk University paints, or it may be its students who know other students, who then know other students, who might as well know some other students too… and then it is forums, reviews, advice, and sometimes plain chance and luck that bring foreign students to Brno.

I recall myself why my head – or my heart (whichever it was) – brought me to Brno, directly to Masaryk University. It was reputation and prestige combined with my passion for the subject I pursue – but it was not any pamphlets, official webpages, nor options presented at high school, which lead me here. It was friends. The more open and honest a friend is, the more he can help you decide. My friends described their experience and it took me to the university I love today. Now it’s my turn to help others decide. 

Finding Friends at MU

Finding friends when being new at the university may seem to be a very challenging quest. Masaryk University is full of international students, who are either happy to live a new life, or struggle to discover people of same interests and fitting personalities. I – a student myself – went out to question them for you and find out how hard a task it is to find fellow friends at uni.  

Kawa from the Faculty of Informatics says that 'friendly' was his very first impression of the Czech people: “Later on, during my life in Brno, I received the attention and assistance from them whenever I needed.” His colleague Aubrey adds that “once you break through to the Czech and Slovak people, you truly make friends for life.”

However, there are students struggling to break the ice with the Czechs. “In terms of student life, I would say it is much easier to make friends with international students than with the Czech students, most probably because we don't attend lectures together,” says Isaac, a student of Economics.  But as our promising medical student Thomas points out, “nationality isn't really important as we are an international community where everyone knows everyone”.

Simon, too, feels to spend most of his time with the internationals. He says “it’s because it is easier to communicate with them”. Making friends sometimes means to skip the easier option, though, and try harder. If the language gap appears, there always is the common feeling of being a student. And students unite. As Karar – another future doctor – puts it: “It was very easy for me to make friends, and I think all the other students feel the same, because we are all on the same boat.”

All on the same boat sailing down the academic river to the great sea of knowledge, all that way down or up, we have the chance to make friends. Some have it harder than the others, but it all counts down to the efforts we make. Those who seem cold outside may always bear a warm smile behind their expression. Some students fight for their Czech friendships, some stay with their international family until the end. What stays important is that none stay alone. 

Lady Winter or an Evil Witch?

Each time a year she comes, leaving no space for the other three to express themselves thoroughly. Sometimes she arrives too early for us to rejoice, and sometimes we impatiently wait for her to knock on the door. She's being hated and she's being loved, she is annoying and sometimes she's beautiful, she causes us pain and she makes us play. We laugh and we get angry, we have antagonistic feelings towards the one, whose presence is an inevitable natural phenomenon once a year. Lady Winter. When coming to mountains, hills and picturesque villages, she is a beauty. She wears her white coat as if it were velvet clouds that descended from the sky. But beware! As soon as she enters city gates, her coat turns grey, her face wrinkles and her softly distant touch becomes a creepy scratching of frozen nails. Winter in the city is an unwelcomed guest.

Brno is no exception to this. Everything starts with an innocent snowflake lightly dancing in the winter breeze. Soon you realize there is hundreds, thousands, millions and trillions of these tiny dancers occupying the city air. The first few minutes – or sometimes hours – of heavy snowing are magical even within the city gates. The fairy tale in progress, the white lady gently caressing our cheeks with her white little treasures floating in the air. The most magical views are those when the light goes out and the only world you see is those few metres of air within the reach of lamp light in the street, where snowflakes engage in glamorous dancing. It is these few moments that save the inhabitants from sending the whole winter to damnation. The night is over, the magical moment is gone, and you wake up into a day full of heavy soaked greyish mass in the streets, icy plates on the pathways, and forever-wet boots on your feet and the perfect chaos in city transportation. Welcome winter! We hate her most of the time and only when we go to the country we realize how pretty her white coat really is. It is the city that makes winter look ugly, yet we feel it is the other way around.

Easter comes when winter leaves and if it's not like that, there is a mistake in the system of our nature. Nature is perfectly programmed to mess up any human plans dependant on weather. There used to be hundreds of people at Mendel square in Brno drinking green beer every last Thursday before Easter. There may be hundreds of them in the pubs, but the Mendel square stays occupied only by lady winter's dirty snowy whims this year. Even though she makes life in a city unbalanced, cooperating with the other three friends of her she keeps nature in balance.

I have seen the beauties of winter ugliness even on a dull, freezing, darkish winter day. I went to my lecture and somehow ended up in one of our university cafeterias. That was the moment when I realized where all the students from Mendel square are. Winter might have prevented us from enjoying the Sun, but it also made us meet indoors and enjoy warmth of friendship and, preferably, a very sweet hot drink. There is never a moment more precious than the one when your hands frozen from the deadly wind touch a cup of fresh hot chocolate, or when your numb cheeks start moving upwards as you laugh with your friends. It might be a pathetic excuse for all the mess outside, but it is enough to brighten one's day and give a reason to the weather as it is.

On another occasion when I entered our UNI ground, I found myself in the very heart of a snow battle. No matter which programme you study or which faculty you attend, you are welcome to partake in a fight! First it feels like a friendly fight for fun, then it transforms into the fight of two sides – the snowy and the snowier one – and then, when fighting for your life, you realize, you're actually fighting your way out of the battle in order to save some spare fingers and toes before they go deadly frozen. It may take five hours to dry your clothes, but those fifteen minutes of 'snowing' over your peers are so much worth it that you don't care anymore. It is as legal to become a child, as it is legal for winter to come. I take the advantage of the former to prosper from the latter – even if only for a few moments. My thanks go to all those who try to enjoy it the way I did during that snow fight. There must be something magic going on at our university, as whenever I feel blue, I come to school and things change. I may not know when this weather ends, and I may not know how to make people feel somehow positive about it, but one thing I know for sure is that winter in Brno is not the same as winter at Masaryk University.

To Club or Not to Club

I went abroad as an exchange student and the experience opened my mind. Not only was it a school of life with daily lectures, but it also absolutely changed the angle upon which I was looking at the world, people, and the whole experience. Sometimes I stood in my own surprise at how different life at university may be when in a foreign country. Since the first day of my stay my mind has been processing information about how antagonistically things may work and how much attention is being (or sometimes should be) given to a single student visiting a strange land. After I came back, I devoted bits of my attention to how these things work at Masaryk University.

The first and the most important fact is that they actually work. Never have I been so surprised as when I realised how incredibly much attention is being given to the international students at MU. Most of that attention is produced by the International Student Club (ISC) at MU full of people of good will, time to volunteer and ability to cheer up whoever forgets to wear a smile. ISC is a non-profit and non-political student organisation that became part of the Erasmus Student Network in 2004. Its activities serve hundreds of international students with loads of fun and help each semester and I had a chance to be a part of it. I became a tutor. If a student from abroad comes alone without a friend, he may be sure of getting one at his arrival. Tutoring is about being awake when your student gets lost in the middle of the night, and also about reviewing your whole life at the police office during 4 hours of waiting for a single stamp. The official part of it is help, while the unofficial one soon turns out to be a friendship. Once a tutor takes care of a student, they undergo most of the amusements produced by ISC together. Whether attending board game sessions every week, whether doing sports, whether wanting to learn new language or know the diverse faces of Brno, whether wanting to go for a trip or an excursion, and finally, whether wanting to party hard every other day – you may. ISC provides extensive scale of activities and regular sessions including Country Presentations – the best fun one can have with exchange students.

Masaryk University has not, however, prepared ground only for short-term international students. My eyes opened wider than usual at the sight of a list of all the possible and impossible student clubs that exist here. I became a part of some of them and can tell that on top of the fresh new info for you curriculum vitae, you can get involved in what you love doing and spend your free time wisely, while still having fun. I love writing, so I went for the book club and ended up as an editor, illustrator, graphic designer and an author of several pieces for the departmental magazine. It's like preparing oneself for the 'real' life, while still sitting in a comfortable armchair for students who can back off whenever they feel like not doing it. But what if you don't want to work on a magazine? You don't have to! Maybe you'd like to perform in a drama club. Or you want to find a group of devoted hikers. Maybe your interest flows in the direction of singing in the choir, or you want to become a majorette? Do you want to watch movies and have it as a programme of your university club? For some it has been always their dream to work in a radio – well, there you go! All of such clubs are founded at the Masaryk University.

I have realized lately that some students are more grown-up than others. They don't want to watch movies in their club anymore, and they don't want to write poems for their magazine. They want to do the adult stuff, and they do it well. Mostly it is because they have the opportunity to do it – at their university. If you for example study psychology, you may join the psychologists association; if you study sociology, the easiest thing is becoming a part of the sociologists union. Then there are clubs which already offer a sort of working experience – you become a member of a club where you apply your juridical skills, you may as well join the other medical students and carry your research ideas through, or you may become a part of those large-scale whole-university clubs which cover a great deal of various social, cultural, as well as international activities.

It all may sound a bit exaggerated, or it may sound too nice to be true, but it is the way it is. You want to be in a club – you can be in a club. I joined some of them and I never want to get out. It's as if they paid you with precious experience and all you gave in return was a bit of your time and enthusiasm. My personal experience is getting a job actually thanks to participating in a university club. As everything in life works as a chain of actions and reactions – so does life at university. The only thing for you to do is care.

Why would you stay at school when you have no classes??

Or Just Another Story by Olie and Moe, this time at the Faculty of Arts and Social Studies

The Sun was shining high when Olie woke up. It was a good party yesterday, he thought to himself. If only Moe hadn't come so late from school… He missed the best part of it.

            Olie and Moe were friends from high school. They sometimes acted as one, but when it came to the decision what to do after high school, their opinions differed much. Moe chose university life, meeting new people, trying to figure out his professional path, and postponing the dull image of a working man's days. Olie's attitude towards it was negative. He despised all those book-carrying students who to him seemed to be too proud of being part of the university world. “I don't like them acting as if their brains have gathered all the knowledge of the world,” he was used to saying. Moe usually ignored his friend's remarks, knowing that it may have been only out of sheer jealousy that Olie couldn't get on with people who openly expressed their fondness towards university.

            When Olie woke up, he felt like meeting Moe for lunch, so that he could have fun provoking him when telling all about the party he had missed.

            Moe's phone rang straight after he got out of the class. It was Olie: “Hey man, what's up today? Wanna get lunch somewhere?”

            “Sure thing,” replied Moe, “meeting in front of the Faculty of Arts, you remember, right?”

          It was one of the first spring-like days after quite a moody winter time. Moe explained that he hadn't come to the party on time because he got satisfyingly stuck at the faculty with his friends.

“So you actually didn't have any class, just stayed at school for fun? Why would you stay at school when you have no classes??”

 “See, you ask why, instead of asking why not…  Because it's fine over there! You have lots of people all around with all of whom you have something in common, you have space for work, place for coffee, you can even party there! Just come with me, man, I'll show you around.”


          Olie hesitated for a while. He always felt insecure when being at the university ground – a place he did not belong to. Though not really delighted at the idea, he agreed since there was nothing better to do. Moe took him to the two faculties he attended – first the Faculty of Arts, then the one of Social Studies. He knew Olie would like it if being in his place. They were the same by nature, though deadly varied at attitudes towards things. As they entered the first faculty, they got through the outer building and ended up in the yard. Olie saw nothing of what Moe had in his mind – image of a bunch of students sitting on grass and laughing like crazy, or that group of weirdos who always played with a ball that looked like a ball but was not a ball at all. He tried to explain the atmosphere, but couldn't reach Olie's understanding.

“And come on, man, it's just the end of winter! Where do you think people go when the Sun comes up? There's plenty of grass, greenery, benches and trees… Do you know how beautiful the smell in the whole yard is when these flowers bloom?”

“Moe, you speak like a woman!”

“I speak like a man who likes his university and perceives that there is much more to it than only studying. It's never only studying here… never.”

One can hardly put another person in his place, even if endlessly talking and describing. Many things in life enter our minds through our emotional perception rather than our rationality. We may be rational in class, but stay fools when we get out. Olie's prejudice towards university students was unfair and unjust, and he secretly knew it, but would never admit that he could like going to university.

            The first stop was at Krmítko – a cafeteria with everything and anything, including good prices. “There are several like that. I like this one, 'cause it's cosy and the walls are crazy, look at the paintings… if you could put those pictures of yours together, you could exhibit them here. And hey, have a look at those two… the one in the white T-shirt is Veronica. I used to have classes with her…Her English is as good as the coffee she makes. And that coffee, Olie, is damn good, haha!”

Okay, so they have nice girls here, good and not expensive coffee, food, sofas and a big teddy bear. Oh, and table-football. And club rooms. And there is another place like this on the other faculty. And on those others probably too. I guess it's not that boring when you have to wait for the class, but still…

“Look, if you're really bored, we can go downtown,” Moe disturbed Olie's thoughts.

“Nope, it's okay. You wanna show me anything else?”

And so they went to the Faculty of Social Studies. Olie's eyes were not big enough to take in a wholesome picture of the main hall where some people were sitting at tables, definitely doing something non-scholar on their laptops, and some were even lying on those wide and high and wooden-like steps leading down to the other Krmítko. Moe sometimes mentioned some student's theatrical group that gave out ironic plays on how it works – or doesn't work – at uni. This must be the place then, quite perfect for a small performance. As they were about to leave the hall, Olie caught sight of some people sitting on sofas. Sofas in halls, tables in corridors, cafés at school… all a bit different from what he imagined.

 “Now, I know you're hungry as hell, so how about we grab something down here and eat it out?” asked Moe. Olie nodded with his stomach empty and his head full of unexpected thoughts. He didn't know at the moment that 'eating out' meant going nearly to the roof of the faculty building. Strange glass pyramids were scattered all over the place. Olie did not realize it in the hall, but those pyramids were actually the windows so that a bit of the sky could get inside. It was peaceful out there, with fresh spring air and lunch, finally.

“So this is why you stay at school when you have no classes, right?”

“Yeah, combined with people. They're not that big-headed as you think. They're normal people trying to get a degree and pursue what they want. Same as me, and possibly same as you.”

“I see. Same as you and same as the future me.”

“Are you joking?”

“Nope. I'm going for the degree! But only because you have those sofas…”