Evans Liyambo
A glimpse of a student’s life in Brno.
Hello, I am Evans and I am from the Republic of Zambia. When I came to the Czech Republic in 2016, I first had to study the Czech language for a year in a small, beautiful town called Poděbrady because my study programme is in Czech. Learning the language wasn’t exactly easy, but hey! they say every beginning is difficult and so was the case with learning Czech. A couple of months later, I was able to speak and understand the language but with useful tactics such socializing with the locals and practising anywhere where I got the chance, in parks, shops, market, on buses etc. The locals are responsive and quite friendly when they see a foreigner speaking their language. I appreciate learning the language because it gave me a better perspective of the richness of the Czech culture and history. Besides, being at a language school means learning with other international students and its okay because they also have the same situation as you and you get to learn about other cultures too.
After a year, I came to Brno at the Brno University of Technology (BUT) to study Electronics and Communications Engineering at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communications (FEEC). The Brno University of Technology is a renowned university in Europe and the biggest technical University in the Czech Republic. The quality of education is excellent with modern laboratory equipment and organised in a way that promotes teamwork and critical thinking. Of course, it can be demanding which is expected of any prestigious university but with self-discipline, being organised, always preparing for laboratory exercises, doing laboratory reports and projects on time and frequently going through the lecture notes, everything works smoothly. Before going to university, I had this view that lecturers would load you with tones of assignments that you can’t bear to make you fail. Don’t worry the lecturers do not want you to fail, on the contrary, they are willing to help you and have flexible consultation hours.
The university has a lot of curricular and extra-curricular activities e.g. students’ competitions and conferences where you get the opportunity to realize your ideas and present them, musical festivals, balls, etc and offers courses in sports every semester for sports lovers. Accommodation is proper, affordable and very convenient. Student’s canteen provides a variety of cuisines at cheap and affordable prices.
Brno is known to be a students’ city. It has a lot of foreign students and a lot of activities. The city itself is nice with nice places to visit e.g. art galleries, museums, planetarium, a lake, a number of parks, a zoo etc. Transport is really cheap with students discounts that allow you to freely travel not just through the city of Brno but the whole of the Czech Republic and other European countries. One other thing I love about this city is the availability of work. A study permit also allows you to work and you can easily find part-time/full-time jobs or Internships both during the semester and during holidays with good pay.
I am now in the third and last year of my bachelor’s study and planning to do a joint master’s programme in English between the Brno University of Technology and Vienna University of Technology (TUW) in Austria. Programmes like this one are plenty at BUT through programmes like Erasmus. Come and be part of an international community that will help you to have a balanced social, work and academic life and help you to become a competent expert in your field.
