Czech sojourn pleases professor

"Adventuresome" is the word Dr. Michael Dick of Siena College in Loudonville uses to sum up the academic year he just spent as a visiting professor in the Czech Republic.

However, that one word doesn't begin to describe his experiences.

When his wife, Donna, earned a Fulbright scholarship to teach microbiology in Prague, Dr. Dick decided to take an academic leave from his position as a religious studies professor at Siena to go along on the trip.

Love for Prague

"I had gone for conferences [in Prague] a couple of times, and I fell in love with the city," Dr. Dick told The Evangelist. "It's one of the few cities in Europe that escaped the damage of World War II. The people are great, and the music -- you can find anything."

He offered his services as a guest lecturer to Charles University in Prague for free, and the college's Protestant theology faculty accepted. Thus, the Catholic professor became a teacher of Old Testament studies to graduate students who would mostly go on to become ministers in the Czech Protestant church.

When Dr. Dick asked for a list of students who would be in his classes, he learned that the university had no idea: They simply judged who had taken courses by who took the final exam.

In addition, many students lived on $300 a month and therefore didn't buy textbooks. If Dr. Dick wanted everyone to get some information, he had to create a PowerPoint presentation for the class.

Language

The language barrier was another challenge.

"I took Czech for eight or nine months, but it's a very difficult language. I got so I could read the Czech Bible, but with great difficulty," Dr. Dick noted.

He chose to teach in English, although his students submitted papers in Czech and he wrote his comments on them in that language. In fact, Dr. Dick's classes at Charles University were filled with students not just from the Czech Republic, but also from the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Germany, the United Kingdom and Norway.

Often, he said, a student with poor English skills would ask a question in French or German, and other students would call out the words their classmate didn't know.

Religious tension

Ironically, although the students were in the religious studies program, Dr. Dick found that the Czech Republic's turbulent history -- including rule by the anti-Christian Nazis and by the Hapsburgs, who forced conversions to Catholicism -- had created hostility toward religion.

One student told the professor that he couldn't bear to listen to Mozart's "Requiem" unless he forced himself to forget its religious theme.

However, the students were willing to struggle over that hurdle. Dr. Dick taught courses on the emergence of monotheism in ancient Israel; on the minor prophets (Nahum, Micah, Zephaniah and Jonah); on Israelite religions as known through archaeology, inscriptions and the Bible; and even a course on the Akkadian language, which he taught at both Charles University and at West Bohemian University in Plzen, 100 kilometers from Prague.

In touch

Dr. Dick got to know some of his students so well that he plans to stay in contact with them now that his time in the Czech Republic is over. He even helped one student get into Johns Hopkins University.

When he comes back in the U.S., Dr. Dick said he'll miss "sitting around a table [with] people talking in three or four different languages."

However, he's not finished traveling yet. Dr. Dick came home for just a brief time before heading off to Rome, Italy, where he had earned a Catholic Biblical Association fellowship to teach until January at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, run by the Jesuit religious order.

He will teach on the minor prophets to candidates for the Catholic priesthood. The professor joked that, having been taught by Jesuit priests himself, teaching at a Jesuit institution will be a way of paying them back for his education.

"I'm really excited," he said. "I'm looking forward to Rome."

(Dr. Dick said the university boasted its own pub, and he would often meet students after class to answer questions over a beer. Most students called him by his first name, and he was frequently invited to their homes or on trips to the countryside.)

Attending Mass in English

While in the Czech Republic, Dr. and Mrs. Dick attended St. Thomas parish in Prague.

Staffed by Augustinian priests, the parish holds Masses in English, Czech and Spanish, and boasts parishioners of 28 nationalities. Each language group has its own religious education program and participates in social justice efforts.

The professors were tickled that their adopted parish, founded in the 13th century, routinely prayed for its benefactors during liturgies: King Vaclav IV and Empress Maria Theresa, who ruled in the 18th century. (KB)

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