For four weeks in August, the University of Silesia will host intensive Polish language courses—just as it has done every year for 35 years now. Thanks to the programmes of the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange, Polish language learners will be able to participate in both on-site and remote classes. The participants will be foreigners—students, lecturers, lectors and teachers from all over the world. They will come to Cieszyn, where, in the facilities of the University of Silesia, they will find accommodation and a place to study to improve their knowledge of the Polish language, gain better understanding of Polish culture, literature, and history, as well as get to know Poles and each other.
The inauguration of the 35th jubilee edition of the summer school and summer courses for Polish language teachers from abroad will take place on 2 August at 11.30 a.m. in the conference room of the University of Silesia in Cieszyn (ul. Bielska 62). It will be a hybrid event—approximately 190 participants will be present on-site, with another 150 joining us online. As part of the inauguration ceremony, Prof. Ryszard Koziołek, Rector of the University of Silesia, will present a lecture „Chłopi” i „Chłopki”, czyli Kuciel-Frydryszak uzupełnia Reymonta (‘Peasants’, or Kuciel-Frydryszak supplements Reymont). With this lecture, we want to commemorate the centenary of the death of Władysław Stanisław Reymont, Polish Nobel Prize winner in Literature, which falls in 2025.
During the jubilee edition of the summer school, we are expecting guests from all over the world. We will welcome both students and teachers (also those from Polish diaspora schools) from all over Europe, numerous countries in South and North America, Asia and Africa. Many students will come from universities with which the University of Silesia and the Summer School maintain intensive cooperation. Those include universities from Rabat and Agadir in Morocco, from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, from several Polish studies centres in China (in Beijing, Xi’an, Shenyang, Harbin, etc.), from Curitiba in Brazil, several Polish programmes in Germany, France, Italy, Georgia, Czechia, Azerbaijan, and others. Lectors and teachers will come from many places with historically rooted Polish communities—Argentina, Brazil, the USA, Great Britain, Ireland, and Hungary.
Polish language classes, workshops on knowledge about Poland, and methodological seminars will be accompanied by meetings, film screenings, trips (including virtual trips for remote course participants, but conducted live, in real time), concerts, picnics, and language games. Meetings between teachers and principals of Polish schools abroad are planned. Principals from New York, Beijing and Paris will come to Cieszyn, and principals from schools in Riga (the Ita Kozakiewicz Polish School with 450 Polish students!!!) and Budapest (the National Polish School in Hungary with branches in 10 cities) will join us online.
During the summer school, we intend to devote part of the programme to regional issues—participants will be able to see Upper Silesia and Cieszyn Silesia during trips, take part in proposed seminars about outstanding figures originating from Silesia, have fun and sing along with the ‘Karlik’ Ensemble, as well as watch the monodrama Godajōm mi Helmut (They call me Helmut) performed by Sławomir Rosowski based on the text by Alojzy Lyska.
Participants will learn about Poland during classes, at the cinema and in the theatre, while staging their own play, as well as in conversations with school’s guests, for example during an “evening with poets”. They will also test their skills on 15 August by taking part in the traditional ‘Polish Test’ and presenting their countries in the Meeting of Cultures and Traditions.
We have prepared plethora of attractions, which, we hope, will strengthen the participants’ motivation to learn Polish and encourage them to return to Poland, to Silesia, and to the University of Silesia.