Will There Be Higher Standards of Czech Exam for Permanent Residence in 2021?

In the last 10 years, the number of foreigners living in the Czech Republic with permanent residence permits has increased to more than 590 000. Every foreign non-EU national submitting the application has to pass the Czech language exam.

Last year, officials wanted to raise the exam language difficulty from A1 to A2 level. Demand to learn Czech is getting higher every year and therefore more unique ways to learn Czech are arising too.

In 2019, the Ministry of the Interior stated plans for 2021: “A priority is also to provide measurements to ensure that every applicant for a permanent residence permit will pass Czech language exam at A2 level.” 

Plans to raise the standards of the Exam in The Czech Language for Permanent Residence to A2 level for non-EU applicants would certainly increase the demand for Czech language courses and learning tools. The reason for the change to A2 level stated by the Ministry of Education was that the A1 level is insufficient for conducting a conversation.

Right now, it is still enough for expats to have A1 level of the Czech language in order to apply for a permanent residence permit according to the official website. 

Will this change happen as planned? A few days before 2021, there is no new official information.

Kamila Fendrychová, the tutor of Czech for foreigners & founder Czech at KaFe, was asked by the Czech Flashcard app Vocabulary Miner about the issue. She reached out to the National Institute for Education receiving the following answer: “No new official information is available but due to pandemic, the unofficial date of change could be at the earliest in the second half of 2021, after June 2021.” 

Whether and when the change will occur is unsure, nevertheless, the expats are interested in learning Czech more and more.

“Every year there are dozens of new students interested in learning Czech,” Nela Hamouzová from language school Jipka established in 1998 teaching 53 languages says. 

Language school Jipka is one of 57 language schools in Prague that according to Jazykovky.cz offers Czech courses for foreigners. Around 180 students per year learn here how to speak Czech.

Daria Somova from relocation services Move To Prague helping over 1500 foreigners yearly observes the same trend: “There are 50% more people interested in learning Czech than last year. We, therefore, cooperate with language schools and language apps like Vocabulary Miner to provide clients with such language support as well.”

Best way to learn Czech for foreigners?

Rising interest in the Czech language creates an opportunity for new best ways to learn Czech. Besides language schools like Jipka or CzechIn there are new Czech podcasts like SlowCzech, an online learning platform for lecturers CzechTime motivating the rising number of Czech online lecturers, or a vocabulary app called Vocabulary Miner by Czech studio SKOUMAL. 

The Flashcard app Vocabulary Miner helps with not only Czech vocabulary but also with other 15 languages. It has a simple design, smart algorithm for effective learning, and unique expat Word lists under keyword #saymore and “ex-pat”. 

Basic Czech vocabulary can be quickly learned with the Word lists containing 1000 Czech Words in Vocabulary Miner, since 1000 most common words in a language account for 80% of everyday conversation

“In Vocabulary Miner every foreigner will learn basic Czech they need for everyday life. We in Move To Prague create our own Word lists in the app and share “Expat Wordlists” made by Vocabulary Miner, too,”  Daria Somova adds.

The absolutely best way to learn Czech is to combine the tools and day-to-day activities that fit you, personally. Language teachers and coaches, therefore, got together unusual language learning tips to quit the usual learner’s excuses and learn Czech every day without a big effort.