Sara went to Czech Republic 5 weeks and developed techniques and skills to teach English in her own school in Portugal

Being only 29, Sara Lemos is a young entrepreneur who has already been running her own business for two years – Inglês 8-80 - a language school located in a small town of Portugal, focused on teaching English. It was a Facebook post that told Sara about the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program, to which she integrated after contacting ANJE – Portuguese Association of Young Entrepreneurs, one of the Portuguese contact points of the program, which gave her the opportunity to travel to the Czech Republic for five weeks. Sara spent time in three Czech preschools, aiming to learn more about teaching techniques and ways to make a business grow in this same area.

The Host Entrepreneur for Sara’s Experience was Family and Job, a nongovernmental organization aiming to bring together people and organizations with the shared interest to reconcile private and professional life, in which Sara was able to work directly with children, teenagers and adults. Despite not being a language school, Family and Job offered Sara the chance of following closely three kindergartens with English programs, in order for her to collect more inputs in that target.

Daniela Vašíčková, the Host Entrepreneur, is running five preschool centres in the Czech Republic and is also head of a network that reunites more than 100 preschools (as the competition between private preschool centres in the country is very fierce, English programmes have become an added value for the parents; thus, it is not uncommon to see many English-speaking schools). Daniela was searching for a young entrepreneur who would be interested in early childcare but, in the end, the combination language learning and preschool education turned out to be a great opportunity.

Teaching in Prague and Ceske Budejovice

Sara‘s exchange plan came out to be slightly different from the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneur’s usual plan, since it took place in three different schools: two of them in Prague and the other one in Ceske Budejovice, a city located South from the capital. This situation resulted in a great chance for Sara to gain different perspectives and build a more enriching Erasmus experience.

During her stay in Prague, Sara met with Daniela Vašíčková and Stepanka Tezka, Host Entrepreneurs, to learn about the Family and Job’s activities. The first school Sara attended was Orangery School Club, in Prague, where she actively participated in the school’s Summer Camp alongside two English and Czech teachers, both described by Sara as very helpful and always keen to explain more about teaching methods and the organization of both Czech and English programmes, being the school bilingual and offering the learning of both languages. Fortunately, that specific week held the theme “Around The World”, which of course granted a presentation about Portugal given by Sara in an English Session.­

The second school where Sara had the opportunity to be was Maxikova Jazyková Školka, also a bilingual school located in Prague, whilst the third school was a bit more far, in Ceske Budejovice. Overwhelmed by the kindness of all the staff, Sara followed very closely the school’s daily routine and met with all the teachers, specifically the English teacher with whom she built a demo lesson with the older children.

In Sara’s perspective, the first and third school were particularly enriching due to all the inputs received from all the teachers and their teaching methods. Considering the target – children aged between 3 and 11 – the activities were most focused on crafts, songs, story readings and game playing, never forgetting to create a base line within the approached topics.

The fact that Sara did not speak Czech and neither of the children spoke Portuguese was challenging, but also a positive way of stepping out her comfort zone and find different types of communication. Sara’s ultimate goal would be, in a near future, bring any of the teachers she met during her stay in Czech Republic and having them teach in her own school. That would be a tremendous pleasure, she says.

ANJE is one of the local contact points of Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs. If you are a Portuguese young entrepreneur aiming to evolve with a mobility experience out of the country or a host entrepreneur open to receive young talents in order to develop your business, check all the info about the program here.