Professor Masako Fidler, Czech Animation and Language in Context

Professor Masako Fidler believes that language always exists in context. And, because of this, the teaching of language should reflect that reality. In both her language courses and content courses, Professor Fidler aims to teach the context of language. In order to achieve that goal, Fidler’s teaching of language expands beyond the singular Brown classroom to become an interdisciplinary, cultural collaboration between students and the world. In order to give CLS students a glance into the Czech program at Brown, I recently talked to Professor Fidler about her work and teaching.

In Brown’s Slavic Studies and Linguistics Departments, Professor Fidler teaches Czech language, Czech-related studies, as well as sociolinguistics. Her research focuses on media discourse analysis and corpus linguistics of digitized texts in Czech, including how linguistic research can contribute to analyzing (and stopping) the spread of disinformation, and how to use linguistic analysis to help better understand the gap between global and domestic perception of the Czech culture and nation.

For students interested in the interdisciplinary study of culture and language, Professor Fidler offers a course, CZCH 1000: Dimensions of Czech Animation: Contexts, Interpretations, and Dialogs with the East, also cross-listed in the Modern Culture and Media Department. She was motivated to teach the course by a desire to offer a course topic very specific to Czech culture—animation—which also allows for paths to discussion of history, culture, society, and linguistic analysis. Before the course, Brown didn’t offer any other specifically Czech culture courses, even though Czech animation has a wealth of works and history of interest to Modern Culture and Media concentrators, RISD students, and more. Professor Fidler hoped the course would inspire students to learn more about Czech culture and the Czech language, and, of course, she hoped she would learn something new from teaching the course as well.

For a taste of what is taught and discussed in her Czech animation course, Professor Fidler mentioned how animation became a refuge in media for film directors creating work under a Stalinist, socialist regime; the freedom of the animated genre allowed these directors more leeway to respond to political situations in their art. Karel Zeman, who animates using manual (without CGI) trick motion, and Jan Švankmajer, a surrealist artist, were two of the creators whose work Fidler teaches.

Language-related or cultural content courses are not just opportunities to learn; they can also offer pathways to opportunities beyond college, and in the professional world. Professor Fidler mentioned how students from her course have studied abroad doing active camerawork at a film studies school in Prague, received Fulbrights, and even gone into academia as professors.Studying a language or a culture even within the limits of a semester course at Brown can lead to the opportunity to continue studying or engaging with that culture far into the future—and even unique career opportunities.

The Czech program is one of Brown’s relatively smaller language programs, but the value and fulfillment in learning a language with just a few people in your classroom are just as profound as learning a language with, say, 20 other students in the room. Professor Fidler mentioned that “a little bit of Czech can go a long way,” meaning that even if you can’t converse fluently with a person who speaks Czech, the ability to use some Czech language in communication still breaks a barrier, allowing for more genuine communication, especially in parts of the country beyond the cosmopolitan city of Prague.

So how does Professor Fidler teach the cultural context of a language, while in an American classroom? She emphasized that language is not just about grammar, vocabulary, or structure; language belongs to a Cultural Script. To illustrate this, she gave the example of ordering food in a restaurant in the United States versus in the Czech Republic—while in the US we wait to be seated by a host, in the Czech Republic it is expected that you seat yourself, often with someone you know. By teaching language as part of a Cultural Script, Professor Fidler hopes that her students will be prepared for the actual daily interactions that happen in the Czech language—not for an artificially constructed textbook scenario.

Furthermore, in the case of Czech, the language has two distinct forms, one which is spoken naturally at home, and a “standard” language and grammar that is taught and used at school and beyond. Studying Czech without understanding this distinction would also set up students for confusion and misunderstanding if they were to actually experience a Czech-speaking environment. Professor Fidler mentioned how she tries to tailor her teaching of colloquial versus standard Czech depending on what the individual student’s reasons for learning the language are.

You might be surprised to hear that in the 1990s, there were more students in Czech program at Brown than in Russian—28 in the introductory course. The cultural context of a language (as positioned within the broader worldview of the United States, for example) changes over time; languages popular now might not necessarily be in a decade. But regardless of the American education’s positioning toward a particular language or culture, every language has its own rich world of history, culture, and society to explore, and is worth the study of students here in the US at any point in time. And to reiterate what I said above, students from Professor Fidler’s Czech courses often go to the Czech Republic with Fulbright Grants; she also serves as a faculty liaison between Brown and a Czech university, which offers a full scholarship every summer to students interested in Slavic and Central European cultures and multidisciplinary exchange in departments across the humanities and STEM.

Professor Fidler currently offers Czech 100 and Czech 200, with independent studies for students who want to pursue the language beyond that. She emphasized that students in the Czech program tend to be highly motivated; they also get the benefit of fewer students in the language classroom—meaning more practice time, more personalized feedback, and more opportunities to build relationships with the instructor and classmates. Students interested in learning more should look at courses listed as CZCH on Courses@Brown, and email Professor Fidler with questions!

The Czech program and Professor Fidler’s animation course are just one set of opportunities at Brown that can connect to a constellation of opportunities—professional positions, study grants, personal connections, interdisciplinary learning, and more. It’s also a reflection of  the type of thoughtful consideration that goes into language instructors’ course planning and teaching philosophies. When you’re shopping for courses in future semesters, don’t neglect cultural content courses and language programs that are new to you; even if you don’t have any prior experience or background knowledge, it might allow you to see a constellation of new opportunities and connections that used to be hidden to you.