The current management of the 2nd Faculty of Medicine has announced an ambitious plan for the best international students. Vlasta Dvorak (6th year) and Bente Bull-Hansen (5th year) are the first students who will sample getting half of the annual tuition back. (As I was told, they did not expect it to be already started this year so they felt quite surprised about it.)
I asked the girls for a fifteen-minute interview... After about two hours talking, we were unfortunately interrupted by the waiter who had to show us the door as they were closing the café. But do not be afraid. I re-typed only a small part of the talk 
.
An opening question: Where are you from?
Vlasta: Illinois, USA
Bente: I am from Oslo, Norway.
Why did you decide to study in the Czech republic?
Vlasta: To try something different. My parents are Czech. My father graduated from the 3rd Medical Faculty.
Bente: Also to try something different. I wanted to study medicine abroad... because of the experience. It's important that medical students study in many different countries and they come together. And not so many universities have English programs. If you go to France, you have to study in French, for instance. And I'd been to Prague before and really liked it.
I wanted to ask you „Why did you chose the 2nd Faculty of Medicine?“ but a few minutes ago,
I found out you did not. (Vlasta started her studies at the 1st Medical School and Bente at the 3rd Medical School – aut. comm.) So why did you chose the other Medical School?
Vlasta: I didn't know there were any others with an English parallel. I just knew about the 1st.
Bente: I only knew that all the Norwegians studied at the 3rd Faculty. So I just I applied for the Faculty I knew about.
If it's not too personal, why did you transfer then?
Bente: I transfered mainly because of pediatric specialization. There's more possibilities in that field at Motol and the hospital is bigger.
Vlasta: I also thought Motol would be a better place to do the clinical years.
What did you consider to be the biggest problem when you started to study here?
Vlasta: In my opinion, there is a lot unnecessary subjects you have to study before you get to the point in clinical subjects. Some of them were unnecessarily hard to pass. I don't know if it's the same at the 2nd Faculty. I mean biophysics, biochemistry...
Bente: ...a lot of theoretical subjects. And of course it was hard for everybody. Also to be new in the city. Well, I know I am the one not knowing the language but everything you have to do, even pay your bills, takes so much longer time. So in general, information and misunderstandings – it was difficult to know where the lectures were, where to go... Now it's a lot easier, of course .
Was it the reason why international students wanted the Big brother, big sister system to be started, wasn't it?
Vlasta: Yes, there are more and more students at the lower years. And it's good to give them opinions. I knew the similar program from the 1st Faculty and I really like it.
Bente: I wish I had someone telling me about accommodation and everything. Someone you could e-mail to or phone to in case you'd need some advice.
What does motivate you to have good study results? Did you have to study a lot?
Vlasta: Depended on the subject. When you attend class it helps in your exam a lot of times because the examiner knows you have an interest.
Bente: In general, I really like medicine and I'm also scared of coming back home to Norway not knowing what I'm supposed to know. I mean you can't know everything perfect, but you have to know something... And of course motivation is that the exams are oral. You don't want to come for an exam unprepared, it's horrible feeling...
Vlasta: ...that's true. You fail the exam once and you don't want to fail any more. Some professors are scaring enough even before the exam... But seriously, sometimes exams are more about luck than knowledge.
Do you think the money you get back can be the motivation for the other students next year?
Vlasta: Yes. Because it is a lot of money. Well, it's true that studying here is cheaper than studying in the America, but of course if you get some money back, it's enjoyable.
Bente: Yes, definitely! It's a lot of money!
How do you feel about Czech and international students relationships? Are there any?
Bente: I think if there were more relationships with Czech students it would be a lot of fun. When I was in the 3rd Medical Faculty we discuss the same thing because we didn't know any of the Czech students. Then we started to have some classes with Czech students. And we liked it.
Vlasta: The system as it is now isolate Czech and international students and there are few possibilities to meet. We could have some classes together, maybe some practical classes...
Bente: We could also make some unofficial meetings, parties...
Vlasta: ...if we were younger...
And what about relationships between international students themselves? Is it difficult to get along with different nationality students?
Vlasta: No, it's not a problem. There are always individuals that don't like each other, but it's normal I think. Otherwise, there are no problems.
Bente: In my class, there are really nice people and we're all friends... Well, we're only three .
Vlasta: I have friends of many different nationalities and it's very interesting, you know, we are from Sweden, England, Kuwait, Cyprus, Canada... In medicine you have to work with different kinds of people, so sometimes it's also good practice for that.
Thanks for the interview very much.
-jr-
The Best Student Awards were given to Bente and Vlasta by the Dean.
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