With a suitcase to the library

In February 2013 I got a scholarship to study Media and Communication at De Monfort University (DMU) in Leicester, UK. After a busy summer 2014, it was time to turn it into reality. I left to England with one and only vision. Take classes that could shed new light on my perception of communication. After acing most of my classes there, all of which went quite deep under the surface of each problematic, I believe I have succeeded. The whole stay exceeded my expectations. I met friends from all around the world, took first few steps on the path to handle a DSLR camera, did some traveling and more.

What did I learn exactly?

In Leicester, the most multicultural town of ‘the Kingdom’, there are two places which are always crowded. Pubs and libraries. Try to guess which one of of these places stays open all night?

A different way of stuyding

Long story short, if you enter the Kimberlin Library in the early morning, say 4 a.m., you won’t be there alone. When you meet someone on his/her way there dragging a suitcase on wheels it is not a thing of fashion, the luggage is crammed with books and sketches. The way one starts a conversation with students at DMU goes most of the times like this: “When do you finish your classes mate? Are you going to be in the library at 3 p.m.?” In some cases, especially on Wednesdays and the weekends (don’t ask me why), the answer may be: “Yes, sure meet me up on the 1st floor, I’ll be there all day long, gotta do some research”.

We also have libraries at Charles University in Prague. And good ones. But the way I see it, is that people just go there for a specific book issue and hurry back to their homes where they read it under a dim light. No wonder that we, Czech students, are not so used to group cooperation and general collaboration. Libraries are magical places and if you get to talk to people about the stuff you read there (if it’s allowed) you’ll end up remembering much more and about your studies from a more objective point of view. I’m not saying that Charles University, where I study, is any worse than DMU, but the attitude and enthusiasm for learning and creating new things was way more evident in England.

And then you come back…

I wish Czech universities weren’t so devoid of this enthusiasm and our perception of studying would change from “it’s such a pain” to “hey, let’s go learn something so we can create something remarkable”. I mean — come on — for most of us it is the last time in our lives when we get to actually ‘study’ something. Plus, unlike in many foreign countries, it’s for free!

My time in England opened my eyes in many ways. As a copywriter I seek inspiration on daily basis. The lesson from there was that I shouldn’t look only at business related texts and seek one-sided conversations, but also explore graphic design, broadcasting, photography, what happens outside on the street, etc.

What's the real lesson here?

During my time on the island I studied networked media, copyright restrictions, types of surveillance and tracking, semiotics, I learned how to decode types of talk on TV, I took a photography class and wrote a few scripts. This all has been an immense volume of inspiration. My place in Prague is now flooded with books and papers that I brought home to extend my knowledge in all the mentioned fields.

The biggest lesson for me was that all of the things I started abroad can be turned into practice back home. We also have extensive libraries. Only I don’t use them enough. We also have creative people. Only sometimes it’s hard to meet them. We also have exceptional rentable facilities, only I didn’t know about them. Enough with the excuses. After several months abroad I feel like I understand why Stefan Sagmeister goes every 7th year out of office to look for inspiration. But now it’s time to come back to ‘the office’ and put all the knowledge into practice.

I thank the Erasmus scholarship committee that enabled me to go through such an experience, and most of all, to realize that all the things I need to shift my freelance life forward were right there under my nose all along.