My stay in Karviná

Autor: Sohei Ito

KARVINÁ - “Time flies like an arrow”. This is a Japanese proverb to express time passes so fast. I really feel that this proverb is true. My stay in Karvina was fantastic in both work and private time. In my work, I engaged in a multi-agent simulator and its analysis with process mining techniques. I have already been working on this topic with a researcher in this faculty, but I deepened my understanding through my stay. I would love to continue our collaboration after I have returned to Japan. In my private time, I got many nice friends and I enjoyed the friendship a lot. From time to time, they invite me to their homes or to trips to natures such as Beskydy mountains and Malá Fatra, and also to cities such as Brno, Český Krumlov and Lednice. My hobby is mountain-climbing, so I enjoyed myself at mountains in Czech Republic.

Through my one-year stay in Czech Republic, I found several interesting differences from Japan. The first is climate. The temperature is generally lower than that of the most part of Japan. It is not a bad thing because, for example, the summer is more comfortable. Especially, humidity is lower and the temperature in evening is much better. Moreover, Czech buildings are well-insulated. Thus, it is comfortable inside buildings. The second is that cities in Czech Republic are more covered with greenery. Buildings are not as dense as in Japan, so the space between buildings are filled with grasses. In addition, I was amazed that people have cottages and gardens separate from their flats. I envy it. The third is that public transportation is cheap. For example, if we take a train from Karviná to Prague (about 400km), it costs around 300 Kč. If we travel the same distance in Japan, we must pay about 2,000 Kč with Shinkansen (without Shinkansen it will be about 1,200 Kč but it is not practical). The last is the easiness to travel abroad. In Japan, we say “海外” for foreign countries. Literally means “out of the sea” (“海” means sea and “外” means outside). Therefore, the foreign countries are far from us and sound like another world. Traveling abroad is special for us and we are a little bit afraid of it. Here in Europe, however, it is easy to travel abroad by train, bus, car or even walk, especially in border cities like Karviná. It is wonderful.

This year also gives me a chance to study Czech language. It is said that Czech is one of the most difficult language and now I know it is true. However, thanks to the help of my friends, I can understand most of everyday conversation. However, I still have problems in some case declensions so speaking and writing correctly is more problematic. Moreover, my vocabulary is still poor. I would like to continue studying Czech.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Roman Šperka, Dr. Dominik Vymětal, Ing. Radmila Unucková, Alena Rusinová and all the other staffs in this faculty. Můj pobyt byl super! Uvidíme se znova někdy jindy!