Poland : Krakow
Krakow pictures
Group tuition of 20 or 30 lessons per week, special summer course, polish for business, private course.
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Tuition Programs
- 1 lesson: 45 minutes
- Minimum age: 16
- Schedule: from 9 AM to 3:30 PM depending on the program.
- All levels available
- Maximum 4 or 8 students per class. Prices accordingly.
- Social activities organized by the school
- During July and August, specail SUMMER course: 20 lessons per week. This course is combined with an interesting programme of additional classes which help to get to know Poland, its culture, history and citizens.
Language classes are aimed at developing the learners general language competence and the ability to communicate in an international environment and everyday situations, as well as at work and in social life situations. Throughout the course, learners expand their vocabulary repertoire and learn new grammatical structures which they practice in the context and, further, they improve their ability to communicate, read and write fluently and correctly.
The language course is accompanied with complementary Extracurricular Activities, which give the opportunity to get acquainted with Polish culture and tradition as well as with Cracow and its surroundings. Film watching, lectures on Polish history and literature, guided tours, pub evenings with Polish teachers, get-togethers with Polish students, barbecues and horse riding are included within the scope of Extracurricular Activities.
The curriculum includes a wide range of topics, among them: real life situations, Polish history, art, culture, literature and tradition, social problems, politics, media.
Reading and writing exercises are regularly given in the form of homework. Students have to dedicate approximately one hour daily to this individual work.
- POLISH FOR BUSINESS: 30 lessons per week, 4 students per class. This course is a combination of our Summer School of Polish Language and Culture in the morning followed by two daily lessons of Business Polish. Intermediate level required.
Courses designed for learners who are at least at intermediate level and who want to develop their ability to communicate in the modern world of business. During the course, they expand and practice their vocabulary related to areas such as: management, marketing, finances or advertising. They also learn the language of formal meetings, business correspondence, negotiations, presentations etc. Activities which simulate business events form an integral part of the course.
The courses take place in summertime along with Summer School of Polish Language and Culture. For organized groups or individual students the courses can be carried out at any other time.
- Teaching materials included .
- Multimedia area with computer for Internet and email (high speed).
- Test and certificate of attendance
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Starting Dates
For 20L/W, maximum 8 students per class:
Jan |
Feb |
March |
April |
May |
June |
July |
August |
Sept. |
Oct. |
Nov. |
Dec. |
13,27 |
10,24 |
10,24 |
14 |
5 |
2,23 |
7,21 |
4,18 |
8,29 |
20 |
17 |
1 |
For 20L/W, maximum 4 students per class:
Jan |
Feb |
March |
April |
May |
June |
July |
August |
Sept. |
Oct. |
Nov. |
Dec. |
20 |
3,17 |
3,17 |
7 |
5,19 |
9,23,30 |
each monday |
1,15 |
6,20 |
3,17 |
1,8 |
Polish for business (30 group lessons per week):
July 7th or 21st, August 4th
Closing dates.
Jan |
April
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May
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June
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August
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Nov.
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December
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6 |
21
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1
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19
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15
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11
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22 to 31
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Available options:
- Airport or train station transfer, one way:
Krakow airport: 60.
Warsaw airport: 205
Krakow train station: 30
- Our prices are available from January 1st to December 31st. These prices never include the Air Fare.
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Family, shared apartment or residence accommodation.
- Arrival on Sunday before tuition. Departure on Saturday after tuition.
- In family, single or double * occupancy bedroom, 0,1 (breakfast) or 2 meals per day (breakfast and dinner). maximum 30 minutes away from the school by public transportation.
- In shared apartment, single or double * occupancy bedroom. Kitchen, bathroom, living room are shared. No meal. Prices vary according to the place, the comfort, the surface.
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Residence, single or double* occupancy bedroom, no meal. Common kitchen at your disposal.
* for 2 people traveling together
Placement fees (once): 70 Euros
PRICES PER WEEK. Family: 95 (no meal), 107 (1 meal per day), 130 (2 meals per day).
additional day: 15, 17 and 21 euros.
To be paid on site the first day.
Apartment:
SINGLE occupancy: between 145 and 188.
DOUBLE occupancy: between 188 and 240 (price per room).
Residence: SINGLE occupancy: between 205 and 245.
DOUBLE occupancy: between 245 and 300 (price per room).
between means price range according to localization and comfort.
Our greeting families are recruited with great care. The criteria of selection are very rigorous and each family must satisfy a precise schedule of conditions: excellent morality, desire to communicate with their host, satisfactory social standing. We should specify that the families will only speak with you the language of the country where you will be. It is the principle of the immersion courses!
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Town's information.
Weather and Time in Krakow
About Krakow
The capital of Poland until the end of the sixteenth century, Krakow has been superseded by Warsaw, and is now the fourth largest city in the country, but is often still referred to as the country's cultural capital. The world-renowned Jagellonian University, Wawel Castle and one of Europe's largest market squares are all contained in one of the best-preserved medieval city centres in Europe. The largely unspoilt Old Town has now been declared a World Heritage Site.
Laid out in 1257, the Rynek Glowny (Main Market Square) is one of the largest medieval market squares in Europe - the centrepiece of a town plan which was, and remains, a remarkable piece of town planning. The grid-like pattern of streets surrounded by a tree-lined pedestrian avenue (Once the limit of the city walls), makes it easy even today to walk around the city. To the south, and connected to the Market Square by the long, straight Grodzka street, lies Wawel Castle, the seat of Polish kings from the eleventh to the early seventeenth century.
A few minutes walk south of the Old Town, and separated from it by Jozefa Dietla street, lies the old district of Kazimierz. Until 1880, Dietla was a tributory of the Vistula river, and Kazimierz an island. Best known as the old Jewish Quarter of Krakow, it is in fact divided into two distinct half, with Jewish Kazimierz occupying the NE part and Christian Kazimierz the SW part. Jewish culture flourished here from the 16th century until the outbreak of WWII, when the entire Jewish community of around 64,000 - a quarter of the city's population - was forcibly expelled to the Krakow Ghetto across the Vistula river, where they were either killed or transported to nearby concentration camps, including Auschwitz. At the end of the war, only 6000 returned, but few could settle. The remains of this prosperous Jewish community cover Kazimierz and its numerous synagogues have been preserved and restored and now house exhibits depicting pre-war life
Krakow Key Attractions
Rynek Glowny (Main Market Square)
Dating from 1257, this was one of the largest market squares in medieval Europe. Occupying the centre of the square, the Sukiennice (Cloth Hall) is filled with market stalls in its vaulted ground-floor passages. Along the sides of the building, pavement cafιs draw locals and tourists alike. A branch of the National Museum (see below) is upstairs.
Surrounding the square are impressive period houses and two of the city's most important churches. Kosciol sw Wojciecha (St Adalbert's), dates from the tenth century and is the oldest extant church in Krakow, but it is the Gothic Kosciol Mariacki (St Mary's) with its twin spires that catches the eye. Within the church is the fifteenth-century Chapel of Our Lady of Czestochowa, and Wit Stwosz's wooden polyptych and large stone crucifix, which is exemplary of this period of late Gothic art. St Mary's is open Mon-Sat 1150-1800 and Sun 1400-1800 and it costs Z3 to see the altar.
Also on the square are the Wieza ratuszowa (Town Tower) - the only surviving part of the town hall, it dates from the fourteenth century - and the restaurant Wierzynek, where monarchs came to dine during the council of 1364.
Zamek Krolewski (Royal Castle)
From the year 1000, when the bishopric of Krakow was established, Wawel has been at the heart of Poland's history. The seat of Poland's kings from the eleventh to the early seventeenth century, the majority of the castle is Renaissance in style (1504-35), although Romanesque and Gothic elements remain. Today, it is a museum, and among the treasures in the historic interior of the Royal Chambers is a collection of sixteenth-century Flemish tapestries, paintings and period furniture. The Crown Treasury and Armoury is open Tues-Sat 0930-1500 (Fri until 1600) and Sun 1000-1500. Also worth a look is The Lost Wawel exhibit, which showcases the excavated remains of Wawel's original buildings, including the foundations of the oldest known church in Poland, the early eleventh-century Rotunda of St Felix and St Adauctus. More whimsical is the Dragon's Den, a karstic cave reached by a spiral staircase. Extensive renovations in 2000 led to three floors of Wawel being closed to the public. Now that the work has been completed, the whole of the Royal Castle will open up once again, and, in addition to the permanent display, exhibitions on the Polish Royalty will be staged.
Katedra Wawelska (Wawel Cathedral)
Part of Wawel, this cathedral, also known as the Royal Cathedral, is the burial place of almost all of Poland's monarchs and was built in the early eleventh century by King Boleslaw the Brave after Krakow was made a bishopric. Although there are Romanesque elements, the overall impact is determined by the fourteenth-century Gothic structure. The relics of St Stanislaw, the patron saint of Krakow and Poland, are kept here. Of the many royal chapels, the Renaissance Chapel of King Zygmunt stands out. It is possible to climb the tower to see the 11-tonne Zygmunt Bell and enjoy the fine view.
Muzeum Narodowe (National Museum)
The museum's large collection is located in a number of separate buildings, including the Czartoryski Museum (see below). The Main Building houses a collection of decorative art, twentieth-century Polish art and Polish arms and national colours, in addition to temporary exhibitions. The Gallery in the Cloth Hall, Rynek Glowny 1/3 (tel: (012) 422 1166 or 423 2005) exhibits nineteenth-century Polish art and temporary exhibitions.
Muzeum Czartoryskich (Czartoryski Museum)
A large collection of ancient art from Greece and Egypt, as well as oriental artefacts, weapons and Turkish carpets can be found here. European paintings and sculpture cover the thirteenth to eighteenth centuries - the most famous works here are Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine and Rembrandt's Landscape with the Good Samaritan.
Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Krakowa (History Museum of the City of Krakow)
The museum's collection is spread over a number of sites. The branch on the Main Market Square occupies three burgher houses and displays objects from Krakow's earliest times. Other galleries showcase a collection of portraiture and antique clocks.
Stara Synagoga (Old Synagogue)
The memories of the Jewish community who lived in the Kazimierz district for centuries (up until the Holocaust) are collected in physical form here. Part of the Historical Museum of the City of Krakow, the Old Synagogue houses the permanent exhibit, Tradition and Culture of Polish Jews. The surrounding area had been largely ignored until Stephen Spielberg's film, Schindler's List, drew attention to the Kazimierz (there are also a number of sites around the former wartime ghetto, south of the river, which are included in tours). The only two functioning synagogues in Krakow - the Remuh Synagoga, ulica Szeroka 40, with cemetery attached, and the Isaak Synagoga, ulica Kupa 18, which shows documentary films - are located nearby.
Pictures taken in April 2005
Click on pictures to enlarge
Weather forecast
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