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Welcome to a tour of languages and teachers in the past at SSEES!
On these pages teachers of Czech and Hungarian, David Short and Peter Sherwood, give their recollections of getting a job at SSEES in the 1970s, the changing environment of language teaching –in and outside of SSEES, and the fascinating encounters one had because of being a teacher of Czech and Hungarian in London.
Below you can also taste some šljivovica (the Serbian and Croatian name of a fruit brandy which is popular everywhere in the region) and savour student experience at SSEES in the late 1960s.
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Above: The front cover of the 1960s student magazine, Velesh. Velesh was real: a taxidermy bull’s head, symbolising a Slavic fertility goddess, was kept by the president of the student society.
Read more about the mysterious disappearance of Velesh, Mrs. Clunn, and student life in 1968 (PDF).
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The article above: ‘A Postgraduate’s View of the Life in SSEES’ appeared in the 1969 January issue, which was edited by Peter Sherwood, who later taught Hungarian at SSEES between 1972 and 2007 (now a Professor of Hungarian Language at Culture). The definition of “research workers” (PhD students) as “a large introverted minority” within the School is one that seem to have stood the test of time! (See larger image (PDF)
Recruited by SSEES...
| ...to Study Hungarian in 1967 (PDF) | ... to Teach Czech in 1973 (PDF) |
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Photos of Senate House and Russel Square in 1973 from David Short’s collection
SSEES the Spy School and a Bag of ApplesRead about the School, the institution and its staff, in the late 1960s and early 70s (PDF) |  |
 | Degrees in the 1960s and an Old-New Idea: Area Studies! |
Memorable Encounters and Translation“As THE teacher for this or that language, one always met all the linguistic guests arriving in London.” Learn about where knowing the right word might take you…(PDF) |  |
60 Years of Serbo-Croat:
It is instructive to note that in the programme of the diamond jubilee the slot reserved for šljivovica was longer than everything else put together. It is even more noteworthy that among the names of student-actors performing the Renaissance play Dundo Maroje a certain David Norris appears (now Professor of Serbian and Croatian Studies, Head of Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies at the University of Notthingham). ŽIVEO SRPSKOHRVATSKI JEZIK – LONG LIVE THE SERBO-CROATIAN LANGUAGE!
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Read the summary of the first 60 years of Serbian and Croatian teaching at SSEES (PDF)
