Martina Daňková

Learning Centre Support

After living abroad for 28 years I returned to the Czech Republic in 2015. I am originally from a small town in North Moravia. After I finished my A-levels in 1986 I decided to move to the big city – Prague – and worked there for a year for a printing company in their computer centre, while planning to move to Australia. However that was not to be and my journey took me to Germany, only 560 km behind the Iron Curtain.

I worked in a home for the elderly and in restaurants, while studying for my German A-levels. In 1992 I moved to Cologne to study translation at the Polytechnic and during my studies I found out that though I like languages, translating is not for me. I found interesting work at a small association as a team assistant and worked there for a few years. Later I worked for a small consulting company in the automotive industry. The company grew very fast and they decided to move most of the jobs/positions/people to Munich, so I decided to move to Edinburgh, where I worked at the University of Edinburgh for over 7 years.

I enjoyed my work and life in Scotland very much, but following the lost Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014, after 7 years in Scotland I decided to return to Prague just before Brexit happened. For the past six years, I have been translating and teaching German and English in a language school in Prague.

In my free time I like to read and listen to poetry, spoken word and stand-up comedians. I admire and love brilliant wordsmiths like George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Volker Piespers, Whitney Cummings, the Loud Poets, Sara Hirsh, …. I love to cook (and also eat) and every week I bake my sourdough bread. I like to go on long walks whenever I visit my parents who still live in the same small town in the Jeseniky.

I am happy to be part of team at the Parklane IS as of September 2021, and am looking forward to working with so many interesting, accomplished and well travelled people.