Skip to main content

Lukáš Michalík | KCL

| Naši absolventi
I was drawn elsewhere, but today I’m glad I studied philology

Lukáš Michalík always enjoyed sports, especially football, which he played as a boy for Slovan Liberec. Today, he makes his living working as a sports editor at Czech Radio Radiožurnál. Even though he had always had his sights set on journalism and got his masters in that field, he completed his bachelor's degree in philology at our Department of Czech Language and Literature. And he definitely doesn't regret it.

Can you tell us a little about what it’s like to be a radio sports editor? What are you in charge of? Do you also go out into the field?

The work is quite diverse. A lot of it involves taking turns in the newsroom, where we prepare the sports news and read it on the Radiožurnál broadcast, or we produce streams. Radiožurnál broadcasts non-stop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so each day three people alternate shifts at the sports desk. In addition to this, I also spend quite a lot of time in the field. Czech Radio tries to cover all major sporting events both at home and abroad, so naturally, Radiožurnál editors are at all football and hockey league games. I mostly cover football in the department. In addition to the Czech league, from time to time I attend matches of Czech clubs in European competitions, or sometimes the national team.  We provide commentary during live broadcasts of prestigious matches and report on the results of others. During my three years at Czech Television, I have already had the chance to travel abroad for work several times. In 2019 I attended the European Games in Minsk, the Canoe Sprint World Championships in Szeged, and watched the national football team play in Kosova, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Unfortunately, there was less travel last year because of the pandemic, so I’m hoping the situation will get back to normal soon.

As a boy you certainly had a favorite commentator. Who was it? Have you ever met him? What was that like?

I wouldn’t exactly say that he was my role model, but as a football fan I’ve always enjoyed the work of Jaromír Bosák. I still consider him to be the best Czech football commentator. He’s maintained a high standard for a long time, I like his wordplay and the creative comparisons he makes. After all these years I still enjoy his commentary. I was with him and several other journalists with the national team in Kosovo and Montenegro. Even though that’s as close as we got, it was still an interesting experience for me.

You are a Liberec native, after high school you came straight to our faculty. Weren’t you drawn elsewhere? People from Liberec often leave to study somewhere else, what made you stay here below Ještěd?

To be completely honest, I was also drawn elsewhere. After high school, I already knew that I wanted to study journalism, but I didn’t get in. I won’t lie, at the time philology at TUL was more of a back-up than a reflection of my burning desire to pursue Czech studies. But looking back, I don’t regret the path I took. I met a number of inspiring teachers and classmates in Liberec. I also stayed at home so I saved my family money for housing and other expenses that would have been associated with studying in another city. I was able to hold down a job and save money, which came in handy when I got my master’s in journalism at Charles University in Prague.

Can you tell us how Czech philology prepared you for your subsequent journalism studies and current profession?

Every journalist needs to have a precise knowledge of Czech. That was already clear to me when choosing a university, which is why I applied to philology.  Specialized subjects like syntax, lexicology, morphology and others gave me a completely different view of the language. One suddenly has deeper insight and thinks more about Czech and its use. In retrospect, I see that studying Czech was very beneficial for my current profession.

Although it hasn’t been that long, do you ever think back on your student days here in Liberec? What sticks out in your memory?

As time passes, I generally remember the good things. Of course, life wasn’t always a bed of roses. Studying philology was fairly demanding, at least for me. I had a great deal of trouble with certain subjects and was ultimately forced to take an extra year to graduate. Despite that, I have fond memories of that time. A close-knit group of excellent people gradually formed in our field, some of whom I still see today. I also have fond memories of the professors, their down-to-earth approach and a number of really interesting lectures and seminars. If I had to pick one favorite memory, it would be the literary excursions in East Bohemia. As far as I know, that tradition continues to this day and I would definitely recommend it to all students.