Sep '25 (edited) • Who we are? 🫂
My life story-Jiří Borč has become not only a networker, but also a successful entrepreneur, podcaster, and community builder. His story inspires us and shows that the possibilities for growth are limitless.
My name is Jiří Borč. I am 44 years old. Already when I was 11, I was studying an English–Czech dictionary in the forest. I started with the word “abandon.”
Later, I read my first book in English, The Hobbit. Then, at the Californian Sun School summer camp, I met an American named Roger (see link 1). He liked running, and I talked with him for 14 days. To this day, he is still a family friend.
25 years ago, I came to a vocational school for cooks and waiters, the Hotel School in Klánovice. The local headmaster mistook me in the hallway for a student — I was 18 — and told me, “Get to class, the bell has rung.” I replied, “I’m the new English teacher,” and he said, “Sorry, professor, the staff room is that way.” Then I found my cooking/waiter students playing cards on the table. It took me half a year to gain proper authority, and after that, they only played under the table. In the end, I was the chief examiner for their graduation exams. I was 18, and so were they. To this day, when I go to the Hilton or the Pupp Hotel, the head waiter greets me: “Good evening, professor,” and I get dinner for free.
After that, I began teaching for big schools such as James Cook, Glossa, Skřivánek, Presto, but also small agencies like Hermes, Kulička, Britannica, Lingua Sandy, and others — mostly company courses at Česká spořitelna, Vodafone, and other corporations. I learned how to make long-term plans and report hours in the Mycat system. Later, as part of my studies at CZU in Prague, I went abroad on an internship with AIESEC (see link 3) to Turkey, to teach English to little children as part of a development project.
I had my own young teaching assistant, Esra, wearing a turban, and I lived in a small Islamic town in the middle of the country. But the children were amazing. When I first entered the classroom, they stood up and recited: “How are you, teacher, thank you, and you? We are fine,” in one breath. It took me twelve months to teach them to say the same pre-learned sentence in two parts — to ask and then wait for the answer.
Relationships with local girls were complicated. I dated a girl for half a year, then once I held her hand in the street, and she told me: “sokakta olmaz” — which I translated that evening from my dictionary as a strict ban: “not in the street.” After that, I had a romance with a married girl — I didn’t know it at the time. When her husband beat up her classmate just for walking beside her, I almost flew home to the Czech Republic out of fear. But I stayed and ended the relationship immediately.
To this day, I still have friends in Turkey — Elif, Funda, and Murat — and I keep going back. Toward the end of my stay, I traveled through hospitable “Kurdistan” on the Syrian border and other parts of the country.
My next work, this time as a volunteer, took me to England, where I cared for people with disabilities 15 times, studied at Wolverhampton Polytechnic University, and met Olivier, a Frenchman I still visit today. In England, I also had a stepfather, Terry W., a former elite RAF soldier, who taught me a lot. I also made a short trip to the Netherlands, where, besides the coffeeshops, I met the love of my life, a Japanese woman, Toshiko-san, at a Rembrandt exhibition.
I continued volunteering in Belgium as a youth ambassador in parliament, and I also helped build children’s playgrounds in France.
I traveled five times through the USA, where I experienced all kinds of natural disasters: a tornado near Highway 66 in Washington — my future American wife and I hid under a mattress in the bathtub; in the eye of the tornado it was silent, the leaves stopped moving. Then, while traveling through Indiana from Chicago, it started raining, poles fell down, we managed to drive through the water, but there was no way back. It was the biggest flood on regional CNN in ten years.
There was also a blizzard in the Rocky Mountains with three meters of snow. Photos available on request. I also went to New York on a trip with my high school when I was 13. I wanted to play Magic cards in a gaming shop on 24th Street, where it was forbidden to go — the trash cans were burning after dark and Black guys loitered around.
Back in Prague, I also founded the online school Iguanalanguages and gathered many references. But for the last 12 years, my inspiration has been Tomáš Havrda, mentor and business architect, with his community ICA — the family of free entrepreneurs (see link 4).
I produce podcasts (see link 5) where I share stories in English with interesting people,and networking events in English where I connect people (see link 6).
I have also created courses (English — see link 7 — and Czech for foreigners online — see link 8).
I want to thank my mother Ila, sister Ila, my ex-wife Jana, my father, Timik and Eli, my niece and nephew, and all my friends for their support so far.
Thank you for your attention. Do you have any questions?
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My life story-Jiří Borč has become not only a networker, but also a successful entrepreneur, podcaster, and community builder. His story inspires us and shows that the possibilities for growth are limitless.
