Czech language courses are offered at 47 different colleges and universities in the United States. Since Czech is not one of the largest languages in terms of number of speakers, very often there are specific reasons, why a department of foreign languages would offer it. One of these reasons has to do with the presence of a significant Czech ethnic community within the service area of the institution. The community can either be extremely passive towards Czech language instruction leaving it entirely to the discretion of the institution, or it can advocate for the Czech language classes as a cultural symbol. This paper will consider those two opposite poles, and what ramifications they might have for course content, and outreach to the respective ethnic community.