The aim of this paper is to discuss some of the challenges resulting from the fact that interpreting classes at the Institute of Translation Studies (Charles University, Prague, Czechia) are attended by students whose mother tongue is not Czech (double degree students from Universität Leipzig or Erasmus+ incoming students). Drawing on the results of action research conducted in two different interpreting courses, we describe the challenges that this non-standard situation represents for the teacher, how teaching methods need to be adapted, what implications this distorted directionality has on student assessment, how this combination of students with different mother tongues can enrich interpreting seminars and their participants, and what benefits it brings to the interaction between teacher and student and among students.