Idaho State University students have opportunity to learn Turkish language from Fulbright teacher during 2010-11 academic year

Because it has received a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FTLA) in Turkish, Idaho State University will offer Turkish language classes during the 2010-11 academic year.

“This is a one-time opportunity for the next academic year for students to take Turkish language classes at Idaho State University,” said Sharon Sieber, ISU professor of Spanish and ISU campus Fulbright program Advisor. “The U.S. State Department has classified Turkish as a critical language and it is a Fulbright Strategic Language.  Students interested in a Fulbright to Turkey would be eligible to apply after taking a full year of Elementary Turkish at ISU.”

The new ISU Fulbright teaching assistant is Sebnem Kurt, from Kirklareli, Turkey, who is currently a university instructor at Akdeniz University in Antalya. She has been teaching English Language Training there for the last three years. There are about 25 languages worldwide Fulbright has categorized as strategic.

Turkish is not an Indo-European language, belonging to the Altay branch of the Ural-Altay linguistic family. The languages of this family are called Altaic because they are believed to have originated in the high lands around Central Asia’s Altay Mountains.

Her arrival this summer will allow Idaho State University to offer Turkish Language classes in the fall, LANG199 (Section I), “Elementary Turkish I,” and offer LANG199 (Section II), “Elementary Turkish II” in the spring. These classes are open for registration and fulfill Idaho State University Goal 10B requirements. An added benefit is that there is no lab requirement for students taking this class.

Other languages in the Fulbright strategic category include Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Dari, Gujurati, Hausa, Hindi/Urdu, Indonesian, Japanese, Kazakh, Kiswahili, Korean, Krygyz, Malay, Mongolian, Pashtu, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Tagalog, Tajik, and Thai.

Countries participating in the program are Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mongolia, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine Territories, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Korea, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

For more information on this Turkish language class or ISU Fulbright programs, contact Sieber at siebshar@isu.edu.###