The Yunus Emre Institute happily welcomed new students to our A1.1 Turkish Language Course. These students will join a group of over 500 individuals in the DC area who learned Turkish through Yunus Emre’s program. The 13-week class will build the students’ foundational knowledge of both Turkish language and culture. After completing A1.1, our students can sign up for our A1.2 course to further increase their abilities. Both A1.1 and A1.2 are free courses because the Yunus Emre Institute believes language is one of the most effective ways to learn about and exchange cultures. The Institute believes that new cultural experiences should be available to everyone regardless of circumstance. These introductory courses will expose our students to Turkish through a combination of formal study and immersive conversations so that by the end of their time at Yunus Emre they will be able to comfortably converse in Turkish. Students who complete our entire A1 curriculum can take the Turkish Proficiency Exam to be recognized for their brilliant efforts.

During the orientation on September 9th, students met at our Institute’s office in DC to get an overview of what their Turkish language experience was going to be like for the rest of the semester. They received their textbooks and syllabus and discussed course expectations over a fresh cup of Turkish coffee. The students come from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds with different reasons for wanting to learn the Turkish language and engage with Turkish culture. One student spoke about how his mom, who is Turkish, tried to teach him the language when he was younger. He visited his family in Turkey this year but wanted to learn how to communicate with them more effectively. Other students said they wanted to communicate with their Turkish friends or colleagues on a more personal level than they would in English.

The course’s orientation was lead by Public Relations Director, Casey Kim, and her associate Jocelyne. Casey kicked off the orientation by showing a video introducing the students to the Yunus Emre Institute and celebrating its 10 year anniversary. Additionally, she mentioned the Institutions’ fully funded summer program that takes place in Turkey and provides a much more hands-on approach to learning about Turkish culture. The Yunus Emre Institute is excited about all of the progress that these students will make this semester and the experiences that they will be able to share with each other along the way.

The Yunus Emre Foundation is a public foundation formed to promote Turkey, Turkish language, its history and culture and art, make such related information and documents available for use in the world, provide services abroad to people who want to have education in the fields of Turkish language, culture and art, to improve the friendship between Turkey and other countries and increase the cultural exchange. If you are interested in learning or continuing to learn Turkish, please email washingtondc@yee.org.tr