By Gayane Mkrtchyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
A new book, “Textbook of Turkish”, has just been published and is the first of its kind in “East” Armenia.
The language study book is composed of 15 units, with lessons that include information on phonetics and the lexical and grammatical systems of Turkish. It includes proverbs and texts and pieces of classic Turkish poetry. It is being recommended by Armenia’s Ministry of Education and Science as an official university textbook.
The authors of the book are Aleksander Safaryan, head of the chair of Oriental Studies, Yerevan State University, Ahot Soghomonyan, Turkologist, and Tiran Lokmagyozyan, writer and journalist from Istanbul.
“It is surprising that having lived decades under the Turkish reign, even hundreds of years side by side, no textbook (in Armenian) was published before,” says Safaryan.
Safaryan says the book is a good tool for Armenian businessmen visiting Turkey, as well as for schoolchildren.
“The textbook itself is not meant for schools but we use it as there is no other one,” Safaryan says. “I think it is right to teach Turkish in certain schools. How could one dare be ignorant of the language of a mighty neighbor; it is connected with the country’s political, security, defense and economic functions.”
The Nersissyan College of Echmiadzin is the only institute in Armenia where, since establishment in 1991, Turkish is taught as a foreign language.
“At first everybody would be surprised and criticize it, like, how could one learn the enemy’s language. I had one answer to that – it’s the enemy’s language that should be known,” says Hamlet Nahatakyan, head of the gymnasium. “We are neighboring nations and still have things to do with each other. We study French, English, Spanish but we forget that Turkish is also utterly indispensable.”
The subject in the college is taught twice a week in the 5th to 8th grades. Nahatakyan says that after getting the new books they have decided to teach Turkish also in the 9th and 10th grade. The gymnasium has purchased 80 books.
Armine Hakobyan, a gymnasium teacher, says: “At first we had no book at all. We used our own sources for the teaching process. The new textbooks are the best way of teaching.”
She says children often protest against learning the language but when teachers make clear to them the necessity of Turkish to them the protest lessens.
“… we forget that Turkish is also utterly indispensable.”
“We should be able to know our neighbors well and the first precondition for that is a good command of their language. This is the key to all the issues,” says Hakobyan.
The authors say that after finding sponsors they will publish four other volumes. The current edition published with the support of Turkish-Armenian philanthropist Selma Iskenteryoze consists of 1000 copies. The book also includes three dictionaries (vocabulary, scientific terms, abbreviations).
“Up to now in universities Turkish was taught with Russian textbooks where the Armenian lingual thinking is not taken account,” says Safaryan.
Turkish has been taught in Yerevan State University since 1943. Today more than a hundred students study the language. There’s an officially signed agreement with Ankara University, a preliminary agreement has been signed with Ankara Middle East Technical University, and there has been student exchange.
September 21-26 the authors of the book participated in the second assembly of the city of Kars and presented the book, for which they were awarded a medal by the Kars municipality.
Yorumlar kapatıldı.