Today, Turkish is a world language spoken by more than 200 million people in a wide geography in different dialects, and is a very rich world language in terms of vocabulary and expressive power, whose origins date back to the earliest periods of history.
A person who learns Turkey Turkish, which is a branch of the Turkish language that has interacted with many languages in the historical flow, will not only be immersed in a rich culture formed with this language, but will also have the key to understanding other branches of the Turkish language used in a wide geography.
With the developing technology, mass communication tools are used very effectively today. With the interaction established, new places are recognized and new friendships are established. These situations bring with them a potential in areas such as business, education and tourism. Turkish, one of the most ancient languages of the world and identified by UNESCO as the 5th language according to the number of people spoken in the world, faces an increasing demand day by day.
As Üsküdar University Turkish Language Teaching Application and Research Center (ÜSTÖMER), our purpose of establishment is to teach our language to foreign students who will study at our University and other people who have the desire and need to learn a new language. In this context, to support all kinds of activities to be carried out in the field of teaching Turkish to foreigners, to create classroom environments where foreign students can learn Turkish, not only to think of Turkish language as language teaching, but also to transfer our culture to students along with language and to organize out-of-class activities for this purpose, to establish relations with language teaching centers operating both in Turkey and outside Turkey and to share information on language teaching, to prepare an environment for academic studies on teaching Turkish to foreigners, to assist foreign students and lecturers in undergraduate and graduate studies within our university.
In parallel with Turkey's increasing power and importance in the region in the last 25 years, interest in Turkish language has also increased. The language training to be provided to foreigners who develop projects related to Turkey on various occasions, especially trade, and who feel the need to learn Turkish is also considered within the scope of ÜSTÖMER's mission. The fact that Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, is becoming a cosmopolitan city that hosts more and more foreigners every day makes it necessary to accelerate the studies in the field of teaching Turkish to foreigners.
Üsküdar University attaches special importance to the admission of international students, which is one of the priority policies of our country and YÖK. It is of great importance for foreign students who come to Turkey to study to learn Turkish at a certain level in order to start undergraduate or graduate programs. The Turkish Language Teaching Center, which has undertaken the important task of teaching Turkish to these students, also aims to contribute to the proper promotion of Turkey with its historical and cultural richness through the social and cultural programs it will implement.
Assist. Gör. Selçuk DUMAN
ÜSTÖMER Director