Chinese to be taught in Turkish high schools (also small Turkish - Uyghur comparison) / Artık okullarda Çince öğretilecek

Turkic languages extend into western China, meaning that Turkey will likely have an easier time finding teachers that speak their language to come to the country to teach Chinese as the language's popularity grows.

Source: hurriyet.com.tr (Turkish)

Artık okullarda Çince öğretilecek

Chinese to be taught in schools now

11 Eylül 2008
September 11 2008

Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı, Türkiye’ye gelen Çinli turistin artması ve Çin ile Türkiye arasındaki ticaret hacminin 15 milyar doları bulması nedeniyle, İstanbul, Ankara, Aydın, Nevşehir ve İzmir’de Çince eğitimi vermeye başladı. Çince dersleri 2008-2009 eğitim döneminde 7 okulda verilirken, bu sayı gelecek yıl itibariyle artırılacak.

The Ministry of National Education has begun education in the Chinese language in the cities of Istanbul, Ankara, Aydın, Nevşehir and Izmir due to the increase of Chinese tourists to Turkey and the trade volume between China and Turkey of 15 billion dollars. The Chinese classes will be held in seven schools in the 2008-2009 year, and this number will increase from next year.

Ticaret ve Turizm Öğretimi Genel Müdürü Saadettin Sabaz, Türkiye’de turizm ve ticaret sektöründeki gelişmeler nedeniyle turizm meslek liselerinde verilen İngilizce, Almanca, Japonca ve Rusça’nın yanı sıra Çince derslerinin verilmesi kararı verdiklerini bildirdi. Bakanlık, Çince derslerinin verileceği pilot olarak 7 okul seçerken, bu okul sayısının gelecek yıllar itibariyle artırılması amaçlanıyor.

The General Manager of the Trade and Tourism Education, Saadettin Sabaz, said that due to developments in the tourism and trade sectors in Turkey, tourism vocational high schools will have Chinese classes along with the existing English, German, Japanese and Russian ones. The ministry has chosen seven schools to have the classes as a pilot, and the number of these schools are to increase in the coming years.

Çince derslerinin verileceği 7 okul ise şöyle:

The seven schools to have Chinese classes are as follows:

(these are just school names so I won't be translating them)

“-Adana Nezihe Yalvaç Anadolu Otelcilik ve Turizm Meslek Lisesi

-Ankara Yenimahalle Anadolu Otelcilik ve Turizm Meslek Lisesi

-İstanbul Beşiktaş Anadolu Otelcilik ve Turizm Meslek Lisesi

-İstanbul Beşiktaş M.Ali Büyükanlı Anadolu Ticaret Meslek Lisesi

-İzmir Karşıyaka M.Ali Lahur Anadolu Ticaret Meslek Lisesi

-Nevşehir Anadolu Ticaret Meslek Lisesi.”

One interesting fact not mentioned in the article is that Turkey might have a much easier time later on to bring people in to teach Chinese given that the Uyghur people in the northwest of China know Chinese but speak Uyghur, a Turkic language, as a mother tongue. It can be a nightmare trying to assess the qualifications of a potential teacher from abroad especially when the people don't have a common language to communicate comfortably with, but if Turkey began to need Chinese teachers they could just put ads up in universities in Ürümqi in regular Turkish, and there will be no need to translate any documents into Chinese or worry about whether the prospective teacher will be able to handle living in Turkey while working there.

Here's an example of Turkish compared to Uyghur, from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Turkish: Bütün insanlar özgür, haysiyet ve haklar bakımından eşit doğarlar. Akıl ve vicdana sahiptirler ve birbirlerine karşı kardeşlik duygusu ile hareket etmelidirler.

Uyghur: Hemme adem zatidinla erkin, izzet-hörmet we xoquqta babbarawer bolup tuğulğan. Ular eqilğe we wicdanğa ige hemde bir-birige qérindaşliq munasiwitige xaş rox bilen mu’amile qilişi kérek.

That doesn't look very similar at first glance but that's because they use slightly different terminology, that is, they're not translations of each other. For example:

• hemme looks like Turkish hem (both, also)
• adem = adam (man). The Turkish text uses insan, human.
• we = ve (and)
  
• ular = onlar (they)
• bir-birige = birbirlerine (one other)
• qérindaşliq = kardeşlik (brotherhood/fraternity). q = k.
• kérek is like Turkish gerek (need).