Chinese students dominate the Burmese language classroom

Yangon University of Foreign Languages. Photo: Wikipedia / RockRangoon
Yangon University of Foreign Languages. Photo: Wikipedia / RockRangoon

Students from China outnumber other groups of foreign students at the Yangon University of Foreign Languages, Eleven reported this week.

Among the 249 foreign students studying Myanmar language at the university in the 2016-2017 academic year, 112 are from China. There are also 73 from South Korea; 28 from Japan; nine from Thailand; eight from India; six from Turkey; four from Vietnam; three from Laos; two from Bangladesh; two from Italy; one from Mexico; and one from the US.

“Most of them come here to learn [Myanmar language] to do business in Myanmar. Most are from China. For those who want to do business and learn Myanmar language, we are drawing new [business language] curriculums,” an official from YUFL told Eleven.

YUFL also has courses in other languages. 629 students are studying Japanese; 526 Korean; 451 French; 440 English; 396  Mandarin; 352 Russian; 324 German; 259 Thai; 28 Italian; and 14 applied linguistics.

A total of 1,363 international students have enrolled in YUFL between the university’s opening in 1988 and the 2013-2014 academic year.

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