14 July
KNOWLEDGE of foreign language at this rapidly developing age is vital not only for social relation but also for job opportunities.
Yangon University of Foreign Languag-es has become a well known higher education centre where foreign languages are taught until the language skill can be used as a vocation. It had been producing many university graduates. Yangon University of Foreign Languages was established as a foreign language school in 1964. It became Yangon University of Foreign Languages (YUFL) in 1997.
YUFL Rector Dr Kyi Shwin said, “Nowadays many parents and students consider language as a basis for vocation or a career and thus many aim to attend YUFL and learn a language.”
“YUFL has existed as IFL (Institute of For-eign Language) for a long time before becoming a university. In its early days as foreign language school and even as IFL, it had taught foreign languages to graduate students in morning or evening classes. Now it has become a university conducting regular courses like other univer-sities,” he added.
8 specialized courses
YUFL provides matriculated students 8 specialized courses covering English, German, French, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai languages. The four year courses give Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree and Master of Arts and doctorate courses are also available. A B.A. degree is a four year course giving de-grees such as B.A. (English), B.A. (Japanese) etc. Course fees are same as the fees of courses given in all other Arts Universities said Dr Kyi Shwin.
University to be proud of in ASEAN
Master degree courses are available for all eight lan-guages. Doctorate courses are available for Chinese and Ko-rean languages. This is some-thing to be proud of as there are only about two universi-ties in ASEAN countries that provide doctorate courses for Chinese and Korean languag-es, said Dr Kyi Shwin.
In addition to this, a four, two and one year Myanmar language courses for foreign-ers are also available. These courses present a degree or a diploma, it is learnt.
Entrance requirement for this year
Students who passedthe matriculation examination in 2019 must have a total score of 400 or above in order to attend any course in YUFL for the coming academic year. If the application was for English language course, the applicant must score at least 65 in Eng-lish at the matriculation exam-ination, said Dr Kyi Shwin on this year’s entry requirement.
Applications will be accept-ed from 24 June to 23 July and after selection is made, a list of students accepted for this school year will be announced in early October. Courses will start in December.
Excluding foreigners a total of close to 800 will be ac-cepted for the eight language courses this year. Every year about 400 to 500 graduate from the university.
Once the KG+12 educa-tion system was in place, the current entrance system will be reviewed.
Courses available for graduates of other universities
Part time and full time language courses were also available for grad-uates from other universities. Di-plomas and course completion certifi-cates were present-ed after completion of the courses. In addition to this, translation courses to translate from a foreign language to Myanmar language and Myanmar lan-guage to a foreign language are also being conducted, it is learnt.
Foreign Languages Univer-sity with high employment opportunity
Even though YUFL is a university teaching foreign languages, graduates from YUFL were being increasingly employed in government de partments, private and foreign companies.
Majority of the YUFL graduates enter the work force and contribute towards it with their language skills. A good command of English increas-es a person’s employment opportunity in Myanmar and probably almost every country of the world. Anyone who can communicate in both English and Japanese senter our coun-try’s work force easily while more than 80 to 90 percent of graduates who majored in Japanese obtain an employ-ment within three months of graduation. These are one of the many reasons attracting fresh students to YUFL.
YUFL being a university where education reforms were being conducted, language ex-pert teachers were teaching the students while latest up to date international curriculum, books and teaching aids were being used.
YUFL Rector Dr Kyi Shwin urges students who attend YUFL to have lifelong aims appropriate with what was taught by the university. Only then can the teaching and learning system will be successful and the students will achieve good results and success in life.
By Thi Thi MinPhotos: Khin Maung Win (The Mirror)
Translated by Handytips
