Modern Mongolia Field Course
Located in the heart of Central Asia, Mongolia is one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies. The Mongols conquered the largest land empire in world history, leaving Mongolian speaking peoples throughout different parts of the world. Mongolian is spoken by around 7 million people, living in Mongolia and provinces within China, Russia and across Central Asia. The relationship between Australia and Mongolia has been growing in recent years with over 30 Australian companies investing in Mongolia. The Australian government has been sponsoring in-country study programs through the New Columbo Plan. With this funding, since 2017 The Australian National University has been offering student scholarships to study within an in-country intensive program in Mongolia. As a new democracy, a country with huge mining resources and one of the world’s largest commodity exporters, Mongolia faces significant social, economic and ecological challenges. Learning Mongolian at the ANU complements studies in history, anthropology, archaeology, geology, international relations, political science, environmental science, development studies, economics, linguistics, law and public health.
Mongolian Language Program
The ANU Mongolian language program is designed to be student-centred, flexible and supportive. The ANU is the first university to offer 4 Mongolian language courses as a minor online. Our textbook is all online including weekly vocabulary lists, audio, video files and cultural notes. The courses are a convenient, easy and a fun way to learn a language. Students start by learning Modern Mongolian and the use of the Russian Cyrillic script. At the end of the first year of study, students are able to converse about daily life in Mongolian. This progresses to an intermediate level, where students learn how to converse using a more complicated sentence structure and idioms, as well as how to write short reports and essays. Through learning the language, students are also introduced to Mongolian culture and traditions.
Study options
The Australian National University is the first university offering Mongolian language classes in the Southern Hemisphere and first online Mongolian language classes within a university program. Students work through conversation and written exercises each week, before meeting for a 90 minutes tutorial each week. In class, we review the week's material and explanation of the grammatical structure of words and sentences. Mongolian can be included in studies at the ANU in a variety of ways:
- As a minor in a variety of degrees
- As a language in a Diploma in Languages qualification
- As an elective within a degree, or studied as an individual course
Undergraduate courses Mongolian 1, Mongolian 2, Mongolian 3 and Mongolian 4. See ANU Programs and Courses for study options. See Open Universities Australia for studying Mongolian 1-4 as subject.
Our program is available to any ANU students, external students and interested members of the public through Open Universities Australia. The School of Culture, History and Language, where the courses are based, places a unique emphasis on both in-country and online experience. For more information on exchange programs and in-country language opportunities, visit the ANU global programs or enquire education.chl@anu.edu.au.