The Department of Japanese Language Teaching was founded in 1993, one year after the establishment of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University in 1992. The founding of our department is thanks to the efforts of Prof. Dr. Ahmet Mete Tuncoku, who was the first president of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University , and is currently a professor in the department. The department is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in Japanese Studies, particularly in teaching Japanese as a foreign language, in order to train qualified Japanese language teachers for secondary schools. It should be noted that our department is unique since we are the only institution dedicated to teaching Japanese as a foreign language in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as in Turkey . His Imperial Highness Prince Mikasa, Her Highness his wife and the Japanese Ambassador and Ambassadress to Turkey participated in the founding ceremony and planted a cherry blossom tree on the Anafartalar Campus.
The Japanese Department started with 3 Japanese instructors and 18 students. By the academic year 1997-1998, it had grown to 140 students (5 years) and 9 staff members. The strength of our department is that all language classes are mostly conducted by qualified native instructors of Japanese; students are therefore exposed to authentic Japanese language from the time of their enrolment. In addition, the department has adopted its alumni as research assistants since 1999-2000, and Turkish and Japanese faculty members co-operate closely for sustainable quality improvement in education and research. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Mete Tuncoku, who was the first president of the university, returned to our department from Middle East Technical University in Ankara in September 2003, and delivers lectures on Japanese Culture, History, and Turkey and East Asia Relations. Currently, our faculty members consist of one Turkish professor, one Turkish lecturer, nine Japanese instructors and five Turkish research assistants (all of whom are studying in Japan under state scholarship), and approx. 150 undergraduate students.
Missions
The two main missions of the department are:
Our department aims primarily to train qualified Japanese language teachers for secondary schools and provides not only practical language skills but also tuition in a range of subjects such as history, literature, linguistics, and language teaching. The department also tries to foster competent individuals for the education, tourism, and business sectors, and ultimately, to contribute to developing a bilateral relationship between Turkey and Japan . In addition to the two missions above, we currently exert efforts in pursuit of the following:
It has been more than 10 years since the foundation of our department; however, there are only two high schools that provide a Japanese programme. Therefore, our alumni find few teaching positions despite their five years of hard work in our undergraduate programme. We work strenuously to convince the Turkish Ministry of National Education to be aware of the importance of studying Japanese language and culture for the future generations in Turkey .
There are three universities that provide degree programme in Japanese: Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University , Ankara University , and Erciyes University . Other schools including Bogazici University , Middle-East Technical University , and Bilkent University offer Japanese as an elective course. Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University is now the largest institution for Japanese studies in terms of faculty and student body, and arguably offers the most efficient and effective educational quality within Turkey, too. Our students achieve outstanding results in scholarship selection by the Japanese government, the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, Japanese Speech Contests held in Ankara and Istanbul , and the Turkish labour market. The faculty members conduct research and present papers at international conferences in Europe, North America, and East Asia, and try to be a recognised centre for Japanese studies within and outside Turkey . The department is currently preparing to offer a master programme to enhance its pursuit of excellence in research and education.
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