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Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales

Coordinates: 48°49′39″N 2°22′35″E / 48.82750°N 2.37639°E / 48.82750; 2.37639
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Inalco
TypePublic
Established1669
FounderJean-Baptiste Colbert
Endowment14M€
PresidentJean-François Huchet
Academic staff
200
Students8,000
300
Location
Paris
,
France
Websitehttp://www.inalco.fr

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (English: National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations),[1] abbreviated as INALCO, is a French Grand Etablissement with a specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. Its coverage spans languages of Central Europe, Africa, Asia, America, and Oceania. With 104 languages taught as of 2024, this institution is currently the world's largest provider of language training courses.[2][3][4][5]

It is also informally called Langues’O (IPA: [lɑ̃ɡz‿o]) in French, an abbreviation for Langues orientales.

The INALCO logo is made up of the school's acronym, each part of which is translated into languages written in non-Latin characters, corresponding to Inalco's fields of teaching and research.[1]

History

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  • 1669 Jean-Baptiste Colbert founds the École des jeunes de langues language school
  • 1795 The École spéciale des langues orientales (Special School for Oriental Languages) is established
  • 1873 The two schools merge
  • 1914 The school is renamed the École nationale des langues orientales vivantes (ENLOV)
  • 1971 The school is renamed the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales or Inalco (National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations)
  • 1984 Inalco is recognized as a Grand établissement
  • 2010 Inalco becomes a founding member of Sorbonne Paris Cité
  • 2011 Inalco centralizes all of its taught courses under one roof at 65 rue des Grands Moulins in Paris[6]

Teaching

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Organization

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Inalco is structured partly into departments, whose perimeter corresponds to a region of the world, and partly into professionally-oriented courses or sectors.[7] Departments may be monolingual or group together several language sections. Inalco's courses prepare students for careers in intercultural communication and training, international trade, teaching French as a foreign language, advanced international studies, and Natural Language Processing.

List of departments and sections (and their languages)

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List of sectors

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  • International trade[20]
  • Intercultural communication and training[21]
  • Language didactics[22]
  • International relations[23]
  • Text, Computing, and Mutlilingualism (NLP)[24]

The Institute offers initial training at Bachelor's, Master's and PhD levels, as well as continuing education open to external students and professionals. Foreign students can take French as a foreign language courses. Short, à la carte courses, evening classes and “practical certificates” are also popular.

Success and failure

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Compared to other French universities, many Bachelor programs at INALCO show high failure rates, i.e. high proportions of students failing the course in their end-of-year exam (65% of success in the 3rd year, compared to 74% nation-wide).[25][26] This is particularly true among students specializing in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Russian and Arabic historically the largest departments of INALCO.

As an example, here is a table[citation needed] with approximate student numbers, indicating rates of success and failure in the first, second, and third year of the Department of Japanese Studies.

Level Total students Successful students Success rate
First year 500 250 50%
Second year 300 150 50%
Third year 150 110 73%

An explanation sometimes given[by whom?] is the difficulty of these courses, or the high level required by INALCO. A more likely cause is the absence of any entrance examination: any student can register in any course, regardless of their true motivation or academic level. But this is not the case of the Japanese Studies Department anymore for more than ten years 2015 (only around 300 of the 1200 to 1300 applicants are accepted to enter the cursus each year). Many students select a language out of a superficial interest in a country or culture, or due to individual connections, yet without the commitment to thoroughly learning those difficult languages. This issue is particularly acute for first and second-year students; those who reach the third year are much more motivated, and thus show much higher rates of success.

Research

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Overview

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Research at Inalco combines area studies and academic fields. Researchers study languages and civilizations that are increasingly in the spotlight – Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and as far as the Arctic – and are central to the major issues of the 21st century. Fourteen research teams, often partnered with other research organizations, PhD programs, and a publishing service form the backbone of research at Inalco. Inalco also has a project management and knowledge transfer service.

The research teams, administration offices, and doctoral school are housed in a building dedicated entirely to research, with access to a full range of support functions: assistance in preparing research proposals and grant applications, organizing scientific events, looking for partnerships and funding, publication support, internal funding, and communication.

  • 14 research teams (see below)
  • 270 faculty members
  • 300 PhD students
  • 100 scientific events per year

Research Teams

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Local units:[27]

  • CERLOM (Centre d'Etude et de Recherche sur les Littératures et les Oralités du Monde)
  • CERMOM (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche Moyen-Orient, Méditerranée)
  • CREE (Centre de Recherche Europes-Eurasie)
  • ERTIM (Équipe de Recherche Textes, Informatique, Multilinguisme)
  • LACNAD (Langues et Cultures du Nord de l’Afrique et Diasporas)
  • PLIDAM (Pluralité des Langues et des Identités: Didactique – Acquisition – Médiations)

Joint research units (UMR):[28]

  • CASE (Centre Asie du Sud-Est) - with EHESS and CNRS
  • CeRMI (Centre de Recherche sur le Monde Iranien) - with Sorbonne nouvelle, EPHE, and CNRS
  • CESSMA (Centre d’études en sciences sociales sur les mondes africains, américains et asiatiques) - with UPC and IRD
  • CRLAO (Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l'Asie orientale) - with EHESS and CNRS
  • IFRAE (Institut français de recherche sur l’Asie de l’Est) - with UPC and CNRS
  • LACITO (Langues et Civilisations à Tradition orale) - with Sorbonne Nouvelle and CNRS
  • LLACAN (Langage, Langues et Cultures d’Afrique) - with EPHE and CNRS
  • SeDyL (Structure et Dynamique des Langues) - with IRD and CNRS

Presidents

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From 1914 to 1969, presidents were called administrators.

Dates Name Discipline Comments
1796–1824 Louis-Mathieu Langlès Persian language Died in 1824
1824–1838 Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy Arabic Died in 1838
1838–1847 Pierre Amédée Jaubert Turkish language military interpreter during the Egyptian campaign 1798
1847–1864 Carl Benedict Hase modern Greek Died in 1864
1864–1867 Joseph Toussaint Reinaud Arabic Died in 1867
1867–1898 Charles Schefer Persian Died in 1898
1898–1908 Charles Barbier de Meynard Turkish, Persian Died in 1908
1908–1936 Paul Boyer Russian language Died in 1949
1936–1937 Mario Roques Romanian language Died in 1961
1937–1948 Jean Deny Turkish Died in 1963
1948–1958 Henri Massé Persian Died in 1969
1958–1969 André Mirambel modern Greek Died in 1970
1969–1971 André Guimbretière Hindi Died in 2014
1971–1976 René Sieffert Japanese language Died in 2004
1976–1986 Henri Martin de La Bastide d’Hust Middle East civilisation Died in 1986
1986–1993 François Champagne de Labriolle Russian Vice-president from 1971 to 1986
1993–2001 André Bourgey Middle East civilisation
2001–2005 Gilles Delouche Thai language (Siamese) Died in 2020
2005–2013 Jacques Legrand Mongolian language
2013-2019 Manuelle Franck Geography of Southeast Asia Vice-president from 2007 to 2013
Since 2019 Jean-François Huchet Economy of Eastern Asia Vice-president from 2013 to 2019

International

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Inalco conducts research projects in more than one hundred countries and offers joint programs with foreign universities. This enables Inalco students and their international counterparts to enhance their studies through immersive experiences. Inalco also provides distance learning courses through videoconferencing and online resources, offering instruction in Arabic, Armenian, Burmese, Estonian, Modern Hebrew, Inuktitut, Lithuanian, Malagasy, Quechua, Sinhalese, Slovak, and Swahili.[29][30]

Inalco is an active member of Sorbonne Paris Cité, with 120,000 students, 8,500 faculty members, and 6,000 technical and administrative staff. Branches have been opened in Singapore, Buenos Aires and São Paulo.

Inalco is in 2007 a founding member of the Consortium for Asian and African Studies (CAAS), with the School of Oriental and African Studies (UK), the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Japan), Leiden University (Netherlands), and the National University of Singapore.[31] Since, they have been joined by Columbia University (USA), the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (South Korea), and Shanghai International Studies University (China).[32][33][34]

The foundation strives to develop the preservation, study, transmission, development and interaction of languages and cultures in France and around the world with projects involving the institute's expertise: education, research, advancing knowledge and skills in a globalized world.

More than 120 nationalities are represented by Inalco faculty and students. The institute, along with its teachers, students and partners, organizes over a hundred cultural events a year.[35] Inalco also participates in several international film festivals (such as the Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema) and makes every effort to share its knowledge and expertise with society.[36]

Notable professors and alumni

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See also

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Notes

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a.^ Institute: ተቋም [Amharic]; NAtional: национален [Bulgarian]; Languages: שפה [Hebrew]; Civilizations: 文化 [Chinese]; Oriental: شرقية [Arabic]

References

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  1. ^ "welcome to Inalco website". Inalco. 7 March 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  2. ^ "Les langues et civilisations enseignées à l'Inalco | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  3. ^ "Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales". Top Universities. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  4. ^ "Au cœur de l'Inalco : par amour des langues". L'Etudiant (in French). Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  5. ^ "L'Inalco, « seul endroit au monde où autant de langues africaines sont enseignées » - Jeune Afrique.com". JeuneAfrique.com (in French). Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  6. ^ See map.
  7. ^ "Departments, sections and streams | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  8. ^ "Africa and Indian Ocean | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  9. ^ "South Asia Himalayas | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  10. ^ "Southeast Asia and Pacific | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  11. ^ "Arabic studies | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  12. ^ "Chinese studies | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  13. ^ "Korean Studies | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  14. ^ "Hebrew and Jewish Studies | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  15. ^ "Japanese studies | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  16. ^ "Russian studies | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  17. ^ "Eurasia | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  18. ^ "Europe | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  19. ^ "Languages and cultures of the Americas | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  20. ^ "International trade | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  21. ^ "Intercultural communication and training | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  22. ^ "Language didactics | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  23. ^ "International relations | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  24. ^ "Texts, Computers, Multilingualism | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  25. ^ Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales - INALCO (Report) (in French). High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education. 2018. p. 21.
  26. ^ Hcéres, Rapport (15 January 2014). Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales - INALCO (Report) (in French).
  27. ^ "Local research centres | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  28. ^ "National Research Centres | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales". www.inalco.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  29. ^ "Formation initiale à distance". 13 October 2020.
  30. ^ "Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalc…". FUN MOOC (in French). Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  31. ^ "CAASagreement" (PDF).
  32. ^ "CAAS_Appendix" (PDF).
  33. ^ "Appendix_HUFS_Admission_20110310" (PDF).
  34. ^ "appendix_SISU2017" (PDF).
  35. ^ "L'Inalco en chiffres". Inalco (in French). 25 September 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  36. ^ "INALCO Jury - Festival des Cinémas d'Asie de Vesoul". www.cinemas-asie.com. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
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General

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Research teams

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48°49′39″N 2°22′35″E / 48.82750°N 2.37639°E / 48.82750; 2.37639

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