Courses: Department of Central Eurasian Studies

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Introductory Azeri
Catalog Number CEUS-U 105/520
Shahyar Daneshgar

Based on modern language instruction standards, this class will stress a communicative/interactive approach. Öztopçu’s Azerbaijani Reader will be the main textbook for the course. During the coursework, the following main topics/themes will be studied in the class:

· Greetings, leave-taking expressions
· Families, occupations, nationalities, cities and countries
· Telling age, dates and times, birthdays
· Languages, money, prices, shopping
· Giving directions, transportation, places, weather
· Entertainment, theaters, TV, concerts
· Shopping, food, restaurants, Azerbaijani cuisine
· Parts of the body, health, illness, hospitals and medications
· Travel and accommodations
· Making phone calls, post office, holidays, signs
· Writing letters

Every day at least a portion of class time will be devoted to the cultural aspects of the Azerbaijani society. Below are some of the topics and sources that we will be studying and exploring together:

Cultural, historical and linguistic overview of the Azeri people.
Azerbaijan International Magazine’s “Socio-linguistically Speaking” articles published in every issue since 1992 will cover the foundation of cultural and socio-linguistics aspects of the class.
Television and films will complement the rest of the cultural subjects.
Personal experience and observation of the instructor and other native and non-native speakers will also augment the teaching materials.
In addition, students will attend additional cultural events such as lectures, films and concerts, related to the Central Asian, Turkic and Islamic world.