East Asian Languages and Cultures

Mongolian Language Program

Mongolian
Монгол хэл

Mongolian is the language of Mongolia, a country bordered by Russia to the north and the People’s Republic of China to the south, east and west. It is the language of Genghis Khan, the first ruler of an empire that grew to encompass over half of the Eurasian land mass, making it the largest contiguous empire in the history of the world. Mongolian is currently spoken by about seven million people, including those in Inner Mongolia and some ethnic minority groups in Russia. Compared to many famously difficult Asian languages, Mongolian is a uniquely structured language and much easier to learn. It is written with the Cyrillic alphabet (like Russian), but its structure is similar to Korean and Japanese. While Mongolia was once heavily dependent on aid from the former Soviet Union, mining of copper, coal, tungsten, and gold, has brought a great deal of foreign investment into Mongolia in recent years, creating a need for people with skills in Mongolian to translate in business settings involving mining, engineering and international trade.

KU is one of only a few universities in the U.S. to offer Mongolian. Take advantage of this rare opportunity!

Mong 101

(3 credits) Elementary Mongolian I The first semester of Elementary Mongolian is designed to give the student basic communicative competency, including pronunciation and intonation, structure, and syntax. Effective oral and written communication is stressed.

Mong 102

(3 credits) Elementary Mongolian II A continuation of Elementary Mongolian I. Prerequisite: Elementary Mongolian I or the equivalent.

About the Instructor

Battsetseg Serj holds a B.A. in General Linguistics and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of the Humanities in Ulan Baatar, Mongolia. She previously served as chair of the English Language and American Studies Department at the State Pedagogical University and as chair of the Department of Diplomatic Translation, School of Foreign Service at the National University of Mongolia. She is currently a PhD candidate in the Department on American Studies at KU, from which she has already earned her M.A.