Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales

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{{Infobox university

|name = Inalco

|image = Logo inalco.svg

|image_size =

|motto =

|established ={{start date and age| 1669}}

|type = Public

|founder = Jean-Baptiste Colbert

|endowment = 14M€

|president = Jean-François Huchet

|students = 8,000

|faculty = 200

|doctoral = 300

|city = Paris

|state =

|country = France

|logo = BULAC, Paris.JPG

|website = {{website|https://www.inalco.fr}}

}}

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ({{IPA|fr|ɛ̃stity nɑsjɔnal de lɑ̃ɡ e sivilizɑsjɔ̃ ɔʁjɑ̃tal}}; {{translation|"National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations"}}),{{cite web | title=welcome to Inalco website | website=Inalco | date=7 March 2019 | url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/welcome-inalco-website | access-date=19 December 2020}} 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.{{Cite web |title=Les langues et civilisations enseignées à l'Inalco {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/les-langues-et-civilisations-enseignees-linalco |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=www.inalco.fr}}{{Cite web |title=Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales |url=https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/institut-national-des-langues-et-civilisations-orientales |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=Top Universities |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Au cœur de l'Inalco : par amour des langues |url=https://www.letudiant.fr/etudes/ecoles-specialisees/au-coeur-de-l-inalco-par-amour-des-langues.html |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=L'Etudiant |language=fr}}{{Cite web |title=L'Inalco, « seul endroit au monde où autant de langues africaines sont enseignées » - Jeune Afrique.com |url=https://www.jeuneafrique.com/170478/culture/l-inalco-seul-endroit-au-monde-o-autant-de-langues-africaines-sont-enseign-es/ |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=JeuneAfrique.com |language=fr-FR}}

It is also informally called Langues’O ({{IPA|fr|lɑ̃ɡz‿o|IPA}}) 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.{{ref|a}}

History

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[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Institut+national+des+langues+et+civilisations+orientales/@48.8575936,2.2909508,12z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x47e6723acd3b913f:0x597fb78edf2d647e!8m2!3d48.8274259!4d2.3762271 See map.]

Teaching

= Organization =

Inalco is structured partly into departments, whose perimeter corresponds to a region of the world, and partly into professionally-oriented courses or sectors.{{Cite web |title=Departments, sections and streams {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/departments-sections-and-streams |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}} 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) ==

Africa and Indian Ocean (Amharic, Bambara, Chleuh, Comorian, Fulani, Hausa, Kabyle, Malagasy, Mandingo, Soninke, Swahili, Tuareg, Wolof, Yoruba){{Cite web |title=Africa and Indian Ocean {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/africa-and-indian-ocean |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
South Asia Himalayas (Bengali, Hindi, Nepali, Urdu, Rromani, Sanskrit, Sinhalese, Tamil, Telugu, Tibetan){{Cite web |title=South Asia Himalayas {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/south-asia-himalayas |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
Southeast Asia and the Pacific (Bisaya, Burmese, Bislama, Cham, Drehu, Tagalog, Ilocano, Indonesian Malay, Khmer, Lao, Môn, Thai, Tahitian, Taï lü, Vietnamese){{Cite web |title=Southeast Asia and Pacific {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/southeast-asia-and-pacific |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
Arabic Studies (Modern Standard Arabic, Classical Arabic, Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian, Egyptian, Syrian-Lebanese){{Cite web |title=Arabic studies {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/arabic-studies |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
Chinese Studies (Standard Chinese, Min, Classical Chinese){{Cite web |title=Chinese studies {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/chinese-studies |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
Korean Studies (Korean){{Cite web |title=Korean Studies {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/korean-studies |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
Hebrew and Jewish Studies (Biblical, Rabbinic, Medieval and Modern Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Spanish, Yiddish){{Cite web |title=Hebrew and Jewish Studies {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/hebrew-and-jewish-studies |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
Japanese Studies (Japanese){{Cite web |title=Japanese studies {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/japanese-studies |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
Russian Studies (Russian, Belarusian){{Cite web |title=Russian studies {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/russian-studies |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
Eurasia (Armenian, Azeri, Georgian, Kurdish, Mongolian, Ossetian, Uyghur, Uzbek, Pashto, Persian, Kazakh, Tatar, Turkish){{Cite web |title=Eurasia {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/eurasia |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
Europe (Polish, Czech, Sorbian, Slovak, Slovene, Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Udmurt, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Modern Greek, Albanian){{Cite web |title=Europe {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/europe |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
Languages and cultures of the Americas (Inuktitut languages, Mayan languages, Quechuan languages, Guarani, Nahuatl){{Cite web |title=Languages and cultures of the Americas {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/languages-and-cultures-americas |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}

== List of sectors ==

International trade{{Cite web |title=International trade {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/international-trade |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
Intercultural communication and training{{Cite web |title=Intercultural communication and training {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/intercultural-communication-and-training |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
Language didactics{{Cite web |title=Language didactics {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/language-didactics |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
International relations{{Cite web |title=International relations {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/international-relations |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}
Text, Computing, and Mutlilingualism (NLP){{Cite web |title=Texts, Computers, Multilingualism {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/texts-computers-multilingualism |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}

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=

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).{{cite report |title=Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales - INALCO |url=https://www.hceres.fr/en/rechercher-une-publication/institut-national-des-langues-et-civilisations-orientales-inalco |publisher=High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education |language=fr |date=2018|page=21}}{{Cite report |last=Hcéres |first=Rapport |date=2014-01-15 |title=Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales - INALCO |url=https://hal-hceres.archives-ouvertes.fr/hceres-02026383 |language=fr}} This is particularly true among students specializing in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Russian and Arabic historically the largest departments of INALCO.

As an example, {{citation needed span|text=here is a table|date=December 2020}} 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
class="wikitable"
align="left" \| First year	500	250	50%
align="left" \| Second year	300	150	50%
align="left" \| Third year	150	110	73%
align="left"

An explanation sometimes given{{by whom|date=December 2020}} 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

= Overview =

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 =

Local units:{{Cite web |title=Local research centres {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/local-research-centres |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}

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):{{Cite web |title=National Research Centres {{!}} Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/national-research-centres |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.inalco.fr}}

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

From 1914 to 1969, presidents were called administrators.

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

International

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.{{cite web | url=https://www.inalco.fr/formations/formation-distance/formation-initiale-distance | title=Formation initiale à distance | date=13 October 2020 }}{{Cite web |title=Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalc… |url=https://www.fun-mooc.fr/fr/etablissements/institut-national-des-langues-et-civilisations-orientales/ |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=FUN MOOC |language=fr-FR}}

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.{{Cite web |title=CAASagreement |url=https://www.tufs.ac.jp/documents/collaboration/CAAS/CAASagreement.pdf}} Since, they have been joined by Columbia University (USA), the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (South Korea), and Shanghai International Studies University (China).{{Cite web |title=CAAS_Appendix |url=https://www.tufs.ac.jp/documents/collaboration/CAAS/CAAS_Appendix.pdf}}{{Cite web |title=Appendix_HUFS_Admission_20110310 |url=https://www.tufs.ac.jp/documents/collaboration/CAAS/Appendix_HUFS_Admission_20110310.pdf}}{{Cite web |title=appendix_SISU2017 |url=https://www.tufs.ac.jp/documents/collaboration/CAAS/appendix_SISU2017.pdf}}

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.{{Cite web |date=2013-09-25 |title=L'Inalco en chiffres |url=https://www.inalco.fr/institut/presentation-politique-institut/inalco-chiffres |access-date=2022-04-16 |website=Inalco |language=fr}} 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.{{Cite web |title=INALCO Jury - Festival des Cinémas d'Asie de Vesoul |url=https://www.cinemas-asie.com/en/jury/inalco-jury.html |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=www.cinemas-asie.com}}

Notable professors and alumni

Notes

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