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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish Diaspora Center offers free online courses for people around the world wanting to learn the Sorani, Badini, or Kurmanji dialects of Kurdish language.
The center, which describes itself as a politically and religiously neutral organization, follows the curriculum set by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and graduates are granted certificates by the Kurdish government’s education ministry after six years of study. Nearly 500 students around the world are currently studying at the center.
Shukrya Rahman teaches the Sorani dialect. She said Kurds in the diaspora are eager to enroll at the center to improve their language skills, but acknowledged they are not well known internationally.
“The number of students is low because we have failed to inform Kurds living abroad. After hearing about the courses, a family, consisting of parents as well as their father and three children, have joined to learn Kurdish language,” she told Rudaw on Thursday.
Her students are a wide range of ages and come from 18 European countries and the United States.
The course are mainly for Kurds living abroad but Hawraman Ali Tofiq, deputy head of the center, told Rudaw on Friday that they also have several foreign students.
Rahman said some of her students already speak Kurdish but want to learn how to read it, while others are starting from scratch.
There is a large Kurdish diaspora who fled their homes for political or financial reasons.
Zumayran Hakim teaches the Badini dialect of Kurdish at the center. She said they begin their courses in September to coincide with the KRG’s start of the academic year.
The materials used in the courses are the same as those used in the Kurdistan Region’s public schools.
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