Southeast Asian Language Programs

Tagalog is an Austronesian language originally spoken in the vicinity of the capital of the Philippines, Manila. Among the approximately one hundred languages of the country, it has the oldest and most extensive literature, dating from the sixteenth century. It eventually was taken as the basis of the national language, Filipino, in 1937. Today, if one includes second language speakers and speakers outside the Philippines (including substantial populations in the U.S.), there are almost 60 million people who speak Filipino. Filipino has long been written with alphabets making use of Roman letters and, due to the U.S. involvement in the Philippines, English has had a pervasive influence on Filipino, which contains many loan words.

Filipino Language Courses

Fall Courses

ASIANLAN 111: First Year Filipino I (4 credits)

ASIANLAN 211: Second Year Filipino I (4 credits)

ASIANLAN 411: Advanced Filipino I (3 credits)

Winter Courses

ASIANLAN 112: First Year Filipino II (4 credits)

ASIANLAN 212: Second Year Filipino II (4 credits) (Completion of this course with a grade of C- or better meets the LSA Language Requirement)

ASIANLAN 412: Advanced Filipino II (3 credits)

Indonesian, or “Bahasa Indonesia” is the sixth most widely spoken language in the world. It is spoken by over 240 million inhabitants of Indonesia and over 22 million Malaysians and southern Thais. Indonesian has incorporated many words and terms from other languages, including Sanskrit, Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, and English, and it is spoken by substantial populations in the Netherlands, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and the U.S.  In comparison to European languages, Indonesian grammar is fairly simple, with no conjugations, no tenses, and no declensions.  Bahasa Indonesia uses the Roman alphabet (except for some religious texts, which are written in an Arabic script). Indonesia is home both to the largest Muslim population in the world and to a vast array of vibrant literary, artistic, and cultural traditions.

Indonesian Language Courses

Fall Courses

ASIANLAN 121: First Year Indonesian I (4 credits)

ASIANLAN 221: Second Year Indonesian I (4 credits)

ASIANLAN 419: Advanced Indonesian I (3 credits)

Winter Courses

ASIANLAN 122: First Year Indonesian II (4 credits)

ASIANLAN 222: Second Year Indonesian II (4 credits) (Completion of this course with a grade of C- or better meets the LSA Language Requirement)

ASIANLAN 420: Advanced Indonesian II (4 credits) 

Javanese courses are taught on an as-needed basis. Please contact the department at um-alc@umich.edu if you have questions regarding courses in Javanese.

Thai is spoken by approximately 63 million people in Thailand and another 20 million people in the countries neighboring Thailand. Thai is both the official and standard language in Thailand.  Fluent speakers and users of English number fewer than one million. Historically, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country to escape Western colonization, but there is a long and strong history of trade as well as military and cultural contacts with the U.S. There is also a tourist industry that brings hundreds of thousands of Americans to Thailand each year. The University of Michigan was the first American university to offer regular instruction in Thai. The University has a large population of Thai students and the University library has a large collection of books either written in Thai or about Thailand. Students studying Thai at U-M are eligible to receive a $2000 scholarship through the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS). For more information about this scholarship, please visit the CSEAS website.

Thai Language Courses

Fall Courses

ASIANLAN 161: First Year Thai I (4 credits)

ASIANLAN 261: Second Year Thai I (4 credits)

ASIANLAN 461: Advanced Thai I (3 credits)

Winter Courses

ASIANLAN 162: First Year Thai II (4 credits)

ASIANLAN 262: Second Year Thai II (4 credits)(Completion of this course with a grade of C- or better meets the LSA Language Requirement)

ASIANLAN 462: Advanced Thai II (3 credits)

Vietnamese has been strongly influenced by its neighbor, China. The general form of Chinese characters was adapted to transcribe native Vietnamese words until it was abandoned for a Romanized system originally developed by the French. This makes Vietnamese one of the few Asian languages whose present orthography is based on the Latin alphabet.  Even though Chinese characters are no longer central to the language, Chinese words still make up as much as 60% of Vietnamese vocabulary. Vietnamese is the official language of Vietnam, where most of the 70 million speakers of the language live. There are substantial Vietnamese speaking populations in the neighboring countries of Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos. Because of the Vietnam War, many Vietnamese now live in the U.S.

Vietnamese Language Courses

Fall Courses

ASIANLAN 175: First Year Vietnamese I (4 credits)

ASIANLAN 275: Second Year Vietnamese I (4 credits)

ASIANLAN 475: Advanced Vietnamese I (3 credits)

Winter Courses

ASIANLAN 176: First Year Vietnamese II (4 credits)

ASIANLAN 276: Second Year Vietnamese II (4 credits) (Completion of this course with a grade of C- or better meets the LSA Language Requirement)

ASIANLAN 476: Advanced Vietnamese II (3 credits)