Department History and Faculty Members

Department History

France is the symbol of perfume, cosmetics, fashion and wine, etc. Paris, the most famous capital in the world, Eiffel Tower, Napoleon, Venus and Mona Lisa in Louvre Museum are also France’s celebrities. Among Americans, English and Europeans, French language  is considered as elegant, royal, stylish language.

French language is used in 51 countries in the world.  It is also an official language in UN and it is 52 years that it has been taught in YUFL and 19 years in MUFL.

Department of French was one of the 4 major departments since the establishment of the Institute of Foreign Languages in 1964. At that period, French language was taught by not only Burmese teachers but also French native teachers.  Since 1980, only Burmese teachers continued to teach French. From 2009 – 2010 Academic year, French native volunteer teachers come to teach French at the department of French, YUFL with the contribution of French government. There are 8 native volunteer teachers at the department of French, and 20 natives from 1964 till now.

Before August 1997, there were only two Diploma courses at Institute of Foreign Languages (now YUFL):

• Diploma Part-time courses (4 years)
• Diploma Full-time courses (2 years)

From 1964 to 1996, 654 candidates had already obtained Diploma in French, 354 candidates from 1997 to 2011, so altogether 938 had obtained Diploma in French.

Undergraduate programs started in 2000 and the students who passed the matriculation in 1996 had to attend the courses.  The first graduation ceremony was held in November 2003.  Till now (2016 January) there are round about 700 students who are graduated with French major and 11 teachers of French who obtained Master of French.

Nowadays, in order to improve teaching and learning French language by cooperating with international universities, YUFL became a member of Erasmus Mundus on 1^st March 2014.  YUFL has signed the Memorandum of Understanding with Institute National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales from Paris, France on 31^st May 2014.

Graduated persons in French language have many job-opportunities. In YUFL the Internship programs for final year students during the summer vacations were started in 2015 and the program won great success.

Among the foreign tourists who come to visit Myanmar, the most numerous are French. Therefore French speaking guides are demanded. After graduated, the French major students can get the opportunities to work in the domain of business concerning hotelier and tourism, as officer in Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as air-hostesses and flight attendants at local and international airlines, as translators at media.

Department of French is situated on second floor of COE building, in room number COE 306 with 18 teaching staff and one native teacher.