Students, community members and staff interested in learning about culture and language can take advantage of short courses in Turkish and German to be offered by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures next semester.

The courses are eight weeks long. Turkish runs from Jan. 15 to Mar. 12 and German runs from Jan. 16 to March 13.

The courses will target beginners and emphasize communication skills as well as teaching about culture.

The short courses will be non-credit and will cost students about $150 for the class and $20 for the materials.

Dawn Bratsch-Prince, professor and department chair of foreign languages and literatures, said the short courses are a service to the university.

“They began several years ago because we get requests from faculty members who are planning trips abroad,” Bratsch-Prince said.

Bratsch-Prince said some classes are easy to fill while others are more difficult. She said the department wants about 15 people in each section or the class will be dropped.

Beth Martin, the German short-course instructor, said her class will focus on culture.

“These courses don’t look so much in getting a grammatical perspective but more on how to survive in a culture,” Martin said.

Martin said her class will be student driven; focusing on what the students would like to take away from the short-course. Martin said she will not give tests in her class.

She said while the university does offer German, the short-course is a better option for some students.

“German is a course we teach but often people want to learn about the culture and language without the pressure of tests,” Martin said.

Betul Ozkan, a post-doctorate, will be teaching Turkish. She also will shift her focus away from grammar.

“Turkish grammar is very different from English grammar so I have no intention to teach grammar,” Ozkan said.

Ozkan said she anticipates a large portion of her class to come from the faculty, particularly those in the English, humanities and political science departments.

Ozkan said culture will be emphasized in her class with the hope of helping people to better understand Turkish lifestyles.

“Here in the U.S. Turkey is not a very well-known country so maybe [the course] will give an idea of that part of the world and their culture,” Ozkan said.