Why Learn Uzbek?

Uzbekistan on the Map

 

Uzbek Language Benefits

Why should someone learn Uzbek? What’s the point? Why am I learning it?

• Uzbekistan is one of the major developed countries in Central Asia, a region with a long and diverse history as part of the Silk Road and more. It holds many of this region’s most dynamic cities, cultural sites, and natural landmarks.

• Uzbekistan has a growing importance in the world economy, especially in the area of cotton, gas, coal, oil, and important minerals. Central Asia in general is a largely untapped region whose growth opportunity is excellent.

• Uzbekistan is predominantly a Muslim country, and Islam is a religion that is widely misunderstood and in need of people who can work proficiently with Muslim people and also help promote basic freedoms in situations where fundamentalism has taken place.

• Uzbek is a beautiful Turkic language with a creative grammar and lilting sound. Uzbek has the bonus of being all romanized as compared to languages like Kazakh and Kyrgyz which still use the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. It also lacks vowel harmony, having one less roadblock towards more easily breaking into this language family.

• Uzbek is a rare and sort of obscure language with a cool “chic factor” (impress your friends!) and also opens you up to opportunity should the US government ever need to enlist translators, ambassadors, or other personnel to visit Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan Quick Profile

• Name: Republic of Uzbekistan
• Population: 28 million
• Capital: Tashkent
• Area: 450,000 sq km
• Major language: Uzbek
• Currency: so’m (UZS)
• PPP: $85 billion
• GDP: $37 billion

Learn more about Uzbek:

• Why Study Uzbek? (HTML @ University of Chicago
• Why Learn Uzbek? (PDF) @ University of Indiana

Learn more about Uzbekistan:

• Uzbekistan @ Wikipedia
• Uzbekistan @ CIA World Factbook
• Uzbekistan @ Department of State
• Uzbekistan @ Lonely Planet
• Uzbekistan @ Wikitravel