Turkish and Foreign Languages Research and Application Center of Ankara University, TÖMER, was founded in 1984 by Mehmet Hengirmen for the purposes of teaching the Turkish language to foreigners; such language and culture institutions as the British Council, Goethe Institut, Cervantes and Alliance Française

Alliance française

The Alliance française , or AF, is an international organisation that aims to promote French language and culture around the world. created in Paris on 21 July 1883, its primary concern is teaching French as a second language and is headquartered in Paris -History:The Alliance was created in Paris...

 acted as models for the constitution of the Center.

Initially, TÖMER served within the main building of the Faculty of Letters of Ankara University. In later years, classes and administrative units were established in the Social Sciences Institute and the Morphology Department of the same university. In addition to Turkish, TÖMER started organizing language course for the English language in 1986, to be followed by courses for the German language in 1987. In 1989, French was added to the list of languages taught at TÖMER. Ankara University opened TÖMER branches in the Republic of Northern Cyprus, as well as in Berlin and Frankfurt; however, these branches were short-lived. Istanbul and Izmir branches, among the first to be opened in Turkey, on the other hand, still serve language learners. When several Central Asian Turkic republics gained independence and a large number of students from these newly-independent countries arrived in Turkey to receive university education, TÖMER Tunalı Hilmi Branch in Ankara was established; other TÖMER branches in these years included those in such cities as Edirne, Trabzon, Sansun, Konya, Kayseri, Eskişehir and Antalya. In the same years, several Turkish teachers were sent to these Central Asian Turkic republics to teach Turkish in universities. In time, some of these TÖMER branches – such as those in Eskişehir, Konya and Edirne – were closed down while some new additions – Alanya, Ankara ORAN, Denizli, and the like – were made.

Dr. Mehmet Hengirmen, serving as the President of TÖMER since its foundation, was replaced in 2002 by Ms. Aypar Altınel, herself serving as a Turkish teacher within TÖMER. When Ms. Altınel retired, she was replaced by the current president, Assistant Professor Dr. Nadir Engin Uzun, who is also a member of the Linguistics Department of the Faculty of Letters of Ankara University.

TÖMER has a total of 11 branches around Turkey and about 55 thousand learners receive language education in one academic year.

Languages taught in TÖMER include Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

, English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

, Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

, Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

, Modern Greek

Modern Greek

Modern Greek refers to the varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the "modern" period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic...

, Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

, Bulgarian

Bulgarian language

Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...

, Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

, Ottoman language, Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

, Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

and languages of the Central Asian Turkic Republics.

TÖMER is an institution of Ankara University, run on revolving fund basis. Language courses are organized throughout the year, with weekday and weekend classes.

TÖMER Publications include

• Edebiyat (Istanbul TÖMER)
• Dil ve İnsan (Kayseri TÖMER)
• Alleben (Gaziantep TÖMER)
• TÖMER Çeviri (Bursa TÖMER)
• Mavi Portakal (Antalya TÖMER)
• Türk Lehçeleri (Tunalı Hilmi TÖMER)
• Dil Dergisi (Ankara TÖMER)
• Ana Dili (İzmir TÖMER)

Of these, Dil Dergisi ile Ana Dili are currently published. In addition, Hitit, a series of textbooks for the teaching of Turkish as a foreign language, has been written and published by TÖMER, and is currently used in language courses both in TÖMER and in several other institutions.

TÖMER participates in several European Union projects; these include

• LANCELOT
• European Languages Web 2
• NEWAP
• LINGUA Projects
• FIRST STEPS
• EUROPODIANS

Main web site:
http://www.tomer.ankara.edu.tr/index.html