The ASEP department, emblematic of the diversity of languages and civilizations taught at Inalco

Comprising eight language sections - namely Burmese, filipino (cebuano & tagalog), Indonesian-Malaysian, khmer, lao, siamese and vietnamese on the one hand, and Pacific (bislama, ilocano & tahitian) on the other - the department illustrates its richness in the transmission of knowledge about these linguistic fields through, on the one hand, the teaching of these languages and the civilizations they represent, and on the other hand the research carried out by teacher-researchers in six main disciplines: anthropology, history, linguistics, literature, economics and geography. Lecturers[1] - both tenured and non-tenured - are attached to renowned research laboratories, including the CASE (Centre Asie du Sud-Est), CERLOM (Centre d'étude et de recherche sur les littératures et les oralités du monde), CESSMA (Centre d'études en sciences sociales sur les mondes africains, américains et asiatiques), and IFRAE (Institut français de recherche sur l'Asie de l'est) for the humanities and social sciences; to CRLAO (Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l'Asie orientale), LACITO (Langues et civilisation à tradition orale) and SeDyl (Structure et dynamique des langues) for the language sciences. These research laboratories offer both the ideal institutional framework for collaborations between researchers (whether from the same research field or not) and funding for the missions of their teacher-researchers.



Our researchers' work covers a vast area, including continental Southeast Asia (Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam), peninsular and archipelagic Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Philippines), and Oceania. Research is either disciplinary (anthropology, geography, economics, history, literature, etc.) or areal (focusing on a particular country, region or language). In addition, many of our research projects employ an interdisciplinary approach, as can be seen, for example, in research on the chronological approach to literature in the Philippines; terminological usage (the case of metal heat treatment) in Indonesia; literary and sociological approaches to film and theater research in Thailand, and so on. Our linguistic research also focuses on several aspects (socio-linguistics, pragmatics, etc.). We are in fact increasingly convinced of the close link between the formal linguistic aspect and the socio-cultural aspects if we are to understand how a language functions in its communities of speakers, an approach that is at the heart of Inalco's mission.
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The research work of ASEP members gives rise to numerous scientific publications, either in the form of monographs, including online publications; or in the form of articles in collective works or journals (Archipel, Péninsule, Bulletin de la Société linguistique de Paris, Fait de langue, etc.), which are too numerous to list here (an article in this dossier lists the latest publications). Notable contributions by colleagues to major works include, for example, the entry "women of Thailand and the Philippines" in the Encyclopedia of Creative Women).
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Like many Inalco members, ASEP's teacher-researchers are often authors of reference works, which are sometimes the only ones in existence for French speakers, such as dictionaries (French-Khmer; Burmese-French; Digital Dictionary French-Lao, etc.) and language learning manuals or methods (e.g. Burmese Manual, Indonesian Manual, Thai Method, etc.). Our publications also include (literary) translations, novels and short stories. Many of us are frequently asked to do non-literary translations (e.g. journalistic texts, film subtitles), and our language training also includes translation courses. In addition, they assume key roles in the publication of journals (Archipel, Bulletin de la Société linguistique de Paris, Histoire et société rurales, Littérature vietnamienne contemporaine, Péninsule, etc.).





Some members of the Department play an important role as promoters of projects on both a national and international scale. We can cite two recent projects that came to fruition thanks to our late colleague Joseph Deth THACH: the MANUSASTRA project, which is committed to the training of future researchers in the humanities with an unprecedented long-term international cooperation program in Cambodia and Laos, and the ERASMUS+ GEReSH-CAM project in Cambodia. In addition, it is thanks to the Manusastra project that young Cambodian and Laotian researchers have also been able to pursue their higher education, benefiting firstly from an intensive training program in history, anthropology, and linguistics and epigraphy at the Université des Moussons in Cambodia, which enables them to obtain a double degree, awarded by Inalco and URBA[2] in Phnom-Penh. Some graduates of the Université des Moussons are currently enrolled in master's or doctoral programs at Inalco, and will eventually take over future research training projects in Cambodia and Laos. We also have cooperative partnerships with other academic institutions not only in France but abroad: with the University of Paris-Denis Diderot (notably for Vietnamese studies), EHESS or Science Po in France; with the National University of Singapore, in Asia, to name but a few. In addition, a non-Erasmus agreement with various universities in Southeast Asia encourages the mobility of our students and teachers.



In short, ASEP members have no shortage of opportunities for collaborative research projects with our partners in Asia or to take part in scientific debates with our partner universities. What's more, thanks to their expertise in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, ASEP members are often invited to take part in radio or television broadcasts: they are regulars on the sets of France-Culture, France-Inter, Radio-France-internationale, Canal-U, France24, etc.
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Finally, the ASEP department is also involved in the MOOC project [3] , which aims to create introductory distance learning courses around five themes: a) first meeting, b) getting around, c) accommodation, d) food and e) shopping. We currently have Burmese, Indonesian and Siamese MOOCs in preparation. The lessons are made up of explanations of grammar points or culture(s), exercises and quizzes, and are systematically followed by the forum, managed by trained teachers or tutors, where participants have the opportunity to ask questions or exchange knowledge, accelerating learning.
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In conclusion, the variety and scope of the ASEP department's activities, both pedagogical and scientific, support the entire dynamism of Inalco and its mission to transmit and disseminate knowledge of the languages of the South-East Asia and Pacific region. It's an honor for all of us to be associated with it!




San San HNIN TUN

Senior lecturer in language sciences, linguistics and the Burmese language
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Head of the Burmese language department


Member of Lacito-CNRS: Enunciative markers of spoken Burmese, corpus linguistics
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[1] A total of twenty-one tenured teacher-researchers, including Gilles Delouche (Siamese) and Joseph Deth Tach (Khmer) left us this year; and Khamphanh Pravong (Lao) is retiring at the end of 2019-2020.

[2] Royal University of Fine Arts

[3] Massive Open Online Course