J. Dolgormaa sees education as the foundation of Mongolian development

Director of the International Joint and Exchange Programs at the Institute of Finance and Economics J.Dolgormaa has given an interview to our newspaper.

-Let’s start our interview with a question about how you became an English language professor.

- I was not an English language teacher to begin with, I was a Russian language teacher. I must have been destined to become a teacher. Children play with toys- girls with Barbie dolls and boys with toy cars. I still remember that I used to play that I was a teacher and had my friends over at home and taught them the alphabet, writing “A” and “B” with chalk like teachers do. 

When I was a secondary school student, I never thought I would become a teacher. When I saw those teachers working 24/7 and dealing with undisciplined kids, it seemed like a hard and difficult job to me.

During the time when I was graduating from high school, I was very interested in foreign languages. 

Russian was the only foreign language available to us and it was my favorite subject. When I saw people speaking Russian fluently, I loved it so much that I just wanted to learn Russian as perfectly as them. 

I enrolled in a Russian language class at the State Pedagogical Institute (now State University of Education), but did not really care much about teaching and becoming a teacher. We studied for five years at the university and did two internships. 

One of my internships was to teach secondary school fifth-grade students. Teaching them the things they did not know and seeing them learning from me was quite impressive and wonderful. I started to like teaching. I graduated from the university as a Russian language teacher and I was offered a job teaching at my school.

After the Democratic Revolution in our country, everything that was once impossible became possible. Some Russian teachers at the time were involved in re-training English language teaching courses. I took two courses, one for 10 months and one for 6 months. 

I finished the English language teaching course at the University of the Humanities in 1995. At that time, I got an offer to teach English language at the university, but I turned it down. I thought it would be absurd if I taught English language to university students after I had just finished the course. 

But at the time, I had a lot of teaching experience. I started teaching English as a part-time teacher and after a year, I became a full-time teacher at the University of the Humanities and worked there from 1996 to 2001 as an English language teacher. From 2001 to 2009, I worked there as the Head of the American and British Studies Department.

-As a person who has worked in the education sector, what do you think of the quality of the English language education in Mongolia?

- If in the beginning of 1990-s only a few schools could offer English language education, now many schools and language centers offer it. In short, people have a plenty of opportunities and choices where to study English. The number is one thing but the quality is another thing. Compared to the 1990s, the language environment has changed a lot, we have a lot of experience in the field of English language teaching and a number of PhD research projects have been done in this field. There are a sufficient number of English language teachers. However, we have to pay more attention to the improvement of English language education quality and it should start with the in-service training for English language teachers, it should be on-going and systematic. 

-What about the way students in Mongolia study, are they as motivated as students in other countries?

-How motivated they are for learning and the learning process doesn’t only depend on them alone. 

When I was working as the Head of the Department at the University of the Humanities, I got the opportunity to study with the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program. When I was studying in the US for one year I visited many universities and high schools. When I saw them studying hard, on one side, it seemed to me that Mongolian students are not as motivated as them and do not have as much of an idea about what their future is going to be. But on the other side, the learning environment is important. In our country, an educational environment with a campus and career development center has not been as developed as it is in other countries. It is not just about individuals. 

-Recently many Mongolians have been having their children study English or other foreign languages when they begin to attend kindergarten.

-On this issue, researchers have different kinds of opinions, but most of them think this isn’t helpful. I agree with this. For their children to study a foreign language and become fluent there is no use in having them study from a kindergarten age. At first, one should know his or her mother tongue very well. 

-There are so many social issues in Mongolia. What issue do you think need to be solved first?

- As a person who works in the education sector, I would say education quality in Mongolia. Many foreign investment companies are running their businesses in Mongolia, but when they hire someone, they prefer to hire people who graduated from school in a foreign country, not a domestic school. If Mongolian education quality reaches an international standard, this kind of discrimination will fade. The second issue is unemployment, because with unemployment there will be poverty. 

-Let’s change the topic a little bit. What principle do you adhere to in your life?

-Giving my best to everything I do is my first principle. Secondly, if I have a chance to help someone, I am always up for it. 

-Thank you for your time.

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