Some twenty students listen attentively to what Dr Michiel de Vaan, lecturer in Indo-European, is explaining about Avestan, a language from the Indo-European language family in which the holy texts of Zoroastrianism were written.  The students have come to Leiden from all corners of the world to attend the Leiden Summer School in Languages and Linguistics.
 
Image: Students attending a lecture.  Second from the left is Junichi Takahashi.

Image: Prof. Sasha Lubotsky, main organiser, and Saskia Tiethoff, MA, coordinator. Their efforts have already generated seven applications for master's programmes.

The students come from West and East Europe, America, Canada, Australia, Japan, Iran, South Korea and Russia; eighteen countries in total.  A number of Dutch students are also taking part to broaden their knowledge.  Professor Alexander (Sasha) Lubotsky, Professor of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, is the main organiser of the Summer School.  He explains that some languages are too small for many universities worldwide to set up departments to teach them.  'With two weeks of intensive study, a student can learn a lot.  For us it is a way of passing on and maintaining expertise, and students with the same interests come into contact with one another as well as with us.  'But there is a further important reason: the Summer School evidently works well as a recruitment tool for the master's programmes in exotic languages, much better than folders and other methods. ‘During this Summer School we have had five applications.  He is immediately corrected by Saskia Tiethoff: ' No, there are now seven!'   
 
Lubotsky has some slight complaints about the timing of the Summer School which is dictated by the availability of rooms for the students and also by the El Cid week: when that starts the Summer School has to be finished because all the rooms are needed.  'And the summer is the only period when you can work for any length of time on your research.' 

The Summer School programme comprises twenty courses given by fourteen lecturers.  To fill in gaps, a small number of lectures are given by lecturers from abroad.  In Lubotsky's opinion, this should be kept to a minimum: 'This is, after all, our visiting card.' Lubotsky is also the initiator of the Linguistics Olympics for school pupils.  
 
The lectures start every day at four set times: 09.30 hrs, 11.30 hrs, 14.00 hrs and 16.00 hrs. Students can choose between four to six courses for each time slot.  Some students choose three subjects so they can also do their homework.  They can earn two study points (ects) per course. ‘It's on the generous side,' says Lubotsky sparingly.  In the evenings there's dinner somewhere and anyone who wants to can join us. There is also an evening lecture on six of the days. 

Image: Lecturer in Indo-European, Michiel de Vaan, lecturing on Avestan.  It is has just been announced that De Vaan has been awarded a Vidi research subsidy by NWO of (a maximum of)  600,000 euro.

:Image: the PhD students Ben Renggli from Switzerland (l) and Thomas Jügel from Germany.  As well as the content of the Summer School, they also appreciate the opportunity to meet other students of minority languages.  
 
During the lunch break, four students can be found sitting in the restaurant of the Lipsius Building: Thomas Jügel from Germany, Ben Renggli from Switzerland and Yoko Yamazaki and Junichi Takahashi, both from Japan. Tiethoff notes their names effortlessly: 'I know all the students.' The four students are all taking the course on the Introduction to language/poetics of the Rgveda. This is how they know one another.  Conversation with the Japanese students, both PhD students, is slightly more difficult than with other students because at their university, Kyoto, they only have lectures in Japanese. They obviously find reading English and attending lectures in English in their specialist field easier, as this is the second time they have taken part in the Summer School. ‘I can have my articles reviewed here by specialists,' says Yamazaki. ‘I am particularly interested in Balto-Slavic accentology.' She explains that from her university there is little opportunity to study abroad.  'This is also a good opportunity to improve my English.'  Takahashi knows that he wants to go into research.  Both students are very satisfied with the high level of the Leiden courses.