Quechua is an indigenous language of South America. Once spoken in the Inka Empire, it now has an estimated 8-10 million speakers in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and other Andean countries. Quechua-speaking migrants from all of these regions also live across the United States and Europe. Quechua is the most widely spoken American Indigenous language today and has the status of an official language in Peru and Bolivia.
Quechua at U-M
Learn the language through a comprehensive program featuring beginner, intermediate, and advanced level courses. FLAS-eligible, these courses are an essential resource for students interested in working with indigenous communities of the Andes.
Quechua in Cusco
In addition to studying Quechua at Michigan during the academic year, students have the opportunity to travel to Peru in the summer to pursue an intensive and immersive Quechua language and culture program taught by Centro Tinku instructors.
The summer language program in Quechua is part of our partnership with Centro Tinku, an educational and cultural center in Cusco, Peru. Centro Tinku focuses on the modern Quechua of the Southern Peruvian Andes as it is spoken today. Tinku's experienced instructors are native Quechua speakers trained in education and language instruction.
Centro Tinku offers the same three levels of Quechua language offered in Ann Arbor –beginning, intermediate, advanced—compressed into an accelerated, seven-week program.
Classes meet for four hours per day, five days a week, for seven weeks, for a total of 140 language instruction contact hours per course: the equivalent of a full academic year on campus.
To complement the language training, participants also experience a series of lectures on Quechua culture and history and, when pandemic conditions allow, are guided on an extensive program of excursions and cultural events. Enrollment is generally limited to 10 students per level.
We recommend a basic-to-intermediate knowledge of Spanish, as this will be the bridge language used in class.
Meet the Quechua Instructor
Quechua Instructor Adela Carlos Rios, Lecturer II in Latin American & Caribbean studies, is a native of Cusco, Peru, and speaks Quechua as her first language. Adela has been teaching Quechua at the University of Michigan since fall 2014. She has a research interest in Quechua ethnobotany, or how the Quechua people utilize medicinal plants to improve their health and maintain their cultural identity.
