A Unique Language and Culture at Eurasia’s Crossroads

Georgian is one of the world’s most distinctive languages, belonging to the Kartvelian family with no close relatives beyond the South Caucasus. Spoken in a region long shaped by empires, trade routes, and cultural exchange, it offers a unique window into how language, identity, and history evolve together at the intersection of Europe, Russia, and the Middle East.

In this immersive program in Tbilisi, you will study Georgian through focused language instruction combined with structured cultural engagement. Classroom learning is reinforced through daily interaction, guided excursions, and exposure to local institutions and traditions that bring the language into lived context.

While Georgian is rarely studied outside the region, this program is designed to give you meaningful access to the language. You will build practical communication skills for everyday situations while gaining insight into how the language works and what it reflects about Georgian society and identity.

What You Will Study

Foundations of Communication

You will learn essential vocabulary and phrases for everyday situations such as greetings, ordering food, asking directions, and basic conversation. The focus is on building confidence using Georgian in real interactions.

Core Structures and Patterns

You will be introduced to key features of Georgian grammar, including how verbs and cases function. Rather than full mastery, the goal is to recognize patterns and begin understanding how meaning is constructed.

The Georgian Alphabet

You will learn to read and write the Georgian script, gaining familiarity with its unique visual system. This allows you to navigate signs, menus, and simple written materials in your daily environment.

Language and Identity

You will explore how the Georgian language has helped sustain national identity across centuries of external influence. Language becomes a lens for understanding continuity, culture, and social cohesion.

Culture Through Language

You will reinforce learning through daily exposure and guided cultural experiences in Tbilisi. Using Georgian in context helps connect language to social norms, hospitality traditions, and everyday life.

Who This Program Is For

If you are interested in languages that challenge familiar structures, Georgian offers a rare opportunity to engage with a linguistic system that developed outside the Indo-European tradition. This program is especially suited to those drawn to linguistic diversity and the relationship between language, culture, and identity.

You may come from linguistics, anthropology, or area studies, or simply have a strong personal interest in languages and cultures. It is equally well suited to those who want to engage more deeply with Georgia while gaining practical communication skills. No prior experience is required—only curiosity and a willingness to try something new.

Program Details

REES 190 Georgian Language & Culture

This introductory course provides a foundation in the Georgian language through focused study of basic vocabulary, grammar, and script within a cultural context. Emphasis is placed on developing practical communication skills for everyday interactions while introducing the structural features that make Georgian a distinctive linguistic system. Instruction is complemented by cultural engagement that reinforces language use in real-world settings. 4 credits.

Students with prior knowledge of Georgian should contact us to discuss available options.

Contact us for course syllabi.

The program includes a series of lectures, workshops, discussions, and cultural activities designed specifically for students studying Georgian. These experiences place the language within the historical, cultural, and political contexts that have shaped its development and contemporary use.

Programming may include:

  • A lecture on Georgian history
  • A session on Georgian linguistics and language policy
  • A Georgian film viewing and guided discussion
  • A Georgian calligraphy workshop
  • A visit to the Gabriadze Puppet Theatre, with a backstage tour when available
  • Guided engagement with Georgian neighborhoods, institutions, and cultural spaces

This content supports students approaching the program from different perspectives—whether their primary interest is Georgian language and culture, linguistics, anthropology, area studies, or deeper engagement with Georgia.

Travel beyond Tbilisi introduces the geographic and cultural diversity of Georgia. Guided excursions may include Kakheti, where students examine Georgia’s winemaking traditions and cultural landscape, and Kazbegi, where the environment of the Greater Caucasus provides a deeper sense of the geography that has shaped Georgian history and identity.

Major excursions and some cultural activities may be shared with students participating in other SRAS programs in Tbilisi. Georgian Language & Culture students also participate in dedicated lectures, workshops, discussions, and visits connected specifically to their course of study.

You will develop practical skills used in international affairs, development, policy, and cross-sector organizations while examining Georgia’s civil society and institutional environment. Through workshops, practitioner engagement, field visits, and applied case exercises, you will learn to identify key stakeholders, assess institutional relationships and constraints, frame organizational challenges, and communicate analysis in a concise professional format.

The lab meets three times per week over the four-week program, with approximately two hours per meeting. One weekly session will generally feature a practitioner guest speaker or field visit, connecting classroom-based skill development with direct observation of Georgia’s institutional landscape. Applied assignments use fictionalized composite cases based on real organizational environments, allowing students to practice professional analysis without evaluating or advising participating organizations.

The lab culminates in a professional brief and oral presentation. Students who successfully complete the assessed work receive a Certificate in Applied International Studies: Core Skills. This certificate option does not add to the program’s four academic credits.

The lab is an intensive add-on taken alongside Georgian language study. Students selecting it should expect a fuller weekly schedule and may need to forego some optional cultural or enrichment activities. Core Georgian language classes are not affected.

Additional cost: $1,500. Minimum enrollment: four students.

Founded in 2001, NovaMova is a private language school specializing in intensive, immersive instruction. Its programs combine classroom study with conversation practice, workshops, discussion groups, and cultural activities.

Transcripts and Credit Transfer

This program is hosted by NovaMova Language School in cooperation with SRAS. The School of Record is Stetson University (Florida, USA). Credit transfer to your home institution is usually possible. A US School of Record means that your program is supported by and documented by an accredited US university, making credit transfer relatively routine.

Contact us for course syllabi.

In Tbilisi, you will stay with a host family and receive two meals per day. Homestays vary and may include families, couples, or single hosts, but all are experienced in welcoming international students and incorporating them into daily life.

Living with a host provides consistent exposure to Georgian outside the classroom and offers insight into everyday routines, communication styles, and social norms. It is one of the most effective ways to reinforce your language learning while gaining a deeper understanding of local culture.

Tbilisi is both enigmatic and approachable, with an Old Town that blends medieval, Persian, Soviet, and contemporary architecture. Set along historic trade routes, the city reflects layers of influence while maintaining a distinct cultural character.

Georgian cuisine—shaped by local, Turkic, and Persian traditions—is a central expression of that identity. Shared meals, wine, and hospitality are not simply social customs, but important cultural practices that structure daily life.

At the heart of this identity is the Georgian language and its distinctive alphabet, with a written tradition dating to at least the fifth century. Its flowing script has evolved across three historical forms, yet has remained a consistent marker of cultural continuity. Used to record one of the world’s oldest Christian traditions and a long literary history, Georgian has played a central role in sustaining national identity across periods of external rule.

In Tbilisi, you will encounter the language everywhere—from street signs and storefronts to monuments and contemporary design—making it an immediate and visible part of the urban environment. Even basic familiarity with the alphabet quickly changes how you navigate and experience the city.

Find out more about:

Budget Breakdowns:

Budget Breakdown (summer 4 week)

SRAS Guide to Living in Tbilisi  (w/ weekly living expenses, etc.)

Scholarships and Grants:

  • Federal aid can help pay for your program if your university pre-approves credit transfer and agrees to manage payment. Check with SRAS and your university for details.
  • All Scholarships and Grants that we know of that can be applied to our programs are listed on our site.
  • SRAS Program Grants are stackable! 
  • SRAS Ambassadors can write while abroad or educate students at home after their return – and earn stipends!
  • SRAS Online Research Internships award partial scholarships for study abroad.

  1. Complete our application (press the “Apply Now” button to create your SRAS account — you will be able to return to the application later).
  2. Alert your home university (if you are currently a student).
    Some universities have deadlines for study abroad that are much earlier than SRAS deadlines -— so involve your home university’s study abroad office in the process as early as possible! They can help ensure that all goes smoothly with credit transfer and financial aid, and perhaps point you to additional funding sources.
  3. See our Planning Guide for more important information about academics, health and safety, and more.

If you are still unsure this is the right program for you, please join an SRAS Info Session or schedule an SRAS advising session to discuss how we can help fulfill your goals and needs!