Alex Manoogian Saturday Language School

The School was started in 1963 as a community based Armenian Saturday School and was sponsored from the beginning by the late A.G.B.U. (The Armenian General Benevolent Union) Life President, Alex Manoogian, for whom the school was named.

The A.G.B.U. believes that early exposure to a second language broadens and deepens a child’s capacity to communicate, be that their own mother tongue or an acquired second language other than English. The A.G.B.U has remained faithful to this objective to this day.

A.G.B.U. was established in 1906 to preserve and promote the Armenian identity and heritage and has since then grown into a large international, non-profit organisation operating in 23 countries and supporting 33 day schools and Saturday Schools.

About the Armenian language

There are over 6,800 languages spoken in the world. Armenian is one of the oldest of these living languages. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia and other regions in the Caucasus. It is also the mother tongue of the Armenians living in the Diaspora including about 40,000 Armenians who live in Australia.

Language provides access to a very significant part of a people’s culture, tradition, attitudes and values creating harmony, balance, understanding and tolerance.

Modern Armenian has two dialects, a Western and an Eastern branch. Both dialects are spoken and taught in NSW, but the A.G.B.U. Alex Manoogian School mainly teaches the Western branch of the language.