Author Topic: Already failed attempt at learning Turkish!!  (Read 10377 times)

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Offline CharlotteC

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Already failed attempt at learning Turkish!!
« on: August 11, 2012, 19:42:48 PM »
I thought I was being a real smart alec while we were in Calis last week and in a last ditch attempt to learn the language I took myself off to a bookshop and bought some workbooks aimed at Turkish schoolchildren. Trouble is I've opened the first one and I can't figure out all the arrows and highlighted letters. I'm not sure of the relationship between 'ele' and 'elle' and why you take the 'el' from the left hand side and 'le' from the right hand side.
If anyone could give me a helping hand please it would be great, I'm desperate to grasp Turkish and once I've got the hang of the format of these books I hope I'll be okay! There's a photo of the page in question here...



Many many thanks!



Offline welshbrickie

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Re: Already failed attempt at learning Turkish!!
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2012, 19:56:16 PM »
its teaching you how to pronounce the letters.If you go on utube "turkish lessons" it will be better for you,but learning turkish is better 1 to 1.

Offline kayakebab

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Already failed attempt at learning Turkish!!
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2012, 20:24:40 PM »
Turkish is what they call an agglutinative language.
Words buildup using different endings which might represent movement towards, from, in on or at, with etc

Also it is designed to sound and flow smoothly, notice below the use of the vowels....

Fethiye

fethiye'ye.  To Fethiye
Fethiyeden. From Fethiye
Fethiyede.   In Fethiye
fethiyedeyken  when in Fethiye

Seker.   Sugar

Sekerli.   With sugar
Sekersiz.  Without sugar

arkadas.   Friend
Arkadaslar . Friends
Arkadasim.  My friend
Arkadaslarim.   My friends
arkadaslarimla.   With my friends


You need to learn the use of the endings before trying to learn from a children's book, in the same way as arkadaslarimla won't be in the dictionary.

Sounds very boring but it's not like any other language you'll have learnt at school and the best way is a Turkish language learning text book, as they gradually introduce all of these things.

Once you grasp these concepts, and the verb endings and word order you'll find it gets easier, as everything is pronounced how it looks, and the grammar rules are almost always the same ( with the exception of a few older Arabic based words and expressions)

Having a language learning cd playing in your car, or in the background while you're cooking, whatever, really helps, and you'll subconsciously pick things up a bit like learning song lyrics.

There's some really good online sites too, eg Turkishclass.com.
Watching films with Turkish subtitles is a good way to reinforce too.

Don't give up, it will suddenly fall into place, but don't expect that to happen quickly. It takes years to learn a language well.

Some people have lived here years and can still only say hello and how are you, and take the stance that they dont need to learn it, it all depends how dedicated you are as to whether you succeed, whether you want to feel part of where youve chosen to live, but of course not everyone has a flair for languages.

Turkish people really appreciate it, I managed a conversation with an elderly Turkish man at the cake counter in Kipa today, the beaming smile and praise I got from him made my day.

I'm not sure where you're based, if in UK it's harder, if you're here then have lessons, and practice practice practice!

Good luck









Offline janie

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Re: Already failed attempt at learning Turkish!!
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2012, 20:49:50 PM »
very well put, now teach me please  :)   been here 25 years and still mix up the tags LOL......

Offline Stan

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Re: Already failed attempt at learning Turkish!!
« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2012, 20:56:04 PM »
Simples !  ;)  ( looks difficult to me )

Offline quackers

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Re: Already failed attempt at learning Turkish!!
« Reply #5 on: August 12, 2012, 05:47:52 AM »
I have been learnıng Turkish 1 to 1 for 4 years and although the turks say my turkısh ıs good I am stıll learnıng ,mostly conversatıon now. I started learnıng in the Uk and went to our local lıbrary and got Cd's out on teach yourself Turkısh. I played them all the tıme ın the car. It got me started. BYKi language course on the computer ıs a very good programme and ıts free to download. But as Kayakebab says practıce practıce.

Offline Dutchie

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Re: Already failed attempt at learning Turkish!!
« Reply #6 on: August 12, 2012, 09:56:31 AM »
Turkish is not a very difficult language but it is a completely different language.

There's a logic to the grammar and once you can see that, all will fall in place.
You have to start with the basics and those are the vowel rules.

There are 8 vowels in Turkish and they follow the vowel harmony. There are two different kinds of harmony.
The first one is as follows:

e, i, ö, ü are followed by -e
a, ı, o, u are follwed by -a

To make a noun plural, you add "ler" or "lar" to the end of the noun.
Whether it is ler or lar depends on the last vowel of the word.
Looking at the vowel scheme above, you can see how it works:

house = ev         houses = evler
cat= kedi           cats=kediler
rose=gül            roses=güller
eye=göz            eyes=gözler

car=araba         cars=arabalar
door=kapı         doors =kapılar
road=yol           roads=yollar
school=okul      schools=okullar

If you understand how this works, you can take any noun and make it plural.
Turkish is such an easy language   ;)

Offline KKOB

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Re: Already failed attempt at learning Turkish!!
« Reply #7 on: August 12, 2012, 09:57:27 AM »
I've been asked by Turks several times how long I lived in Istanbul for. Apparently it's because most of the language CDs and tapes I used were narrated by Istanbul based speakers and I picked-up their accents.

Offline Scunner

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Re: Already failed attempt at learning Turkish!!
« Reply #8 on: August 12, 2012, 11:19:44 AM »
I've been asked by Turks several times how long I lived in Istanbul for.

I've been asked by Turks several times to speak in English, as they have no idea what I am saying  :)

Offline KKOB

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Re: Already failed attempt at learning Turkish!!
« Reply #9 on: August 12, 2012, 13:34:45 PM »
You really must learn to stop speaking with your mouth full.  : :)




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