UPDATE #2: I invite anyone who is interested in the Turkish language to visit my new blog which will feature my translations of Turkish literature into English. I hope to post a new translation about once a week.
http://turkishliteratureintranslation.blogspot.com/
UPDATE: I have left this blog in the dust, but I noticed recently that this post still gets quite a few page views. This post is incredibly out of date. I would say that the best (legal) repository of Turkish films is what is available on iTunes. They have a large number of Yılmaz Güney films, for example. Netflix really only has the recent films which have gained notoriety via international film festival awards, etc. Then of course there are all the illegal sources, which I will leave up to you to figure out. There have been many great Turkish films released since this original post was published, and since then I have come across many more worthy older films as well. Availability has increased as well. I recommend 'liking' the Facebook page 'Turkish Film Channel' to keep up with Turkish films that have become available internationally.
All the experts recommend watching movies in one's target language. I can see why. Movies tend to provide natural, realistic dialog with visual context that provides the closest experience to immersion you can get while sitting alone in your apartment thousands of miles away from the country in which your target language is spoken.
However, those who are learning less commonly taught languages may not have ever been exposed to how the language really sounds-- that is, how it is spoken by people who aren't professional voice actors in the employ of Dr. Pimsleur and his ilk. Because of this, watching movies for a beginner can be a rude awakening. At least it was for me.
That being said, the discomfort of feeling like a failure is outweighed by the virtue of feeling productive while doing something as relaxed as watching a movie. And we know its good for us deep down inside, even if it makes us feel like burning our "Teach Yourself X" books and accompanying audio materials.
So we've decided it's a good thing to put ourselves through, now how do we go about finding these movies in Turkish? Well, I have bad news for you. You aren't going to find them at Blockbuster. Netflix has quite a few, but they are difficult to find as they do not have a specific category for Turkish movies (and many of them are made in Germany anyhow). The other option is to order DVDs from a place like tulumba.com although I warn you they only play on region-free DVD players.
Unfortunately, there just aren't that many great Turkish movies available. Well, okay, I guess that depends on your taste in movies, but most modern Turkish movies are shoddy imitations of already heinously bad American action movies. Older, classic Turkish movies just aren't available here in the United States. An interesting summary of the ups and downs of Turkish cinema can be read here.
So on to what is actually useful. Here is a list of some worthy Turkish movies with the English titles and where, if anywhere, they can be found:
Crossing the Bridge: the Sound of Istanbul/ Istanbul Hatırası: Köprüyü GeçmekThis is a documentary about the music scene in Istanbul made by a German director who inserts himself entirely too much in his own work. That being said there is quite a bit of Turkish being spoken throughout and if you like Turkish music you will really enjoy it.
-Available on Netflix
Head-on/ Duvara Karşı (note: English title is not a translation of the Turkish title)
This is a another German-made movie, takes place partly in Germany and partly in Turkey, and the characters speak German some of the time and Turkish some of the time. It is an extremely intense, sometimes violent movie and has graphic sex scenes.
-Available on Netflix and some video rental stores
Journey to the Sun/ Güneşe Yolculuk
Great movie that addresses political issues in Turkey. Turkish made, Turkish spoken throughout.
-Available on Netflix
Distant/ Uzak
This movie is very strange, slow, and doesn't have much dialog but what there is is entirely in Turkish.
-Available on Netflix
The Deathless Devil/ Tarkan vs the Vikings (Turkish title unknown)
The fact that Netflix bills this as hailing from the golden age of Turkish pop cinema really conveys the dearth of high quality Turkish movies out there. This is probably the worst movie I've ever seen, and I have a high tolerance for quirky, kitschy science fiction. I actually only watched the Tarkan vs. the Vikings but I really think it's probably the worst movie ever made.
-Available on Netflix, I have no idea why
Climates/ Iklimler
I haven't seen this movie as it hasn't been released on DVD yet but when it does it will be available on Netflix. It's made by the same director who made Distant.
My Father and my Son/ Babam ve Oğlum
I've heard rave reviews about this movie but haven't been able to get access to it.
This meager list is all that I can offer, if anyone has any suggestions please leave a comment.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Friday, March 16, 2007
Online Resources
This post is not meant to be an exhaustive indexing of all the Turkish language resources on the web. (I'll get to that eventually, ha.)
What I want to do is highlight a few of the exceptional sites, which means: no need for my loyal readers to have to sort through a large list to find out what is worthy of their valuable time.
FSI Turkish Program
This is the single most comprehensive program you can find on the web for free, and possibly even that money can buy (depending on who you ask). FSI language programs were developed by the US government and therefore have no copyright. Individuals have taken the time and effort to digitize the tapes and text and upload it so that everyone can benefit. There are two volumes in the Turkish program, 50 lessons in total. The text introduces grammar concepts, and the tapes drill, drill, drill. It's the closest thing you can get to a classroom experience from the comfort of your own home, and most importantly, minus the exorbitant cost of tuition!
Cromwell's Turkish Basics
This resource is interesting. Compiled by a non-native who has no formal training as far as I can tell, it provides a summary of Turkish grammar that is one of the best I've seen on the web. That being said, I have noticed some errors that a non-native wouldn't have made, so be aware. A copy of Lewis' Turkish Grammar provides a similarly organized (and more extensive) grammar guide, but if you don't have a copy of that classic resource, this page will do when you just need to know how to conjugate "they say that if they had not gone" (which would be encapsulated in one word, for those of you who are not familiar with agglutination).
For a useful cheat sheet, check out his one page summary of Turkish verb conjugations. The alphabetical list of suffixes also comes in handy.
Turkish Language Class
This free instructional site offers grammar lessons as well as some other unique assets such as Turkish poetry alongside its English translation, Turkish comic strips, short stories and the like. Best of all is the forum where anyone can post questions they have about some part of Turkish grammar which is stumping them and get an answer within the day, or just practice writing and conversing with fellow students and native speakers. Less interesting is the part of the forum where lovebirds post their inane love notes en masse to be translated into and out of Turkish, unless you're into providing translation services for free in which case you'll be in heaven.
Turkish Tutor
This resource was developed by UCLA and uses clips of the old popular Turkish sitcom Bizimkiler, which is focused on a cast of characters who share an apartment building. Each lesson consists of 3-5 scenes (short video clips). It is possible to listen to the audio slowed down, and each scene has an accompanying glossary and set of exercises. It is very useful for developing listening comprehension and being exposed to how Turkish people actually talk, as opposed to the artificial speech of those speaking for most audio language programs.
Practical Turkish
This site is, um, overwhelming. It's really unfortunate because there is so much good content on there, but it can be lost in the maze-like organization of the site and the many banner ads. The couple who runs it sells an ad-free, ostensibly better organized version of the resource on cd-rom, so I guess they don't want to make the free version too nice. That being said, there's a lot of good non-technical explanations of aspects of Turkish grammar (like when to use -miş, etc), and there's also a lot of good cultural information, both language related and not. The best way to check out what they've got to offer is the seemingly endless alphabetical index.
Flashcard Exchange
This great tool allows you to create digital flashcards and study them online for free. I have personally uploaded several large Turkish vocabulary sets so I know there is quality material there. My card set named "Beginning Turkish Glossary" contains about 1500 words. Get through those and you'll have learned the vocab that is typically introduced in one year of a college level course.
The basic service is free but in order to print the flashcards and use other advanced tools, including the ability to set up digital Leitner card files, there is a membership fee.
Seslisozluk
This is an online Turkish-English-German dictionary, just ignore the German, unless you're learning German as well in which case you've struck gold. Sesli sözlük means spoken dictionary, and as implied, you can hear how the words are pronounced (you have to register for free to access this service) In addition, they provide buttons above the search bar with the various non-Latin Turkish characters in case you're on a computer that has not been set up to enter them. It also offers close matches if you've spelled a word wrong, which is handy.
BBC Turkish
Ok, admittedly this is for more advanced students but reading (or trying to read) news is great because there is a solid context for what the article is discussing (if you're at all on top of world affairs anyway). For example, if an article starts out "Irak'ta..." you know you're about to learn the vocabulary for sectarian violence and casualties. Alright, that was a morbid example but you know what I mean.
They also offer streaming audio of daily news programs in Turkish (as well as Azeri, Kyrgyz and Uzbek, if you're interested).
That's all for now,
Andrea
What I want to do is highlight a few of the exceptional sites, which means: no need for my loyal readers to have to sort through a large list to find out what is worthy of their valuable time.
FSI Turkish Program
This is the single most comprehensive program you can find on the web for free, and possibly even that money can buy (depending on who you ask). FSI language programs were developed by the US government and therefore have no copyright. Individuals have taken the time and effort to digitize the tapes and text and upload it so that everyone can benefit. There are two volumes in the Turkish program, 50 lessons in total. The text introduces grammar concepts, and the tapes drill, drill, drill. It's the closest thing you can get to a classroom experience from the comfort of your own home, and most importantly, minus the exorbitant cost of tuition!
Cromwell's Turkish Basics
This resource is interesting. Compiled by a non-native who has no formal training as far as I can tell, it provides a summary of Turkish grammar that is one of the best I've seen on the web. That being said, I have noticed some errors that a non-native wouldn't have made, so be aware. A copy of Lewis' Turkish Grammar provides a similarly organized (and more extensive) grammar guide, but if you don't have a copy of that classic resource, this page will do when you just need to know how to conjugate "they say that if they had not gone" (which would be encapsulated in one word, for those of you who are not familiar with agglutination).
For a useful cheat sheet, check out his one page summary of Turkish verb conjugations. The alphabetical list of suffixes also comes in handy.
Turkish Language Class
This free instructional site offers grammar lessons as well as some other unique assets such as Turkish poetry alongside its English translation, Turkish comic strips, short stories and the like. Best of all is the forum where anyone can post questions they have about some part of Turkish grammar which is stumping them and get an answer within the day, or just practice writing and conversing with fellow students and native speakers. Less interesting is the part of the forum where lovebirds post their inane love notes en masse to be translated into and out of Turkish, unless you're into providing translation services for free in which case you'll be in heaven.
Turkish Tutor
This resource was developed by UCLA and uses clips of the old popular Turkish sitcom Bizimkiler, which is focused on a cast of characters who share an apartment building. Each lesson consists of 3-5 scenes (short video clips). It is possible to listen to the audio slowed down, and each scene has an accompanying glossary and set of exercises. It is very useful for developing listening comprehension and being exposed to how Turkish people actually talk, as opposed to the artificial speech of those speaking for most audio language programs.
Practical Turkish
This site is, um, overwhelming. It's really unfortunate because there is so much good content on there, but it can be lost in the maze-like organization of the site and the many banner ads. The couple who runs it sells an ad-free, ostensibly better organized version of the resource on cd-rom, so I guess they don't want to make the free version too nice. That being said, there's a lot of good non-technical explanations of aspects of Turkish grammar (like when to use -miş, etc), and there's also a lot of good cultural information, both language related and not. The best way to check out what they've got to offer is the seemingly endless alphabetical index.
Flashcard Exchange
This great tool allows you to create digital flashcards and study them online for free. I have personally uploaded several large Turkish vocabulary sets so I know there is quality material there. My card set named "Beginning Turkish Glossary" contains about 1500 words. Get through those and you'll have learned the vocab that is typically introduced in one year of a college level course.
The basic service is free but in order to print the flashcards and use other advanced tools, including the ability to set up digital Leitner card files, there is a membership fee.
Seslisozluk
This is an online Turkish-English-German dictionary, just ignore the German, unless you're learning German as well in which case you've struck gold. Sesli sözlük means spoken dictionary, and as implied, you can hear how the words are pronounced (you have to register for free to access this service) In addition, they provide buttons above the search bar with the various non-Latin Turkish characters in case you're on a computer that has not been set up to enter them. It also offers close matches if you've spelled a word wrong, which is handy.
BBC Turkish
Ok, admittedly this is for more advanced students but reading (or trying to read) news is great because there is a solid context for what the article is discussing (if you're at all on top of world affairs anyway). For example, if an article starts out "Irak'ta..." you know you're about to learn the vocabulary for sectarian violence and casualties. Alright, that was a morbid example but you know what I mean.
They also offer streaming audio of daily news programs in Turkish (as well as Azeri, Kyrgyz and Uzbek, if you're interested).
That's all for now,
Andrea
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