Dreaming in Turkish

Uyghur Resource

2007-10-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

I thought this information was worth repeating as there are so few resources out there for learning Uyghur, a Turkic language spoken in Western China.

Distributed by: Central-Eurasia-L - Announcement List for Central Eurasian Studies

PUBL.- A Grammar of Modern Uyghur, Frederick De Jong

Posted by: Frederick De Jong

A Grammar of Modern Uyghur by Frederick De Jong
(Utrecht University, The Netherlands)

Modern Uyghur is a Turkic language which is predominantly spoken in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. It belongs to the Eastern or Chaghatay branch of the Turkic languages.

Few texts exist which can be used for learning Modern Uyghur, which is one of the least researched Turkic languages. This grammar is the first English-based learning grammar for this language. It is partially Latin-based while is also uses categorizations rooted in the work of Chaghatay grammarians. It pays attention to dialect forms when these forms are on the way to become part of the standard written language. To facilitate its use, an index of the elements of grammar covered, and an English-Uyghur vocabulary are included at the end of this book.

By mastering its contents and by carefully going through the numerous examples, the student should be able to read Uyghur publications with the aid of a dictionary. At the same time, this grammar can be used fruitfully as the basis for Uyghur courses at all levels. In conjunction with the study of Frederick De Jong et al., Uyghur: A Manual for Conversation (Utrecht: Houtsma 2005) and the accompanying audio-CD, basic conversational skills can be acquired.

A Grammar of Modern Uyghur,
Frederick De Jong,
Utrecht 2007 (290 pages),
ISBN 978-90-801040-8-2,
is a Houtsma publication.

See www.houtsmastichting.nl

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The Headscarf Issue

2007-10-04T11:02:00.000-07:00

The ruling AK Party in Turkey, its power reaffirmed by the recent elections, is moving forward with its agenda. On this agenda, along with reviewing and possibly abolishing the laws that criminalize "insulting Turkish identity", is lifting the ban on women wearing headscarves at public universities.

The headscarf debate is a complex one. Women have been covering their head in some way or another for reasons of modesty for a long time, not only in Turkey and in other Muslim countries, but in Europe as well. The head scarf tied simply around the hair is a style seen all across Eurasia, and I think most people in the world would be hard pressed to distinguish a traditional village Turkish woman from a traditional Ukrainian or Hungarian woman. This style of head covering, which often is loose enough to show some hair around the edges, is still very common in Turkey, especially in the countryside.

Below are headscarved women from the three countries just mentioned.

Of course, the difference is, most women in Hungary and the Ukraine no longer cover their heads, and an estimated 50% of all Turkish women do today. Furthermore, many of the young Turkish women cover their hair not in the traditional way that their mothers and grandmothers did, but rather, in a very conscious, strict, sometimes fashion-forward, and some say political way.

This style typically uses a colored silk scarf that covers all hair and the neck, and is often worn with a bland, loose overcoat that disguises the female form. Of course there is much variation on this theme... I have seen women that are completely "covered" technically, but their clothing is tight, sparkly, sexy, and just as attention-seeking than any mini-skirt. But generally the "look" that is associated with a conscious, political Islam influenced woman is something like what is seen in the following photograph:

And as you might expect, this look is not seen as much in the countryside, as it would be too cumbersome and hot for the agricultural work that the majority of women are engaged in. It is very much a modern, urban phenomenon.

The exact reasons behind a woman's decision to cover are complex and vary between individuals. Often within one family one sister covers while the other does not, or a mother covers while a daughter does not, or a daughter covers while her mother does not. Groups of young women on the street, laughing and socializing, can be seen to have representatives of both scarved and un-scarved women, whose lives are are not as segregated as one might think.

An American friend of mine who lives in Istanbul said to me that she just couldn't understand why any woman who had the choice not to wear a headscarf would elect to do so. I think this issue needs to be depoliticized temporarily and looked at from an anthropological perspective, as dissociated from our own cultural values as is humanly possible.

I think we can all agree that there is a concept called "modesty" which can be seen expressed in different behaviors and in varying degrees in many cultures around the world. For example, the European woman who is not uncomfortable at all sunbathing topless in public is practically an alien from the perspective of the more prudish-in-matters-of-nudity American woman.

Even between members of the same culture there is variance in modesty. Some women have never worn a low-cut shirt or short shorts for their whole lives, while some women make their breasts the focal point of any outfit they have on.

I really don't see why, political associations aside, covering or not covering ones hair should be seen as any different from any other wardrobe choice based on the individuals personal comfort level.

Of course, the scarf does have religious and political connotations.

It is said that "women should not be allowed to wear headscarves in public university because it is a political statement and they represent a movement that is counter to the secular status quo". It seems to me that the reason why the headscarf became a political symbol was precisely because it was prohibited.

This is a country where only in 2005, following several years of AK party majority rule, were restrictions on teaching the Koran eased. The content of religious education is completely controlled by the government.

There is an argument about slippery-slope coming from the secularists who say if we give them an inch, tomorrow we'll be Iran. The thing is, repressing people's religious freedoms historically has not done anything but radicalized and politicized the groups who feel disenfranchised.

It will be better for Turkey if the daughters of more socially conservative and religious families go to university in larger numbers. Isolating these girls is only making things worse.

I hope that the AK party is able to use their power right now to make some changes that give Turkish people the freedoms that they want. But I also hope they do it in a responsible way that doesn't give credence to those who are questioning their motives.

A slice of Turkish culture

2007-08-06T04:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I got pretty sick recently but now I'm all better so worry not.

Mark requested more cultural comparisons... well here I shall provide an example of Turkish culture and I won't really compare it with American culture except to say that they're really freakin different. You can make your own insighful comparative analysis, okay? :)

So I was home all day on Saturday, still recovering from an awful stomach malady of unknown origin. From my kitchen I could hear music:

Okay. I realize it's sideways so just use your little imaginations and I won't have to fix it.

I decided to investigate. I witnessed this little celebration right in front of my apartment building:

I still don't know exactly what they're celebrating. But this type of group folk dance takes place at every Turkish celebration that I've been to. I particularly like the older man who near the end kind of breaks off and starts getting really fanciful with his dance moves. Also take note that this is occuring in the middle of the street, and the cars just have to go around and that's that. Turks, they love their song and dance.

2007-07-23T05:05:00.000-07:00

Well the election pretty much went as expected, with the AK party getting an even higher percentage of votes than in the 2002 election. I'm not going to write about it here because it's all over the news and I don't really have much to add except to recommend this piece which nicely summarizes the issues surrounding the secularism vs. democracy controversy.

Instead I wanted to share a song\music video that is extremely popular right now. I like the song and I think it's neat how it incorporates clips of old Turkish movies. Bu kadar. I hope you enjoy.

The singer is Nil Karaibrahimgil.

Görüşürüz...

Election this Sunday...

2007-07-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

Things are heating up on the streets; in addition to the flags and signs there are people yelling slogans constantly out of moving vehicles and sometimes on foot:

This is the first video I've made and uploaded so don't expect too much... it just gives you an idea of what its like on the streets right now.

It's getting a little bit tense here in Ankara

2007-07-16T06:05:00.000-07:00

On the streets, in addition to the ubiquitous glags and posters, each party has been having political gatherings with speeches and yelling and flag waving and occasionally fist-fighting. This event is called a ''miting''. For this reason the streets are being patrolled by inordinately large numbers of police. Police outfitted in riot gear. It's kind of intense, check it out:

There's a new article on BBC about the role of the Kurds in the coming election, check it out.

That's all for now.

Political Overview

2007-07-14T02:15:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try to summarize my understanding of the political situation here without going into a complete review of Turkey's history... which is quite difficult.

The party that has the majority in parliament right now is the AK party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi= Justice and Development Party). It is often termed an 'islamist' party in the Western media but it is a conservative party with an Islamic identity that is very moderate compared to what comes to mind when one thinks of the Islamist governments of the world. Ever since Turkey transitioned to multi-party democracy in the 1950's parties that have an Islamic identity have been formed, legitimately elected, but subsequently dissolved by the military, which vehemently supports the secular nationalist party CHP (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi= Republican People's Party) whose power and dominance is threatened by the rise of these more conservative parties which have increasing support, especially in the countryside.

The CHP, which holds the symbolic power of being the party that Ataturk created, believes itself to be the guardian of the values that the Turkish Republic was imbued with at its time of creation. This party is closely intertwined with the military, with which it is ideologically aligned. As such the ideals of democracy are at times overlooked to protect the republic from what it sees are incursions upon the values which are of utmost importance to maintain. Hence the series of coups that have occurred in Turkey regularly, the last one taking place in 1997.

How much of a threat to the secularist order do these Islamist parties present? This is a matter of much controversy and the material evidence is irrelevant in the eyes of the secularists who see the issue as a slippery slope problem. There is the head scarf issue, which doesn't really seem like such a big deal, but has become symbolic and thus an intractable issue. For those who are unaware, wearing the head scarf is not required in Turkey. In fact, far from it. Women who cover their hair are prohibited from working in the public sector and studying in public schools. The head scarf issue has become a complex one and I won't try to unravel it here except to say that the so called 'Islamist' parties think that women should be able to wear whatever they want on their heads, and the secularist hard-liners believe that this will be the first step towards requiring all women to cover their heads.

Other than the head scarf issue, what else is there? Apparently in some areas conservative parties have tried to make adultery illegal and to declare areas in which alcohol is prohibited. This provoked an outcry and these measures never occurred. How serious these proposals were and how far they got I am not sure. I have not been able to find any other examples of material evidence to support the idea that the moderate Islamist parties in Turkey have a hidden agenda to Islamicise Turkish society.

As far as actual working policies, both sides seem pretty much in line with each other. The AK party has been steering the country towards accession to the EU and has encouraged economic growth and free trade. There doesn't seem, to my admittedly minimal understanding, to be any great disagreements between AKP and CHP over economic policy, international relations, etc.

I am also don't know much about the smaller parties, which I know exist because I see their election propaganda everywhere.

Then there are those who think the whole election is a sham... I guess these people would be akin to those in the United States on the far left who believe that the Democrats and Republicans are the same in their commitment to free trade and globalization, and that elections which provide a choice between these two parties are meaningless:

''The election is not a solution. Join the fight for an independent Turkey tied with neither the USA nor the EU! The Justice and Liberty Front''

So yeah.... comments and corrections welcomed.

The Dolmuş Experience

2007-07-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

I live about a 10 minute drive away from where I go to school, and every day, there and back, I take a dolmuş. A dolmuş is like a bus, but not. They are small, privately run (as opposed to the state run bus system), and they go along a set route but you can get on at any point by catching the drivers attention with a wave of the hand. The name dolmuş means literally 'full' or 'stuffed' and they do get full, especially during rush-hour. What really interests me about the dolmuş system is the manner in which people pay for their rides. Instead of getting in at the front of the vehicle, paying first and then sitting down, one boards the bus through a door towards the middle of the bus and immediately sits down. Then, at some point during the ride, one pays by handing the fare up, from person to person, till it reaches the driver. The driver takes the fare and puts it in his special compartmentalized coin box and makes change, all while skillfully negotiating the traffic. The change then gets handed back from person to person till it reaches its rightful owner. Often someone will pay for two passengers with, say, a five lira note . They tell the person they initially hand the note to how many people it is for, and that piece of information is also transferred up to the driver who is making change. This system works extremely well and everyone participates in the communal job of making sure everyone is able to pay and get their correct change.

Maybe I'm cynical but I just can't see this system working in the United States. Generally Americans just don't have a sense of shared responsibility. They would say 'bring your own damn money to the front of the bus, it's everyone for themselves donchta know'? I don't know maybe I'm wrong. But I definitely think that this system says something about Turkish culture... something that I can't put my finger on and that I find a lack of where I come from.

Şimdi Ankara'dayım/ I am now in Ankara

2007-07-07T02:43:00.000-07:00

Merhabalar,

I've now been a week at my language school in Ankara and have settled in quite nicely. It is a big city, that's for sure, but qualitatively so different from Istanbul that it's hard to know where to begin. For one thing, it's all new. Sure there are some Hitite ruins scattered around nearby, but before Atatürk made Ankara the capital of the new Turkish republic in 1924 it was a dusty provincial town of no importance. It is the center of governmental administration and official international relations and is home to several of the best universities, and that's about it. There are virtually no tourists. Except for the foreigners I met at my language school (who are from all over the world) I have not seen any foreign visitors. Not once. Because of this, the way one is treated as a foreigner here is totally different. By and large Turks are extremely hospitable but in Istanbul and in the touristy Aegean coast region locals have become jaded on visitors. But here, for example, instead of trying to overcharge on the bill, restaurantuers will add an appetizer or dessert free of charge and ask interestedly where you are from, how long you are staying, etc.

There is not much going on in terms of nightlife but I am not really a party-hearty type of person anyway. I do hope to meet young Turkish people, whom there are plenty of in this university town, but I will have to find some way to do it that doesn't involve giving a man the idea I want to go on a date, which is quite difficult.

Being in the capital is particulary exciting because there is a national general election coming up. The streets are festively adorned with banners and flags proclaiming the merits of the various political parties. I will follow up with details regarding the political situation here soon, but for now here are some examples of the election propaganda:

''In unity we succeeded; don't leave ıt half done'' (AK Party)

''People's party, people's leader'' (CHP Party)

''Don't forget the 12th of September: don't give your vote to the ones who use coup d'etat'' (ESP Party)

It's all very exciting. Yes.

I'm going to Turkey/ Türkiye'ye gidiyorum

2007-06-29T10:55:00.000-07:00

I leave on a flight to Istanbul later today, and I will eventually end up in Ankara, where I will be staying for three months. I hope to post more frequently during the time I am in Turkey, about language learning but also about culture, politics, or whatever Turkey or Turkish-related topics come to mind. I will be able to upload photos, so I will have visual documentation of my adventures as well. Orada Türkçemi çok geliştireceğim inşallah...

The plot thickens: root suffixes

2007-06-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

So, you thought that if you could just memorize all those tenses in the last post you'd be all set? Ha. Let me introduce the suffixes which are added to the verb stem in order to create reciprocal, causative, repetitive, reflexive, and passive verb stems, onto which the tense and personal endings seen below are then added. Now we're talking agglutination.

1. Reflexive -(I)n-*

giymek- to wear --> giyinmek- to dress oneself
yıkamak- to wash --> yıkanmak- to wash oneself
taşımak- to carry --> taşınmak- to carry oneself (to move house)

The reflexive suffix indicates an action that is done to oneself or for oneself. The meaning is not always obvious, however; as Lewis* points out, sevinmek means 'to rejoice', not 'to love oneself'. In fact, with all these stem suffixes the meaning can not necessarily be deduced , so keep that in mind.

2. Reciprocal -(I)ş-

sevmek- to love --> sevinmek- to make love
bulmak- to find --> buluşmak- to meet
anlamak- to understand --> anlaşmak- to understand each other

The reciprocal stem shows that the action is performed by more than one subject, often towards each other.

3. Causative -dIr-, -Ir-, -t-, -It-, -Er-

inanmak- to believe --> inandırmak- to persuade (to cause to believe)
kaçmak-to escape --> kaçırmak- to let escape, to lose
anlamak- to understand --> anlatmak- to explain (to make understand)
korkmak- to fear --> korkutmak- to frighten

There can be two levels of causation, the classic example being:

ölmek- to die --> öldürmek- to kill (to cause to die) --> öldürtmek to have someone killed (to cause someone to cause someone to die)

4. Passive -Il-, -n-, -(I)n-

çalmak- to steal --> çalınmak- to be stolen
yemek- to eat --> yenmek- to be eaten
açmak- to open --> açılmak- to be opened

Confusingly, the passive and the reflexive forms look the same when the root ends in 'L' or a vowel; 'söylenmek' is both the passive and the reflexive from of 'to say' and means respectively 'to be spoken' and 'to grumble' (to say to oneself).

Now, if your head isn't spinning by now, just wait: now we have to put them all together. The order in which they are added is the order they are listed above (reflexive, reciprocal, causative, passive). Usually reflexive and reciprocal stems aren't found together, so you really only have to worry about three at once.

tanımak- to know -->
tanışmak- to know one another (reciprocal) -->
tanıştırmak- to introduce (causative) -->
tanıştırılmak- to be introduced (passive)

Have fun!

*When I use a capital 'I' it is a symbol for four-fold vowel harmony (i,ı,ü,u) and 'E' refers to two-fold vowel harmony (e,a)
*I frequently use Geoffrey Lewis' Turkish Grammar as a reference when writing posts.

Personal Update

2007-05-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while, so I wanted to check in to say that I'm not abandoning this blog. I had been working on a new post on extended stems (the stem suffixes that create reciprocal, causative, reflexive, and passive verbs) but never finished it due to various time-constraining reasons, and now I'm off to Nicaragua for 3 weeks so I won't be posting during that time. I will resume posting in late June so if you enjoy this blog please return then.

-Andrea

Verbs, in all their agglutinated glory

2007-04-13T18:22:00.000-07:00

I wish I had seen a straight-up list like this from the very beginning so here it is for everyone.

Caveat: I know that the translations here may be simplified and may not address all the contexts/meanings... this is just a quick overview. For extensive explanation of use, see Lewis' Turkish Grammar. However, if I have made an outright mistake or glaring omission please let me know in the comments section.

veriyorum --I give, I am giving (present continuous)
veririm --I give, I will give (aorist or future)
vereceğim --I will give, I am going to give, I am giving (definite future)
verdim --I gave
vermişim --It is said that I gave
versem --If I gave
vereyim --Let me give (also I'll give)
vermeliyim --I must give/ I should give
veriyordum --I was giving
verirdim --I used to give, I would give, I would have given
verecektim --I was going to give
verdiydim --I had given
vermiştim --I had given
verseydim --If I had given
vereydim --I wish I had given
vermeliydim --I ought to have given, I should have given
veriyormuşum --They say that I was giving
verirmişim --It is said that I would give
verecekmişim --It is said that I shall give/ am about to give (also can be past)
vermişmişim --It is said that I had given
verseymişim --It is said that if I had given
vereymişim --I wished/ If I had given
vermeliymişim --It is said that I should have given
veriyorsam --If I am giving
verirsem --If I give
vereceksem --If I am to give
verdiysem --If I gave
vermişsem --if I have given
verebiliyorum --I am able to give
verebilirim --I can give (both present and future)
verebileceğim --I will be able to give
verebildim --I have managed to give/ I was able to give
verebilmişim --It is said that I managed to give/ was able to give
vermiş olacağım --I will have given
vermekte olacağım --I will be giving (obsolete)
vermiş olabilirdim --I could have given
vermekteyim --I am giving (formal) or I've been giving

verince --at the time of his giving, when (any subject) give(s)/gave
verdikten sonra --after giving
verdiği için --because he gave
verdiği takdirde --if he should give
verdiği halde --although he gave, even though he gave
verdiği zaman --when he gave, when he gives
vermesine rağmen --(Even) though he gave
verir vermez --as soon as he gives
veriver --give it quickly, Just give it
vererek --while/by giving
verirken --during the time of his giving
verdiği müddetçe --as long as he gives
veren --the one who gives, the giver
vere vere --by giving and giving
vereli --since giving
vermeden evvel/önce --before giving
verinceye kadar --up until the time that he gave
verdiğinden beri --since giving, since he gave
verircesine --as if he were/was giving

Turkish movies: we love them and we hate them, here's how to find them

2007-03-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

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 Geçmek
This 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.

Online Resources

2007-03-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

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

Focus on Phrases

2007-03-07T15:38:00.000-08:00

I've noticed that most language classes focus solely on vocab and grammar. Well, that's all there is to language, right? Wrong.

How does a child know that "I gave the book to she" is incorrect? Children make grammar mistakes quite often, especially in English with all its inconsistencies, but there are some things that just sound so wrong that even a 3 year old would never say them. They have been exposed over and over again to the way whole phrases are strung together, and what is correct has been ingrained.

Becoming ingrained with what sounds "right" in a language, I think, is an effective way to learn rules without actually learning them. But how does one achieve this without being reborn?

In addition to vocab and grammar, there needs to be an additional focus on phrasal learning. Once a certain sentence pattern has been ingrained, variations on that theme will be easily recognized and reproduced.

So although it might seem weird to memorize a whole sentence that one may never need to use, it serves the purpose of ingraining patterns, and is a good way to give a context and staying power to new vocab as well. It also allows one to begin to learn the idiomatic expressions* of a language, which are typically not focused on enough in language programs.

I think this method is especially effective for languages which have complex sentence structures that are seemingly impenetrable to speakers of English, such as Turkish.

For learners of Turkish, there is a resource that facilitates this type of learning that I can not recommend highly enough. It is a huge paperback tome called "A Dictionary of Turkish Verbs: in Context and by Theme" and it rules. It is full of phrases that expose the learner of Turkish to not only wonderful idiomatic expressions, but also to constructions that sound natural and correct to the fluent ear.

I recommend flipping though the book and learning a certain number of complete sentences weekly in addition to a vocab list. I have found that this method truly does impart both grammar and vocab effectively.

For example, when I first got this book, I wrote the following phrase down on a card and studied it while on public transportation along with my vocab and a number of other phrases. I remember it word for word to this day:

Türkçeyi o kadar kusursuz ve akıcı konuşuyordu ki birçok kişi Amerikalı olduğuna inanmıyordu.

He spoke Turkish so flawlessly and fluently that many people didn't believe he was an American.

From this single sentence, I learned the words for flawless and fluent, was introduced to nominalization (Amerikalı olduğu), was reminded that the verb inanmak (to believe) requires the dative ending on the noun it acts upon, and was ingrained generally with a correctly spoken Turkish sentence. So although I'll probably never use that particular sentence, I can incorporate its parts into my knowledge bank, and they'll be more likely to stick.

This particular book is not necessary to employ this method, nor is any book. One can find good sentences from sources online, from the news, in other printed matter, etc.

So try it out, soon you'll be blurting out all kinds of grammatically correct things you never knew you learned how to say.

Andrea

*The term idiomatic expression refers to a way of saying something in a language that can not be understood literally. An example in English: "I'm feeling under the weather".

Turkish=French?

2007-03-05T19:48:00.000-08:00

A few thoughts on the difficulty of learning Turkish...

I've lurked quite a bit and posted a little on the forums over at learn-any-language.com and a recurring topic of discussion is the difficulty rating of various languages. It has been mentioned by a few that it always seems that an individual rates the language he or she is learning as relatively more difficult than others that he or she has no experience with. This makes sense-- when one is in the midst of grappling with the intricacies of a particular language it is validating to think of ones efforts as being against something especially challenging. That being said, I do think Turkish is especially challenging. So there.

Anyway, over at the website that hosts the above mentioned forum, Turkish has been given 3 out of 5 prickly cacti-- making it equivalent, according to the webmaster of this particular site, to French and German in terms of difficulty (of course we are rating these from the perspective of learners who already know English). Now I don't want to be offensive to any beret-wearers out there, but French is practically the same language as English! I often come across passages of French in literature that is trying too hard, and I can always get the gist of the passage via cognates, context, and the fact that the grammatical structure of the language is similar to English. I realize that if I was actually trying to become fluent in French the task would not be trivial but come on people, the transparency of the French language for speakers of English is extremely high. Transparency of the Turkish language to speakers of English? Basically zero.

It is true that Turkish verb conjugations are incredibly regular, and this is often cited in support of the claim that Turkish is an "easier" language. And yes, this aspect of the language does make it easier to learn than other low-transparency-for-English-speaker languages such as Arabic or Russian.

But look at this side by side comparison of the sentence fragment "the woman that I saw":

French: la femme que j'ai vue

Turkish: gördüğüm kadın

Now, I'm no linguist, but I can tell you that the free ride on regular conjugations in Turkish is far outweighed by the fact that there are no cognates and the grammar is totally different.

The meanings of 'la femme' and 'vue' are fairly easy to guess based on similarity to English words like feminine and view. The word order/ grammatical construction of the sentence exactly mirrors the English version.

As we can see clearly, the construction of a non-subject participle in Turkish has no resemblance to the way we do it in English.

Thus, I would venture to say that in the beginning stages it could be argued that Turkish is no harder than French, but at the intermediate level of Turkish when complex sentence construction and subordination of clauses is introduced, it becomes quite a bit more challenging.

I think French is perceived as more difficult than it actually is because although one makes quick progress, as a non-native speaker it is difficult to speak it well enough to impress a French person. That could be because of the difficult orthography, pronunciation, and irregularity of French. But its probably mostly because French-speaking people are snobby.*

Andrea

*I may appear to be offensive in my comments about French people, but I assure you, it is acceptable because my grandparents on my mother's side were French speakers. You know, in the same way that Jewish people are allowed to make Jew jokes.

About Me/ Benim Hakkımda

2007-03-04T16:59:00.000-08:00

Hi, this is my first foray into the pursuit of blogging. Well, actually there was that one attempt that didn't get past the introductory post but I'd rather not dwell on my failures, if you don't mind.

Who am I?
I am a recent college graduate who studied Turkish both at my home university and during a semester abroad in which I lived in Alanya, Turkey. (People who know Turkey will be thinking why Alanya? Perhaps if you read by blog assiduously you will one day find out.) I am interested in continuing my study of Turkish until I have gained mastery of the language, and perhaps taking on a few additional Turkic languages eventually. I am in love with the Turkish language and am also an avid researcher/consumer of Turkish language learning resources.

What will I write about?
Because of my aforementioned obsession with language pedagogy in general and Turkish resources in particular, I am fairly on top of what is available out there. I will write about my own personal progress with the language and write reviews of books, websites, programs, whatever else I come across that I think other students would benefit from knowing about. Some random drivel about my life might show up occasionally and I apologize for this in advance.

Who would be interested in reading this blog?
Beats the hell out of me.

That about wraps up my introduction. I can feel my fan base growing already.

Hoşça kalın, (stay well)
Andrea