Job Discussion Forums

[dmb]

[burdik]

Sorry for the delay

First of all I need to correct a misunderstanding on my part and apologize to baba alex, for when he said "Therefore I'd suggest that as a native speaker of Turkish, burdik fully understands the meaning of SIKILDIM" I missed the 's' there (understand-s-) and thought he was telling me to learn the meaning of the Turkish word. That is what I am saying. Not being a native speaker of English I might not have fully understood the meaning of bored (I never argued that I fully mastered the language), same thing might be true for the students too, so basically what I am saying is when they say I am bored they mean SIKILDIM. It is not their lack of knowledge or the misconception of the word that leads them to say 'I am bored' when the actual underlying feeling is being embarrased, bashful, or stressed. Has it ever occured to you that - if that is the case - as someone who can say that I know the language better than most - if not all - of the studnets you have come across with so far, if I don't fully know the meaning of the word bored, then it might be the case with the students too? Once again what I am saying is, in some cases when saying 'I am bored' does not make any sense at all to you, it makes perfectly sense to us. (like when you're waiting in a line / queue, when you're in traffic jam, etc...) So when a student says 'I'm bored' in the classroom, chances are 1 - he doesn't know the word 'bored' doesn't stand for embarrased, bashful, stressed, etc... and is using the word in a wrong context, 2 - He's just bored because he thinks the lesson is boring. That is to say, again and again and again, the student knows that the equivalent of SIKILDIM in English is I am bored, and therefore says he is bored because he is only SIKILMIŞ.

FGT said :

As I hinted at earlier, we cannot define the word "sıkıldım" while using English as the medium, unless we can agree on a definition (in English) of "bored".
It would appear that all the native speakers of English who (at least claim to) have an appreciation of Turkish agree that there can be a difference between the meaning of "sıkıldım" and "bored". Therefore we have to look at the understanding of the word "bored" by the native Turkish speaker(s). Thereby lies the problem.

Burdik - I am not having a go at you, but I think you should listen to what you hear. It's all very well checking the meaning of "sıkıldım" with your erudite Turkish friends but that is different to translating it into another language.

I totally agree. Ask 100 native Turkish speakers 'what does bored mean in Turkish?' 99 of them would say 'it means SIKILDIM' and that last one would say 'it definitely means SIKILDIM'. That a Turkish speaker doesn't fully understand and / or know the cultural background from which the word comes and therefore in what kind of situations it is used doesn't change the fact that he / she uses the word 'bored' as an equivalent of SIKILDIM, which in Turkish cannot be replaced by embarrased stressed etc... After reading the posts and figuring out many people didn't agree with me in what I had to say, I decided to consult a colleague of mine who was born and raised in United States but also made frequent visits to Turkey all along the way and therefore knows both cultures and languages pretty well. What she said to me was (given that the students use the word bored as an equivalent of SIKILDIM) SIKILDIM does not meet embarrassed, bashful, stressed in meaning. She also added that while saying 'I am bored' while waiting in a line sounds a bit odd in English, it makes perfectly sense in Turkish and that it was a cultural thing.


As for Sheikh Inal Ovar's post;

Please do ignore my "very sophisticted but inaccurate argument - 'my native Turkish speakers are bigger than your native Turkish speakers' ... " which I didn't make at all and can only be a creation of your hallucinating mind. I just told you what the people I'd spoken to told me, if you take my word for it. If a student is overwelmed with work and wants to say something which would mean 'Oof bu cok fazla ... cok zorlaniyorum' the word to be used there would be BIKTIM which in English could be replaced by fed up (as in sth is demanding too much of you). That he/she doesnt fully know the meaning of the word SIKILDIM doesn't necessarily change what that word actually means. But also as a result of this situation 'sıkılmış olabilir' Which means because he is in a hard position he is bored, which again might be a cultural thing and make no sense to you but perfectly makes sense in Turkish. So the answer to your question : if the student knows well what SIKILDIM means in Turkish (which in overwhelmingly most situations is the case) yes, they mean they are 'bored'

Yes I do believe you have anger issues. As for 'not liking what I find there', I know better than getting advice from Mr. 'I know the world better than you do and it is dangerous for you out there.'


ps. for those who are reading / contributing to this topic not merely with a desire to prove how better they are then the rest of the world and satisfy their egos, it took me some time to write this post and I am too lazy to re-read it, so I apologize for any spelling mistakes in advance.

[dmb]

[Golightly]

I had the opportunity to speak to a family friend the other day: Professor Yusuf Azemoun, now retired and living in Cyprus, and probably among the world's top experts on Turkish and Turkic languages. Since he has written several books on Turkish, it seems that he is the man to consult, and yes, he states that SIKILDIM, as a word, has a far broader meaning than the plain 'I'm bored' in English, yet a precise translation is difficult. He also suggests that it is a word that had a far broader connotation in the past, and is narrowing down in meaning towards meaning, plain and simple, 'I'm bored'.
So it would seem that we're all correct.

[burdik]

SIKILDIM.
That is I am bored. (its not like I am frustrated, embarrassed, stressed) This topic isn't interesting for me anymore because I've tried to make my point as clear as I could, and there isn't anything left for me to say under this topic, and I don't want to make it personal, so once again I'm not writing anymore replies under this one.

[Sheikh Inal Ovar]

Before I start I'd like to look at this -

[justme]

Burdik, welcome to the forum. It's been ages since we've had a Turkish person here. The last one apprently got bored (hehe) and disappeared. Whether he was annoyed, fed up, sick of us, or overwhelmed with outside responsibilities is a mystery, but the fact remains that he's gone, and I kind of miss that guy, and I'm glad to see another Turk on here.

I'm not being sarcastic, BTW...

[hobo]

[burdik]

[justme]

Why Butters?

[burdik]

I love South Park and my favorite character is definitely Butters. He is so sweet and naive. (and is easily manipulated unfortunately) You know how he never swears, he doesn't even say hell, but heck instead. I also love his song, loo loo loo I've got some aplles, loo loo loo you've got some too?
I've never thought about it before but I think simply because he's so cute.

[tararu]

Burdik, I must say that your English is awfully good. Did you study in Turkey or overseas?

[burdik]

[justme]

I never got used to Butters-- I didn't see South Park for a long time, then suddenly he was there. I always have a hard time accepting new characters on TV shows.

But I see what you mean about him...