Job Discussion Forums

[pennyboo]

I live in Manisa, near Izmir, and want to learn Turkish, but I can't find a place that isn't too expensive or too far away. Does anyone know of a place near or in either of these two places. Nobody seems to be able to tell me a place here. I want someone qualified and to teach grammar not conversational.

[cartago]

It's hard to find a teacher. What I did was use a grammar book and dictionary in combination with asking a native speaker who spoke very limited English how to say things. He was interested in learning English too so it was like a language exchange. I also used a Turkish textbook that taught English as sort of a backwards way to learning the language. Watching English TV with Turkish subtitles helped some too. It is difficult to find books that teach Turkish but I eventually found a pack on PDF. I've also dated some guys who spoke very limited English, which can be frustrating, but helps too. I've found that often those who have lived in Turkey for a long time but know little Turkish are people in relationships with English speaking Turks. Their partner can do all the talking for them so they don't have to learn it.

[lucia79]

@pennyboo-- Are you teaching at the university in Manisa? If I were you I'd ask a student who is studying Turkish/education (to be a Turkish language teacher at a school) or translation and interpreting.

[pennyboo]

Thanks everyone! Yes Lucia79, I am teaching at the university here. Your suggestion about finding a student who is studying Turkish is brilliant, but sadly none of those students are on my campus. For some strange reason the education department isn't with the English department and that campus is nearly three hours away. Super weird. I'll have to wing it I guess.

[PC Parrot]

In addition to the above, for grammar, of which many Turks are as unaware as the average Joe is of English grammar, I found the translation of Thomson & Martinet to be very useful.

It's obviously for Turks studying English but you can get a long way going in the reverse.

When I was in Turkey I worked at a uni where over 100 of the English teachers were native speakers of Turkish. If I encountered some grammar in a newpaper or on TV that I just couldn't work out, I would scribble it down and ask them. They were more than willing to help.

Turkish is great for lexical chunking as you really don't want to have your mind whirring away for each and every suffix you need to add to the verb, especially in a real time spoken context. What am I talking about?

- abilirim / ebilirim = I can____
- abilirmiyim? / ebilirmiyim? = Can I ______ ?
- amam / emem = I can't ______
- amam mi? / emem mi? Can't I ______. ?

And that's just a tiny dot on the tip of the iceberg ...

[sixthchild]

nice to see you are going to all that trouble, save time and money, get a Turkish bf/gf.