Job Discussion Forums

[Kaliax]

Okay kids, another question for ya. I speak zero Turkish. I'm workin' at it already, but hey, I'm American... we seem to be genetically handicapped at this whole "learning foreign languages" thing.

BUT - my German is passable. At the very least, it's better than my Turkish. How useful is knowing some German in Turkey (at least in the Western part of the country)? Will I be able to get along with it and some basic English while I scurry to learn as much Turkish as possible?

Blair

[scot47]

Lots of Turks have worked in Germany. German is certainly useful but I think there can be no substitute for learning the local lingo.

"Ghost" suggested the Tomer chain of schools as reaonable places to do Turkish classes.

When I travel through Turkey on my way home I often regret that I did not learn Turkish when I was younger. Now I find picking up a new language difficult. I envy my colleague aged 70 who recently took to learning Mandarin as a hobby.

[ghost]

The age thing....about learning languages is something of a myth one feels.

With motivation you can learn any language...as long as you do not suffer from Alzeimher`s or some such thing.

Tomer schools of languages in Turkey are by far the best deal for most people. It is four hours a day of ONLY TURKISH and even those who are not `gifted` will learn to speak passable Turkish within a month or so...because you are constantly drilled in class. There is also daily homework so the daily commitment is about 5 hours a day..(ghost raced through homework in one hour or less...even though teachers advised 3-4 hours of study after class).

Ghost was replaced by a teacher in Eskisehir in January, and this individual still speaks zero Turkish, because he has not done a course and is not really motivated....Ghost`s replacement complains that Turkish is difficult, but the truth is that Turkish is merely a medium difficult language. One can acquire reasonable fluency within one to two months if you put in the Tomer time or similar....the key is to practice every chance you get. Ghost passed himself off as Argentinian in Turkey who spoke zero English, so the Turks were forced to speak in Turkish (total immersion)...and you can do the same. Stop giving free English lessons to Turks you meet everywhere...nothing wrong with that...but you should avail of your time to learn Turkish too.

[MarcusK]

[scot47]

I think if I were living and working in Turkey I WOULD manage. As it is I just pass through and am there for a few days two or three times a year.

Turkish is certainly interesting and a nice change from tose boring Indo-European languages.

For those living in Turkey - especially those who CLAIM to be language teachers there is no excuse for not learning it !

[ghost]

Scot is right about trying to learn the language of the country one is teaching in.....it creates much more understanding of what language learners go through, a kind of kindred spirits empathy.

Turkish should not be a problem for ESL teachers living there, but many choose not to learn the language....and that is a pity....because not that hard.

Ghost recently spent two months travelling around Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Sri Lanka.....and THOSE LANGUAGES ARE DIFFICULT...with the easiest being Vietnamese....thanks to the partial romanized writing system.....In Sri Lanka one has to make the choice, also, of deciding to learn Singhala or Tamil....because the two are radically different, both in speech and writing.

Thai, Khmer, Vietnamese and Lao are tonal languages and they take much more time to master than Turkish.

Despite this state of affairs, ghost met several NGO's and teachers in Cambodia, and Thailand who had learned the language.....with much effort.

But the key is motivation.

Arabic is another difficult language to learn, and the problem is exacerbated because the neophyte learner has to decide whether to learn the 'classic-literary' or 'street variety' and the two are poles apart.

In 1996 Ghost spent two months in Jordan and Egypt and learned some classical Arabic, which unfortunately proved of little use when going to the market and talking with common people....in addition the guttoral aspect of arabic speech is very difficult for westerners to master, because we have no equivalent sounds.