How to Study the Turkish Language
Turkey -- the land of belly-dancers, water-pipes and steam-baths -- geographically spans both Europe and Asia. Learning to speak the Turkish language is very different from studying Indo-European languages: Verbs come at the end of sentences, there is no gender, and there are eight vowels. The Turkish language originated in Central Asia with nomadic people who sprinkled it with some words of Arabic, Persian and European languages they picked up along the way. Turkish is spoken from the hinterland of Western China to the borders of Greece. Learning Turkish is best done by combining the components of reading, writing, speaking and listening in your study program. Writing in Turkish requires using modified Roman orthography.
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Instructions
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Head off to a remote village in rural Turkey where nobody speaks English. Immerse yourself in the language and the culture. This is the best way to learn a language as you don't have any choice but to study if you want to communicate with people. Take study materials, like a vocabulary book and downloads you can listen to on your MP3 player.
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Enroll in a Turkish class at the university or a Turkish cultural center if living overseas isn't an option. Sign up for the class and start working on the provided materials as recommended.
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Set up a program of study for at least an hour a day. Include the essential components of reading, writing, listening and speaking. Mark "Turkish study" in your diary, so you have to mark it off each day.
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Study the basics of the Turkish language: consonants, adjectives, vowel harmony, agglutination, absence of gender and placement of verbs. Keep a vocabulary book to record new words and study it from time-to-time to reinforce the language learning process.
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Keep a Turkish diary as part of your study. Download a translation program from the Internet and start a record of your Turkish language acquisition. Write grocery and to-do lists in Turkish.
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Find native Turkish speakers to talk with. Tell them you are studying the language and ask them to correct your grammar and pronunciation. Join a Turkish cultural club and become an active member.
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Listen to Turkish radio and watch Turkish television. Become a purist and only play Turkish music. Set the homepage on your computer to a Turkish newspaper and keep up on the world news in the language you are studying.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit istanbul image by Bahattin ERKOL from Fotolia.com
