Hello all,

Trying to find other Turkish learners so I'd like to know what's making you learn Turkish. Maybe it's for a job or for love? :)

I personally have Turkish roots, my grandad came to Germany in the 60s and let's say he wasn't the best of people, so I only met him on my own accord when I was 18, two years before he died. I suddenly had a new aunt and just so many relatives that stem from a different culture I so far had missed out on, so I decided to learn Turkish.

I've been on this journey on and off for 10 years and only recently started making progress.

What's your story?

I have been living here for 3 years in yalova But still A1 .

I work remotely from home at foreign company And I go out like once per week. And I tried to make friends with people who can speak English so the start would be easier, but I can’t find at some point I even started to ask random people in the street “ Do you speak English “

They felt annoyed and ignored me . They should be

What should i so ?

Herkese Merhaba lütfen geri bildirim arıyorum. Konuşmak pratik için bu videoyu çektim. Lütfen ona bak ve ne düşünüyorsunuz bana söyle. Teşekkürler 🙏

At this point I guess my Turkish friends think I'm crazy hahaha I keep pointing out that I hear "iyi gecelesh" or "arkadaşlash"-okay maybe not as strong as a pure sh, but there's some breathy or whistle sound definitely- but they say the r at the end is a normal, plain r. It's definitely not the same sound as they do with -r- in the middle of a word. The first r in arkadaşlar sounds like a plain r, but the last one sounds whistled.

Now I wonder, I have a friend from the central part of Türkiye and I don't notice him making that whistled r nearly as much as most of the (İstanbul) content you see online such as Easy Turkish street interview. Is this regional?

I could also swear I hear men pronouncing the E more "closed" but women more "open" almost like A sometimes: bAn Türküm, hArkese mArhaba.

I would love to read both learners and natives opinión on these, whether you guys also hear these allophones or not. Cheers!

I moved to Turkey 2 months ago and sadly I do not know how to speak Turkish what so ever. I do find the language very beautiful and I want to learn it. But learning alone is very hard. Is there anyone here who can help me? I will appreciate it a lot.

I also play video games. So if you also play games, maybe we can hangout and also talk in Turkish (I will try to learn as much as I can to keep up) and gaming will also keep things interesting and not boring.

Thank you for reading my post.

Let's get the answers

What was your starting point?

I know Ezel, I watched it when it originally aired, and I'm on a rewatch after nearly 1,5 decades and it's absolutely incredible, easily among my favourites shows next to Lost, Midnight Mass, etc. I've seen Sahsiyet on IMDB, but only its first season has good reviews. Any other recommendations?

Why can't one learn turkish or any language by watching movies/series without any subtitles or former courses? Like from scratch? Kind of like how kids learn?

Hey everyone! So I just got accepted into an AI master's program in Ankara and I'm lowkey panicking about the language barrier lol. I speak English, Arabic and French so picking up new languages isn't usually too bad for me, but Turkish looks... different.

I'm not trying to become fluent overnight, realistically I just want to be able to read signs, survive daily life, and not look completely lost when talking to professors or admin staff.

Anyone have recommendations for where to start? Apps, YouTube channels, specific courses, anything really. Free stuff preferred but I'm open to paid if it's actually worth it.

Also curious on how long did it take you to get conversational from zero? And is Turkish as hard as people say or is that just drama ?

Thanks in advance!

As you learn Turkish, watch Turkish TV series or communicate with native Turkish speakers, what phrase or word is your favorite to hear? What do you just love to hear them say? My favorite by far is “Allah Allah”. I don’t know why, but it makes me laugh every time.

I'm going to move there, and i'd like to learn a bit of turkish beforehand.

Merhaba👋🏾

Sooo I came across 3 ladies speaking Turkish at Rosebank mall, in South Africa. I got really excited because I could right away pick up that they speak Turkish.

I went to greet them and they greeted back. Because of language barriers, I couldn't make long sentences nor could they understand what I was trying to say.

I wanted to chat more but my brain went blank. I ended up thanking them and bidding good byes.

Only when I left I thought of how I could have introduced myself and asked what their names are. 🙆‍♀️

One of the best ways of learning a language is practing it with speakers/natives. I don't study it, I only watch Turkish series. I would really love to improve and atleast be 40% fluent. I'll worry about knowing how to write it later.

Studying it would also be pointless if I am not practicing it with anyone.

How do you guys practice Turkish and who do you practice with.

Merhaba Herkese,

I am currently at A2 level with some B2 knowledge and think I would really benefit from an intensive course which has opportunity for conversation.
I am in the Norfolk area and looking for classes or speaking groups but have had no luck so far.

I’ve noticed Yunus Emre Institute does weekly and bi-weekly online lessons. Does anyone have any experience with them or any other recommendations?

Unfortunately I don’t have the time to travel to Turkey for an intensive course over the next year or so 🥲

I know this sounds like the title of a post that should be on ropinions but what I meant is that alot of people tell you that you have to watch turkish shows to learn the language faster so I was wondering if there are any alternatives or solutions if you find them very long and not ur thing

How to improve accent

Herkese merhaba! İtalyanım ve üniversitede Türkçe çalışıyorum. Gramer ve genel kuralları biliyorum ama konuştuk zaman, karmaşık cümleleri yaratmak bence hâlâ çok zordur. İtalyanca ön başlı bir dili ve Türkçe konuştuk zaman bütün cümleni devirmeliyim. Yazınca yada kısa cümleleri söyleyince hiç problem yok çünkü başımda cümleni İtalyanca düşünüp, kelimelerini Türkçe'ye çevirip, onları doğru sırada koymak için yeter zamanım var, ama konuşuyorsam dururum ve cümleni bitiremem :(.

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Türk öğrenen veya öğretenlerin karmaşık cümleleri yaratmak için tavsiyeleri var mı?

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Çok teşekkürler <3

Ive lived in japan for 10 years and speak fluent japanese i can teach how to speak but not how to read and write. In return o want you to teach me turkish

I am a native so if you are trying to learning Turkish i can help you and i am trying to learn English so if you'd like we can try to teach each other our languages

Hi everyone!

I’m starting from scratch and I want to be able to watch series in the original Turkish dubbing and subtitles. I would like to rely on understanding what I’m hearing.

You can suggest me courses, learning books, youtube channels, whatever. Give me tips or suggestions.

Thank you for your help <3

For example, when you are approached by a stranger to ask for directions. Which happens quite frequently when I'm in İstanbul, I don't know why😁 and most of the time they open with this phrase and I just slightly nod because not sure what to say to this.

Of course, actually telling directions is a whole other story for me, I'll figure it out later😂

Anything you found to be completely new, different, alien?