The reason for the dry spell is that I have been happily focussed on a new job. At the same time, my residence has been in happy flux. Now, I'm finally nearing the point where I can get back into some kind of steady routine.
During this long process, I've been doing two things related to my ever intensifying interest in Turkey.
- Finished reading Andrew Mango's biography of Atatürk
- Listening to Pimsleur's Turkish language tapes on my way to and from work
Contributing to my time constraints has been a much longer commute to work. However, I've been using that to my advantage. Specifically, this is where the Pimsleur tapes come in. Since the road has me, in effect, as a captive audience, I'm making the most of it—listening and repeating the Turkish phrases of each lesson.
Initially, I felt a bit robotic, listening and repeating and replaying entire lessons as needed. However, I've been making a point of stopping the tapes at times and testing myself—e.g., asking myself what's the difference between "what would you like to eat?" and "would you like something to eat?" in terms of how it's said in Turkish. In this sense, my listening skills a being seriously challenged, which I welcome.
Of course, at the same time, I'm being very careful not to get myself killed on the highway! Hmm, perhaps I should learn to swear in Turkish. With that thought, I found Allah kahretsin or simply kahretsin (both of which apparently mean "Damn!") at my favorite online Turkish-English dictionary. I need to start bellowing out such words more when I get cut off. Apart from being good practice, it may also keep me out of trouble when English speakers overhear me. ;^)
On all this, I must thank and commend my Egyptian visitor, moro85, for his/her comment to my Turkish grammar on the web post. So, you're Egyptian and have learned some English and now wish to learn Turkish too? Wow. Go for it!
As far as tips, I can only offer what I've already posted here so far. Personally, I've been enjoying the Pimsleur tapes (really CDs, but you know what I mean). My goal is to be able to speak Turkish intelligibly as well as understand my Turkish hosts and I find Pimsleur very practical when you are pressed for time. And popping my Pimsleur CD into my car stero during drive time is an ideal time for me to practice and talk to myself [I'm quite a good listener, if I say so myself :^) ].
1 comment:
Victoria,
To accommodate you, I deleted the post and copied back into it what I had written earlier. That was the only method I knew for removing your comment (which I've copied back here).
"Oh, thanks for continuing. I'm just at the beginning of learning the language, but I really, really love having a blog about this readily available.
"I myself am American (born and raised) but my fiance is originally from Turkey and I am doing my best to learn the language so I can talk coherently with my future relatives.
"Thanks for coming back. I totally understand the time crunch. I'll have to check out these cds you mention. I have rosetta stone but find myself struggling finding the time to really practice them as much as I would like."
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