I will start with the first question. What are the major difficulties you have (or had) in learning Turkish? If you succeded to overcome some of these problems, share how you did it and people having the same problems will be thankful. One more thing, which do you think are the most difficult and unintuitive aspects of Turkish?

the first trouble i faced was that i could hardly find books or cd for teacing turkish language even if i find it will not be very helpful then there is very small number of the translated urkish movies and songs.

The biggest difficulty is lack of online resources and the greatest challenge is in trying to find explanations that make all the root word suffixes and verb conjugations understandable ...

ahh the first difficulty is the word order in the sentence...pretty confusing
and of course, the lack of translated text....they can be very helpful because you can practise what you have learned.

It's a language almost totally devoid of cognates to my native English. Building a vocabulary is hard work in Turkish!

I've started taking lessons with friends met through a local university's "Language partner" program, and am hoping to complete a textbook within the next 9 months or so.

I have had also problems in finding turkish-english books.. but thanks god I found some stuff that helped me *a lot*. I wish I had found this website 8 or 9 months ago, when I started to study turkish.. this site is the best for beginners I think

Sertab, can you give the names of the books that helped you? This will definitely be helpful for people who need some extra resources.

the word order definitely. It's like you have to reprogam the linguistic part of your brain all over again. That's how it feels to me anyway. :-S

admin:

1. "teach yourself, beginner's turkish" by Asuman Çelen Pollard. + 2CD's

goal: everyday communication

content:
~ cover all the basics
~ go at a steady pace
~ build your confidence to speak



2. "teach yourself turkish". Asuman Çelen Pollard & David Pollard + 2CDs

goal: all-around confidence

content:
~ learn to speak, understand and write turkish
~ progress quickly beyond the basics
~ explore the language in depth



they r really useful.. these books together with daily visits to turkish forums, listening to turkish songs and so on r really good for a turkish learner. i would never in the life had thought i would b able to keep a conversation in turkish!

Thank you for sharing Sertab. Books are still one of the most effective ways for learning Turkish, especially if they are well-prepared. They come second after this site