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Turkish Intensive Course and Homestay in istanbul
1.       TalkingCat
3 posts
 28 Feb 2013 Thu 10:27 am

Hi all! I´m a new member of the forum and so excited to have found this website that I´m sure will be useful for me as a brand new learner.

 

By the way, I am planning of spending my summer holiday this year by taking a 1 month Turkish Course in istanbul. I am thinking of Taksim Tomer so far, and also interested in taking their host family accommodations, becaus ethey have the cheapest option that I can find so far. Taking the homestay is what I actually aim at the most, expecting to get a real turkish life experience, as this would be my 5th visit to istanbul. But, I cant quite find any reviews anywhere about this, especially on the host family accommodation they provide. So I´m wondering if there´s anyone here (other than catwoman who has helped me a lot by sharing her comment, thank you) who have had experience in taking any of these intensive Turkish course and host family accommodation option by Tomer or by any other institution. I will really need to hear your experience.

 

Since I´ve never really done this kind of thing before, so I wonder if anyone could help me to share their experiences, so I can really have a thought in regards to the quality of the course, the safety, how the host family help you with your stay, are they fun people that make your experience great, and on top of it all if it is all a worth it spend. Or if there are other options to recommend, that´d be great

 

Thank you so much

 

2.       AlphaF
5677 posts
 28 Feb 2013 Thu 11:52 am

 

Quoting TalkingCat

Hi all! I´m a new member of the forum and so excited to have found this website that I´m sure will be useful for me as a brand new learner.

 

By the way, I am planning of spending my summer holiday this year by taking a 1 month Turkish Course in istanbul. I am thinking of Taksim Tomer so far, and also interested in taking their host family accommodations, becaus ethey have the cheapest option that I can find so far. Taking the homestay is what I actually aim at the most, expecting to get a real turkish life experience, as this would be my 5th visit to istanbul. But, I cant quite find any reviews anywhere about this, especially on the host family accommodation they provide. So I´m wondering if there´s anyone here (other than catwoman who has helped me a lot by sharing her comment, thank you) who have had experience in taking any of these intensive Turkish course and host family accommodation option by Tomer or by any other institution. I will really need to hear your experience.

 

Since I´ve never really done this kind of thing before, so I wonder if anyone could help me to share their experiences, so I can really have a thought in regards to the quality of the course, the safety, how the host family help you with your stay, are they fun people that make your experience great, and on top of it all if it is all a worth it spend. Or if there are other options to recommend, that´d be great

 

Thank you so much

 

 

We are so happy to see you join this merry crowd !

Pls start by going into Turkishclass columns and reading Turkish friendly columns by "thehandsom". They have been there for ages, but no one seems to read them.

You may decide to fly over to Mali instead and learn whatever language they are speaking, afterwards.

Efi70 liked this message
3.       Henry
2604 posts
 28 Feb 2013 Thu 01:05 pm

Hi TalkingCat,

I did a 4 week intensive course last year with Dilmer (near Taksim). Unless you are an absolute beginner, both Dilmer and Tomer do placement tests (on the first day or the weekend before) to put you in the appropriate class for your level of Turkish. Of the 3 people I know who have participated in both Dilmer and Tomer classes, all said they preferred the Dilmer classes (better teachers and speed of learning were the main reasons).

I did the 20 hour per week classes, which also had homework (took at least another hour per day for me). Personally I would recommend doing as much self-study as possible from the internet and books before attending. This will be a big help before the assessment, and aid your understanding of the language. You will only be able to complete 1 of 6 levels every month at best. The courses are taught completely in Turkish, but depending on the teacher, they can sometimes help a little with English, German, Russian, French. Make sure you also have a very good dictionary with both Turkish and your native language. All courses have a textbook that covers the level you will learn (in Turkish), and Dilmer also has separate self-study books (2 levels) in various languages with Turkish.

I stayed at a hotel, which gave me a very good rate in their off-season, but there are many rental properties available if you stay for one month.

For example click here

Homestay options sound great but are always a lottery. There were none on offer from Dilmer when I enquired. People generally do this to make money, and you probably wont have the same privacy as a rental, because you are sharing someone´s home. Also extra noise from children in a family can make studying harder. Most of the younger ladies that were in my course all rented apartments, but some had problems commuting a fair distance in the Istanbul morning traffic. Location and transport are things you definitely need to check beforehand.

Which month are you thinking of going? If you can, avoid months with lots of Turkish public holidays, as no classes are held on these dates.

Plenty of helpful people on this site can aid you with your basic learning, and this website also has free lessons to get you started.

When you get more advanced, there are also detailed posts explaining Turkish grammar that you can access via the search box at the top right of this page.

Good luck with your learning

li.rbjsy and TalkingCat liked this message
4.       TalkingCat
3 posts
 04 Mar 2013 Mon 08:24 am

Hi Henry,

 

Thank you so much for your input. Im planning to go in summer, which starts early July all the way to end of July. Yeah, I read reviews about some courses and I think people do prefer Dilmer. But since they dont have homestay option, I need to think about whether it´s safe enough to find myself a room with a ´flatmate´, or just to gamble with Tomer´s host family option. Thanks so much again for your kind input.

 

Meanwhile, I´m still inviting more people´s comments regarding the homestay option.

5.       çay_time
posts
 04 Oct 2013 Fri 12:28 pm

Hi to everyone!This post is from a few months ago...but I´m in the same situation, looking fr some information about those schools, and home staying that Tömer can arrange for students. Even though I´m more thinking about taking courses at Dilmer, because the location seems better and easier to get. I don´t know...I think to stay in a host family is a good thing, but since we don´t have any checking before accept it, we never know where we are actually going! As it was said, it´slike a lottery...I´d rather to rent a room in a shared flat if it´s possible.Please, I need some advices about it...the ones who already have to deal with a host family or rentinfg a flat by their own...What is the safest choice?

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