Hi all,
How long have you been learning your Turkish for and where are you as regards your confidence on conversational Turkish using every day to day conversations and situations. I am still very slow at putting together sentances I have learnt many words and sayings my problem lies on actually putting together a good quite basic conversational Turkish I would put the length of time learning at only three to four months I would like to be more further ahead of myself. Could you tell me members what conversational Turkish you have learnt and how long you been learning for.

I am at a similar stage and finding the construction of sentances difficult. It is OK when you learn a phrase and can repeat that!!

My biggest problem is time factor - I dont have enough time to spend on learning and when you are teaching yourself often motivation (and one too many glasses of wine!) get in the way. Not being able to hear the language is a problem to - so I bought some headphones (still to be used for listening to Turkish )

The use of slang in some translations also throws me - I am then even more confused :-S

I remember a thread on here to do with ways of learning - if anyone can remember it post it here please

Ho hum - lets press on!

I just had two lessons, so my Turkish is far below zero! I just know the usual stuff like 'nasilsin, iyiyim, tesekkuler, etc'. Besides that only a few words and the rows of ben-sen-o-biz-siz-onlar / -im/sin/-/iz/siniz/lar-ler etc. When looking at the last lesson I think I need a lot of time before I know and understand the language at basic level. I find Turkish difficult, because of the suffixes and vocalharmony with the changes. Even more difficult than Japanese (I learned a bit).

I also cannot yet put sentences together and am learning slowly the whole teaching yourself, motivation, and wine thing has made it difficult, but what I have noticed is even when I don't think I'm learning I really am, I try to translate sentences I see from other people on my own then I realize I figured out a sentence. Even though I still cannot put one together by myself I realized that I can understand bits and pieces of what my boyfriend is saying to other people. It always suprises me that I caught something. Its been a couple months for me and I have a lonnnng way to go obviously, but it will come if we just keep trying!

That I recognize! When I see a sentence I try to figure out what the verb is and then - with a dictionary of course - I try to translate so I can understand it. Sometimes it works... (not too often )

I just started too.. I know basics and conversation starters like Selam!! Ne yapıyorsun? Ne var ne yok? or things like asking age, time, where you live, what you do etc., but then when the person responds in a torrent of Turkish, I get so confused that I feel like I know nothing at all. It's worse with speaking because the online tools I use focus on written, rather than conversational Turkish.

I agree that the dictionary is very useful when chatting online, but I think I've been using it as a crutch instead of learning some of the words for myself, so I try to use it less now. I have nightmares of myself in the middle of a conversation whipping out my dictionary every time I want to respond to the person I'm speaking with - definitely not cool. My last attempt at conversing in Turkish left me so discouraged that I think maybe I'll try to find a pre-schooler to chat with next time instead .

I agree with everyone's comments. Ive got quite a good vocabulary base now and Im gradually coming to understand more written Turkish but the moment I am faced with actually speaking to a native Turkish speaker I just seem to freeze once I get beyond the nasilsin, iyiyim stage. The trouble is that everyone I know in Turkey speaks such good English - although they are helpful and appreciative of anything I do manage to say - it makes me lazy. I think I need to spend a few months in a remote village in the mountains surrounded by non-English speakers!!

merhaba!
I've been learning Turkce for a year....I take private lessons once a week...it is little as this is not an easy language
it is very important to try to speak and practice whay you have learnt; if there is not a Turkish speaker around, listen to music, turn the TV on a Turkish channel or simply take a liile of your time and make a grammer exercise.
the summer holliday spent in Turkiye helped me a lot, but I think I could not have managed without the courses I took and I'm still taking as this language is a challenge in itself!

for all those striving to learn Turkce, GOOD LUCK!

I must say I am not helping myself to night, listening to MUSE full blast and I mean full blast!!

With headphones, so poor ears!

My progress?
I have been struggling with turkish for one year +
and since I became a member of this site it has improved quite a lot! I teach turkish myself due to lack of materials and courses here in my country (Chile)
and believe me, with determination and TIME you can learn...
I can write intermediate sentences and to practice I help with some easy translations here,
I still make mistakes but this is how I learn by correcting them! ( I am stuck wıth adverbial clauses of time though!)

but when it comes to SPOKEN turkish... I have no way to practice it here! and I do not understand when I hear turkish language on the internet or songs because my head collapses but I guess I just need to hear turkish as often as possible or to go there ! (When I save enough money lol )

Buna rağmen devam ediyorum çünkü türkçe'yi çok ama çok severim!!
İyi şanslar!
Good luck all of you!!
Dilara

Guys,

I'm just curious. Recently I posted the link to free online courses with audio material. Has anyone checked it out?

Free FSI language courses

İ think Turkish is a very interesting language but İ've been studying it for one year and İ get more confuse everyday, as İ told before Turkish's very interesting but it is also very difficult and confuse. Word order, suffixes and translation are absolutely difficult (everything). But don't give up, İ'm sure you will succeed. Study very hard and you'll learn it. Although İ don't understand about everything İ keep on studying. Go on! and good luck.

You're giving her a headstart! She'll thank you for it later! I haven't found any children to practice with yet But in the mean time talking to Turks on skype is becoming very useful. I also think children's TV programs in Turkish would be helpful, but I haven't found any yet...

hello everyone. a few words about my own expirience in learning and progressing Turkish

1. very first step: i was introduced to the language origins roots, where it comes from, it's history & also basic language features. that was of much help for me to feel and understand the language further;
2. moving to practice: as most of us do - i've started from the very basic everyday phrazes; (..that's normal "start" btw if u r learning foreign language by urself..)
3. afterwards: to get to know the simple grammar i bought some additional material, or either found it from the web pages;
4. learning the simple rules: sentence structures, how the words are being changed, smth about suffixes, recognizing tenses, gendre etc, i realised that i've moved a big step forward. i felt more motivation and so-called strength to learn more and more;(..btw this part was really difficult for me, it took time to understand smth coz i tried to do it mainly on my own. in any case u just need not to give up!..)
5. however, the most turning point in my language skills was communication, chatting with the native speakers, all tries to talk - these is the only way u can easily learn, progress, improve, succeed (it regards not only turkish but any other language. that helped me more than any grammar book could do, or even any private lessons. u simply learn by ineteracting.

im still at the beginner's level, but more or less i can communicate with people in turkish i have still much to learn, that's why im here but the most challenging part has passed for me, hope it's gonna work for u as well.
my advice is: be patient. organise ur time well enough. read everyday newspapers in turkish, listen to radio, sometimes switch on some tv channels, learn by heart at least a few new words per day and try to use it straight ahead, with ur inet pals, while chatting (as i do, communicate, talk. and do never give up!
gud luck!

Language (learning a foreign language) is just like a woman; if you don't show enough care, it goes away by slamming the door.

Well about me, i had memorized the turkish alphabet, it's proper pronounciation and learned how to write them too. I know almost all the vocabulary words, phrases as in greetings, calling other people. I had studied grammar like vowel harmony, hard and solf vowels and all kinds of vowels. But this is my main problem, i cannot construct sentences, sometimes i can but got no guts and confidence to talk to turkish friends in their own language because i'm afraid i might say the wrong words. When im in chatroom, i read the conversations of turkish people chatting, i consult the online dictionary then interpret. In other words, i can understand turkish language but cant do on my own. Anyway, next year given free time, i will hire a tutor coz i dont want the things i started went to waste.

Good luck to all who try and learn the Turkish language. Reading all the above comments i feel much better - because it is not easy. However i found that if i read the translations on this site - it helps a lot. Try it for yourself - try to translate first - then look at our translators comments.
Have fun - and enjoy

Tonight I have my last lesson of this year and because of holidays (mine, other students and the teacher's) the next lesson will be on February 6th! I hope I still remember then what I learned so far...

selam
i have been learning turkish for almost a year, i think i have studied all the lessons in Basic turkish and grammer sections, and i am really good at spelling and memorizing everything i have read .
the first problem that i had in learning was the alphabet's pronounciation but i have solved this problem now coz i have a turkish channel now at home and it is really very useful coz i started to listen carfully and learn how to say not only leeters but also so many words also i used songs dfor my favorite singers with thier lyrics that was a good idea for me.
now i am good at pronounciation but the second problem has appeared it is to say a complete turkish sentence with the corect order.
i haven't solved this problem yet but i am on it and i am really so hopeful.
i think it is really lovley language to learn and i just enjoy even with my problems as a fresh learner.
good luck all.