I can understand Turkish, and I could read and i write OK but why cant I speak?

i have the same problem.i can write it ok but assoon as i have to have a converstion its a disaster haha

hehe..dont tell me about it!!
so i took lessons 3 months..i came in Turkey on 1 st of June and in the last 10 days i was alone with my mother-in-law who speaks only Turkish...
i speak some languages and i understand easy sentences in Tk, but when i speak, i am such a disaster that i feel like yelling sometimes...
but i speak, even wrong, cos generally they receive my message..and if i dont have the courage now, i ll never have it...
wish u luck

In learning a language, we usually divide it into four basic language skills:

- Reading
- Writing
- Listening
- Speaking

These two, can be divide into two groups again:

- Receptive language skills
- Productive language skills



--> Reading (written) --> Receptive
--> Listening (oral) --> Receptive
--> Writing (written) --> Productive
--> Speaking (oral) --> Productive

For nearly everyone, receptive skills come first and seem easier. This is not surprisable as we have the time to read and listen to what has been produced for us, in a seemingly logical order. After we gained enough receptive skills, we can slowly start with the productive skills. In this case, writing is also easier, because one has the time and maybe even a dictionary. However, writing is a veyr good practice because if you have someone to help you, you can get used to a word order and sentence-construction and therefore quickly also grasp a basic 'sentence-vocabulary'.

Talking is always more difficult and therefore comes at the last stage. Why? Because most of the human beings are ashamed and we do not want to sound funny in a language that we try hard for. After all the time we put in grammar, reading, listening and writing, we dont want to sound funny anymore. And this is also what makes it so hard: besides thinking up sentences, trying to make the grammar right, we also have to think about pronounciation.

All there is to do, is try to practice and speak as much as you can. I spoke English with my boyfriend for 5 out of 9 months living by his side in Turkey, but if I had the chance to do it all over again, Id try from the start. My Turkish has improved more trying to talk everyday, than when going to lessons and studying from books!

I find speaking the most difficult as well. Not so much for the sounds, but words and sentence structures don`t just come to my mind at the moment I need them...

I started to comment everyday things and events just for myself, speaking aloud in turkish. maybe it sounds funny, but it helps so much! This way I have time to build the sentences. When it happens that I want to tell something there is a chance I already made a similar sentence for myself.

If you are not afraid of appearing a bit crazy sometimes... it really works good for me!

but there is still such a long way to go... If some more people would like to share his or hers tricks I would be very interested to know!

I'm relieved to know that others have the same problem as me! I get so frustrated and embarrassed, that I don't even feel like trying to talk Turkish. I have opened up more and I try to practice talking/writing/reading sometimes and this website really helps and everyone here is really helpful.

I swear I nearly burst ın to tears when I saw thıs thread. Im not alone!!!! I have spent most of the last 5 years ın Turkey and I stıll cant put sentences together. İ can read ıt fıne and understand ıt quıte well but forget talkıng.

I get so embarassed whıch makes me more tongue tıed. I know I lack confıdence but cant brıng myself to just try ıncase I sound lıke a nutter!!

But İ have to do somethıng my son ıs 1 and very soon he is goıng to be chattıng away to me and Im goıng to be dumb struck.

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