I would like to know if there is some good intensive school to learn the turkish language, since only with my books and sözlük is not enough, want to learn more everyday, but I need some effective way for that...I appreciate your possible help, Maria del Mar

I recommend you TÖMER which seems the most effective and serious way for learning Turkish, but also you may join to the language courses offered by universities.


here is the link:

http://www.tomer.ankara.edu.tr/english/index.html

Look for EF Dil okulu, I've studied at that one for 4 weeks. It was absolutely great. Afterwards I began a uni degree here and it appeared I really learnt a lot .

I came to Turkey to study turkish at Tomer in İstanbul.Just forget them I have been there, the staff isnt well preparated and they cant speak english well.Try to call then and you will see that.Face to face it was still worse.İt was completely disappoiting since the moment where I was trying to find the school, the building is in a strange street and its not easy reaching there if u dont know Taksim area and the building isnt well conservated, I felt myself as if I was inside a garbage.Other thing is that they say they will provide you a accommodation and pick u up in the airport, just forgetit they have no structure for that. I tried Dilmer course for 2 weeks,it finished a few days ago, teachers arent well preparated they dont know many words in english and the course is a bit weird since u never start from the beginning and they dont follow a logic sequence.Chantal is right about EF anyway if you are not that rich you can find good dictionaries and books for learning by yourself in every bookshop in Kadikoy (asian side) or even cd room courses with books you can find at there for good prices. If you have an opportunity to be here, the normal environment will give you respaldto learn step by step without going to any course.Anyway there is another option too, its METU Istanbul Unıversity.

I once sent an e-mail to Tömer but they never replied to that. I have to agree, EF is quite expensive, and sometimes they use material from Tömer, but the way they teach I believe is a good way (and one which I'd use too as a future teacher ).

My teacher didn't speak English either, but I think that is not a bad thing. You can make a lot clear by looking up words in a dictionary during the class and by gestures and pictures. Every morning we had to tell in Turkish what we did the previous day. When she introduced us to new grammar, she just gave sentences with examples and tried to explain what it meant.

I'm planning to move to Turkey some time in the future, and if necessary I'd definitely pick EF again to brush up my Turkish!

Tömer is suggested everywhere as the bst course, and I keep suggesting it to people who want to learn Turkish other than İstanbul, because it is hard to find something else than Tömer if you are not in a metropol like İstanbul.

But I agree: for an official language institute, their skills are way below what you can expect from an official institute. They are NOT worth the money you give!

Maybe we should begin our own Tömer DK

EF İstanbul sounds like a good place.Here's a witness of Chantal I advise you to go there

Hello, and welcome to Turkey. I know quite a few foreigners who live in Turkey. Most of them initially attended langauge schools, where they were indoctrinated with the standard text book definitions and grammar drills. My suggestion to you is that do not waste your money on any of these bogus langauge schools.

My suggestion to you is to find a private tutor, who speaks English well, and meet every two weeks. Two lessons a month. Some of these tutors are really expensive, others aren't. However, what they offer is a lot more than what you should expect to get at a langauge school. Additionally, you should self-study the grammar yourself for it is quite regular. You should formulate questions, and use the private tutor to clarify these issues for you.

What language schools do is to waste your time with impractical aspects of grammar. If your primary goal is to be able to get by in daily life, then all you have to do is to focus on the use of about 300 words or so.

I think language schools are mostly rip-offs.