Hi,

I have been trying to learn turkish for a couple of months now but i´m not sure the best way to  learn. I take a night class at uni once a week but this is mostly converational turkish to use on holidays. I will continue with this at least I can now walk into a resturant or shop and order and buy things in turkish if needed.

My uni teacher gave me the colloquial Turkish book and Cd but looking at the lessons here I thought maybe i should start with vowel harmony,  suffixes etc

Can anyone give me some advice please.

Many thanks

Hi,

First i dont know, where  are you from ? Are you living in Turkey or not ? but my opinion is if you are living in here;  if i were you, i would prefer  Language  Course. Because it would be faster to learn for grammer and speech.

If you are not from Turkey and thinking learn by yourself at home, first “get an english grammer book first” (by the way, i dont know, what is your main language ? either.) cause, you will need it. To understand foreign language grammer, you must to know your language’s grammer first. After than you can pass to Turkish.

As i wrote on the top; this is my way and you dont have to follow it. Im sure, you can find many ways for it. J Take care please. Ý hope i could help you a little bit...

Thanks Sercan,

My native language is English. I am from the uk and yes I am embarrassed to say and agree I should take more care with my spelling and grammar in english 

Hi, you know Rossetta Stone. there is a program you can learn basics and hear the pronunciation of words. It is fun way of learning language, you hear, see pictures, write, record own voice and so ever...

 You would not be brilliant in turkish, but I think it is helpful..

But i think the best way of learning languages is to go the country where the language is spoken for a year or little more.

Good Luck to you and all learners!!!

Hi Paula,I highly recommend ´Teach Yourself Turkish´. It´s simple,starts with the basics and easily explains the grammar construction of the main tenses.I refer to mine often.

Don´t even bother with ´Colloquial Turkish´ it will just confuse you.

Good luck.

Hi Stella,

I have done a few chapters of the colloquial turkish but found myself referring to this site for more detailed explanations of the grammar so it seemed pointless. It did help me learn new words,  a few more phrases and some pronunciations but it didn´t pull it all together for me. I will have a look at teach yourself turkish thank you.

Hi! I have just ordered Teach Yourself Turkish from an online store. I saw your comments about it, so I wanted to add something. Although my copy of Teach Yourself Turkish has not arrived in my mailbox yet, I have used the Teach Yourself series for Swedish and German and I am quite impressed with it.

Good luck

I completely agree - my copy of TYT is held together with string now!  I refer to it constantly.  I bought ´Colloquial Turkish´ too but really didn´t like it much.

  I bought a new one when my first one fell apart through overuse.

 I hope you´re not implying I´m tight!  .  Actually I did buy another copy but the newer edition was really badly bound (a fact that was mentioned somewhere on TC) and it fell to pieces even quicker so I decided to stick with the first one in which I´d made loads of notes

As if I would!

is there anyway i could get a copy of teach yourself turkish without having to buy it?

 Come to Turkey and borrow mine! 

How kind you are!

so that would mean i would spend about 1500 usd for a plane ticket to Turkey, and another 100 usd for processing my visa.... (and i probably will get rejected... )  :S borrowing your book is a lot more expensive than i thought...

mmmm and you can buy it on amazon for a tenner,$18-45 (not as much fun though!)

10 usd... equivalent to 500 pesos... that´s big money... lol... god im starting to sound cheap....

 Yes - but you´d get to meet me and have a nice visit - that´s surely got to be worth it!

Do you get tea and biscuits thrown in too?

lol... i need to see you first... before i decide to go..

   - there are people on this site who have met me and survived! 

ooooh-talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth!   

 Well Justine certainly won´t - but for you I´ll even throw in baklava!

i was only taught to be cautious.... i want to make sure im meeting with the right person....

I love baklava!   Checking flights now!

seriously though... can i get a free copy i got Rosetta before, but my PC was having problems, we had to reformat, and i lost it... :S

hey how did u like Rossetta? how did u lose, it comes with the cd

I just got it few months ago and i like it, but i need to more practice that is for sure...

no it was sent to me, and i downloaded it on my pc... and when my pc was reformated, it was gone... :S

Teach Yourself Turkish isn´t available on line though - you have to buy the book/cd (and ok you can have tea and biscuits - it is the season of goodwill after all )

 As you have been advised >> PLEASE KEEP CLEAR OF COLLOQUIAL TURKISH by Yusuf Mardin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It is a not a book I would encourage anyone to acquire unless they were my worst enemy.  ´Teach Yourself´ [Two Books & CDs] are an excellent way to start.  It will take some time before Turkish will establish itself.  Keep listening to the CDs as much as you can.  First, just get ´Teach Yourself Turkish For Beginners´ [It comes with CDs].  Once you are familiar comfortable with it, get the next ´Teach Yourself´ [2nd Book will need a lot of translation on your own - a bit of a struggle at first].  It does NOT have the same degree of ready English translations at the back as with the first book in the series!!  But the struggle you go through will be very helpful.  Once you listen to the CDs [till you can almost remember the dialogues by heart], you will become increasingly confident.

Once your basic vocabulary becomes established ... have enough courage to supplement your resources by getting >> ´Teach Yourself Turkish´ by Prof. G.L. Lewis.  This is a bit ´dated´ in its approach but Lewis has enclosed an ´Ocean´ in a ´teacup´.  You will have to go through it with a fine toothcomb and don´t worry about doing ALL the excercises.  Read this book over and over again till you can almost visualise every page.  Don´t hesitate to make personal notes in the margins in your own hand. Each time you read it, it will enrich you more ... bit by bit. [ Take care! Lewis does not explain the use of -en, miþ, -dik and -ecek participles too nicely --- don´t worry]

Keep visiting Manisa Turkish website in parallel while you study > http://web.archive.org/web/20071227074125/www.turkishlanguage.co.uk/index.htm

This site is no longer ´alive´ but is available as an archive.  It is absolutely invaluable.

After spending, at least six months to a year in coping with (a) Teach Yourself Turkish + CDs [Books 1&2, by David & Cellen Pollard ISBN 9780340845349 & 9780071434225 respectively, (b) Teach Yourself Turkish by G.L. Lewis ISBN 0340 05828 5, and (c) By learning from Manisa website >>> you will now find ´Colloquial Turkish´ by Yusuf Mardin to be a good help.

Remember, it will take you at least a year or more of constant work and re-work using (a) (b) (c) above before you will then be more able to cope with ´Colloquial Turkish´ [eventually it is a good asset ... but only eventually].

If you do this, you will have reached intermediate stage.  Nothing will benefit you more than visiting Turkey, actually. 

Keep visiting www.turkishclass.com [Forum] and ask for help.  Go through Forum posts every evening [it will do wonders] >> but be careful of all the love messages in ´slang Turkish´!!  Some of the Turkish by uneducated Turks can be soul destroying and aweful !!

Warning:  You will go through a period of extreme doubt >> I speak from experience, but just struggle along.  Finally, in about two-three years [unless you are a genius] ... it will BEGIN to gel together.  Despite more than 5 years of struggle, and having Urdu, Arabic and Farsi background, I am still just a learner and not entirely confident to carry out an open ended conversation.  But, I am a confirmed ediot who also happens to suffer from dyslexia.  You will fare much better.  However, do not be in a hurry. It is aptly said,´Arabic is a language, Farsi is sweetmeat, but Turkish is an art´.

En sonunda size bir teklifim var, piþman olmeyecksiniz:  If you ever wish to visit Turkey, you are welcome to be my guest as I have a home and visit Turkey for extended periods, regularly.  Interaction, will no doubt, also help me. 

Tazx1