Hello!

I have a question for those educated enough to admit fluency in both English and Turkish. How do you express yourself in each of these languages, and which do you find easier to use? Do you resort to your native language whenever you´re angry or frustrated? I´m very curious to find out what you all think.

Thanks

I was born in Turkey. So, my mother tongue is Turkish. Howevevr, I have spent most of my life outside Turkey, and feel more comfortable writing in English.

It is easier for me to express abstract thoughts in English because the vocabulary is there. On the other hand, I revert to Turkish in the heat of the moment during sex. I dont know why. In the same way, if I am really pissed off, I usually curse in Turkish. But, then I curse in English, too.

That´s very interesting! Thanks for your answer . You mention you find it easier to express abstract thoughts in English - this is actually what I´m most curious about.

I doubt most people have a problem with explaining that they´re happy, sad, curious, etc in any language they´re fluent in, but to explain something with a certain level of intricacy is another matter. Much in the way I´m building these sentences as I type them, I´m able to convey a certain image in the mind of the reader about many things including who I am and what I´m trying to say.

Not only my choice of vocabulary, but also the way in which I phrase and build sentences can help me better communicate a topic, and even help me to manipulate the reader into thinking certain things and having certain perceptions of me or my topic.

I love writing because of all of this intricacy and because of the control I have over my readers (in a good way! ), but I´m only fluent in English. I was just wondering if there is a certain level of difficulty in doing this in other languages, particularly Turkish.

Thanks again.

Whether people agree with the statement that English has become the lingua franca or not, we can all agree that it has become the language of international business and scientific publications. As a result, most innovations and new theories carry names in English and are offen borrowed by other languages.

I find that there are things one can express in Turkish and cannot really translate into English, and vice versa. I guess this must be the same for all languages. In a certain way, I find English to be easier to use in expressing myself simply because of its vast vocabulary, which offers the writer a variety of options.

I feel that modern Turkish is in a transitional period, and has lost much from its Ottoman heritage. Spoken language is lovely to my ears, but I hate business letters or legal documents written in Turkish, and find them to be utterly annoying. They annoy me for the reason that they employ vocabulary that is no longer recognized or generally used by the majority of the people.

In the Ottoman period, although Turkish was definetly spoken, the administrative lingo was a mixture of Farsi, Arabic and Turkish. Within the empire, many tongues were spoken. Then the empire collapsed and modern Turkey came into existance. Following the langugage reform, Turkish people became literally alien to their own linguistic heritage. In my opinion, this was a loss. Today, most turks are unable to read anything that was written before the 1920s. There are very few translators talented and knowledgable enough to translate older literary works. Yet, the now obsolete vocabulary still lingers on. People recognize the words, but often do not know what they mean. I am not suggesting that Turkish should have continued to be written in the Arabic cursive. But, it is a shame that children are not taught at school how to read this script. One could learn how to read Arabic cursive script in less than 4 weeks.

Very good thread, interesting posts. Thank you!

 Yes and facinating to read about cynicmystics sex life!!

 I´m intrigued myself

Seriously, this is really an interesting thread. Being bi-lingual myself (although not fluent in Turkish, at least for a <long> while) I´m curious, do you get the the point that you don´t know what language you´re speaking? Sometimes I had that happen to me, usually when I was tired or have just woken up, that I was convinced I was speaking English to an English-speaker, but I was actually speaking Polish and it took me a while to realize why they are staring at me and not saying anything (and speaking louder didn´t help either lol). Or when you speak Turkish do you find yourself mixing English words into your speech? Or do you use English/Turkish words with grammar structure from the other language? I´m also wondering, do you find that certain words, that are emotionally charged in your own language, lose that emotional load when translated? For example, for me to say "I love you" in English, does not produce the same emotional state as saying "Kocham Cie" in Polish. Same with swearing, somehow saying f* in English just doesn´t do the job as well as Polish Kur....

Interesting thread and what a coincidence.  I was out with several friends last night and two of the group were having a discussion.  It was interesting to listen because they flitted between English and Gujarati, even within a sentence.  I asked them about it and they said they even did it at home, where the mother tongue is Gujarati.  They use words that come most easily to the mind, even mid sentence!

Thanks for the thread

Unfortunately I´m not bi-lingual. I cannot speak Turkish more than just a few words/sentences and I can speak English at reasonable level (and German at little less) but I am searching for words too many times. Like Melek said, the most difficult things to say for me are the words that express feelings. Even words less important than ´I love you´ do not have the same meaning in English as they have in my own: friend for instance, it is used to easily/soon in English while in Dutch it is an exclusive word for much more than someone you know (a little) or who you´ve met recently. And oh yes, swearing in Dutch is/feels much stronger than in an other language, happily for me not many people outside the Netherlands understand Dutch so when abroad I can do that without people staring at me real shocked.

I can listen with admiration to people who are really bi-lingual and who can switch easily between two or three languages. Some of my colleagues can, I wish I was able do that. On the other hand I have to smile often when I hear it. Apparently some Dutch words have no good translation and when I hear Arab, Turkish, or any other language mixed with these typical Dutch words, it sounds funny.

People may be polyglot (those who can speak many languages) but when it comes to counting with numbers they usually switch to their first language.