Hmmm..!

That´s absolutely true. Naturally you´d be able to express yourself easier in a language you know more thoroughly. But certainly, one language must be inherently easier to communicate certain things than another. The trouble here is finding someone completely non-biased about the two languages, which I don´t think we can completely accomplish but perhaps someone with an English and a Turkish parent would be able to offer the most valuable insights into this.

Quote: derya_

Oh and about the vowel stuff, yeah probably we wouldn´t be able to that. However, we would be able to write a story on a single word ahah

That´s another part of what I´m trying to explain actually. It´s great in many ways that you can cut down the amount of communication required in order to state something, but then it also has disadvantages. When I was studying Turkish I found it very frustrating that various things I´d say in Turkish could be miscounstrued to mean something else. Naturally you´d gain an understanding of it so you could avoid the misunderstanding more easily the more fluent you are, but the point is that it just seems considerably easier to say exactly what you mean in English. Because of the sheer vocabulary and different techniques available, words tend to only have a single meaning - this allows you to be very precise with what you say, and the meaning of the word can be changed slightly by the context in which you put it.

That´s the main problem I had

Hehe yeah that is a real problem i agree, only until you get to a point where you can distungish the meanings clearly. That´s why learning Turkish is a bit more difficult than English.

And I agree that only someone whose mother language is niether English nor Turkish but who can speak both languages at the same level can clear everything out. Tho I doubt that there is anyone like that... is there?

XD

 It is not used that easily/soon, in my experience.  There are friends and then there are acquaintances.

Well, I´ve never heard an English speaking person saying ´going out with acquaintances to a pub´ or so, they are always with ´friends´. Only when I ask more I find out in my language it are acquaintances.

 In Turkey you are a ´friend´ the first time you meet!

Very true arkadasým. Very true ...

 I cannot agree with you more on that. There are a lot of those in Turkey who cannot speak their mother tongue properly. They belong to the "Ya bence þimdi aslinda var ya..." category that uses less than 200 words to get by in daily life. Then, they use another 100 English words to mix in so that they sound cool.

 I actually think that bilingualism is a bit misused.

You can be fluent in two languages in the sense that you can express yourself very well. In order to be classified as truly bilingual you should actually be able two speak both languages as well as your mother tongue together with a native accent.

I would say I am fluent in English, speak Turkish as my mother tongue, and can get by in Italian. However, I don´t think that I am bilingual despite the fact that I could write a business letter in English better than most English-speaking people I know or make use of a wider range of vocabulary in daily speech.

Bilinguilism is something that is really about people who acquire two or more langauges at the same time at a young age, and become "native" speakers, such as the children of a couple where the parents speak different langauges, and when te family may be living overseas. Swedish mother, English father, family living in Japan... The kid may end up trilingual in tis true sense.

   I guess in English there are several meanings to the word "friend" depending on the context, which of course may take more conversation to determine.  No, I would never say "going out with acquaintances to a pub", but then I wouldn´t really socialise with people I classify as acquaintances.  Another example would be a social event with work colleagues. Some of these I may class as friends and others as acquaintances, but if I was telling someone in conversation about the event I would say "friends from work". Another example would be "I´m going out with friends from UNi" or "my Badminton club" etc.   I think there are different categories of "friend" and this may be determined by the conext in which the word is used (or not as in your example when you had to ask more questions).  I guess this may seem confusing to non native English speakers, yet as a native English speaker I would not ponder too much on the extent of a friendship if someone told me they had gone to the pub with friends. I would take it at face value.

This is just my opinion based on my own experience of course.

 I agree!!  A very "close" or "best" friend too!!

Türkçe´nin seyri (Progress(?) of Turkish)

1960´lar
"Karþýma âniden çýkýnca ziyâdesiyle þaþakaldým.. Nasýl bir edâ takýnacaðýma hükûm veremedim, âdetâ vecde geldim. Buna mukâbil az bir müddet sonra kendime gelir gibi oldum, yüzünde beni fevkalâde rahatlatan bir tebessüm vardý.. Üstümü baþýmý toparladým, kendinden emin bir sesle ´akþam-ý þerifleriniz hayrolsun´ dedim.."

1970´ler
"Karþýma birdenbire çýkýnca çok þaþýrdým.. Ne yapacaðýma karar veremedim, heyecandan ayaklarým titredi. Ama çok geçmeden kendime gelir gibi oldum, yüzünde beni rahatlatan bir gülümseme vardý.. Üstüme çeki düzen verdim, kendimden emin bir sesle ´iyi akþamlar´ dedim.."

1980´ler...
"Karþýma âniden çýkýnca fevkalâde þaþýrdým.. Nitekim ne yapacaðýma hükûm veremedim, heyecandan ayaklarým titredi. Amma ve lâkin kýsa bir süre sonra kendime gelir gibi oldum, nitekim yüzünde beni ferahlatan bir tebessüm vardý.. Üstüme çeki düzen verdim, kendinden emin bir sesle ´hayýrlý akþamlar´ dedim.."

2000´ler...
"Karþýma birdenbire çýkýnca çok þaþýrdým.. Fenâ hâlde kal geldi yâni.. Ama bu iþ bizi bozar dedim. Baktým o da bana bakýyor, bu iþ tamamdýr dedim.. Manitayý tavlamak için doðruldum, artistik bir sesle ´selâm´ dedim.."

"Âbi onu karþýmda öyle görünce çüþ falan oldum yâni.. Oðlum bu iþ bizi kasar dedim, fenâ göçeriz dedim, enjoy durumlarý yâni.. Ama concon muyum ki ben, baktým ki o da bana kesik.. Sarýl oðlum dedim, bu manita senin.. ´Hav ar yu yavrum?´"
Ha gayret, az kaldý buna daJ

Yýl: 2026
"Ven ay vaz si hör, ben çok yâni öyle iþte birden.. Off, ay dont nov âbi yaa.. Ama o da bana öyle baktý, if so âþýk len bu manita.. ´Hay beybi..´"