I know I shouldn´t ask, but if you can help I´d be grateful. I have a Turkish friend I see whenever I go to Turkey and we correspond by email the rest of the year. He always writes in English. Today he has sent me a greeting in Turkish with the comment that it´s about time I learned the language. He´s right of course!  I want to send a message back in Turkish to surprise/shock him. I would like to say:

" Good morning/afternoon *name*. I do not need to learn Turkish because as you can see I am already fluent. I just thought I would write in English to enable you to practise your written English     Seriously though, I agree with you that it is about time I learned some Turkish - I love the country and the people enough to want to visit as often as I can so the least I can do is communicate a little in the language. I bought a book and some CDs which have been gathering dust and I promise that I will dig them out and learn some phrases before I come over in September. Then you will have to watch out because if you say rude things about me in Turkish I will know what you are saying!!"

Many thanks to those prepared to help this lazy would-be Turkish language student.

I realise your intention is to shock your Turkish friend, but Turks certainly appreciate your efforts much more when they realise you have genuinely tried to communicate in their language.

Now is your chance to begin!!!!

I assume if you have been to Turkey, you may have taken the trouble to learn some Turkish words.

Do you know the Turkish words for 

hello - merhaba

friend - arkadaş

my friend - arkadaşım

good morning - günaydın

good day - iyi günler

good afternoon/evening - iyi akşamlar

How are you? - Nasılsın?

I´m well - iyiyim.

Try keeping the sentences simple, and if you need help, post your translation attempt here, and the corrections will come. This is one of the best ways to learn, by attempting simple sentences, and getting corrections.

Good luck - iyi şanslar

Hi Henry. Yes, I have learned some basic Turkish words along please/thank you/good morning lines and do intend to learn more. I am having an operation on Monday and will be housebound for two weeks so I will use some of my time to really get to grips with my language course. The only purpose to my request for translation help was to have a little joke with my Turkish friend who has been so kind to me and my mother. He also has a wicked sense of humour so I think he will see the funny side of getting a message from me in perfect Turkish.

Best wishes for your operation, and hopefully a native speaker will find enough time to correctly translate your text.

Thank you gokuyum  Sorry - that should be ´teşekkürler´

I have heard about wanna-be´s but would-be´s are a new acquaintance for me.

 would-be