To all you other language learners...preferably English native speakers who learned and now speak turkish...how did you do it?

I´m having such a hard time learning to speak. I´ve been living in Istanbul, Turkey for 9 months now and I still can hardly speak or hold a 10 minute conversation with anyone. Its heartbreaking to me. I really want to be able to finally talk to my in-laws, friends, just anyone. Ive tried literally EVERYTHING from computer language learning software, to books, to reading childrens books...yet I STILL cant speak. I am able to understand turkish, somewhat, like basic conversations, how to ask questions, but if its a deep heavy conversation I cant understand a darn thing. My comprehension of Turkish is still bad. However, the grammar is starting to click to me.

What would be your tips to help me quickly learn and speak? What did you do to finally get yourself at the level of speaking and holding conversations?

I find turkish to be so hard, and theres so many levels to the grammar. I know the only way to learn to speak a language is just by simply speaking..and I try all the time with my sister-in-law. But I basically gave up and now im just quiet around my in laws because I cant speak with them the way that I would like too. It just sucks can someone help!!!

if you really want you will do

all you need is your motivation

look inside you and ask yourself - why do you want to learn turkish

and you will find the power to learn it

and believe me, I find Turkish more easier than my native, French and English...

good luck

You find Turkish easier than English? Wow.

And believe me I am more then motivated enough. It´s not just I simply want to learn Turkish, It´s a MUST. I have to learn. I have in laws and family I want to speak with. (They only speak Turkish) and I´m also living in the country for goodness sakes. Are there any tips you could give me? like where to start?

I keep jumping around from just learning small vocabulary, to learning sentences, to memorizing yes/no questions..and its all just scattered. I need a clear method on how to learn the language. 

Make a baby. You will learn together with him/her. Been there, seen that.

1.Watch Turkish movies / TV series 

2.Listen Turkish music

3.Watch Turkish videos

4.Use Turkish chats,speak with people and listen them

5.Use Turkish forums

6.Read Turkish news

7.Read Turkish books

8.Be active in learning

And you should learn it with love and not by force

please forgive me and dont take it so personally but  really I find Turkish a very easy to learn language..for instance, me..I studied English during shcool, highschool and university, 14 years of English..and my Turkish is better than English, even I am studying alone, by myself (Turkish), and the beginning was 3 years ago...

good luck again..and yes..a baby is a good choice...

Not surprised at all.

I always say Turkish is an easy to learn language. Turkish is a regular&logical language language. When you grab the rules you can easily advance in a short period of time. There are many things that make it MUCH easier than many other languages people study: no sounds that are difficult to pronounce, a simple and very phonetic Latin-based alphabet, no gender differences for nouns (except for a masculine/feminine distinction in a few words borrowed from languages like Arabic) or even pronouns, essentially no irregular verbs, etc. (This extreme regularity of Turkish, once you become accustomed to it, can even spoil you a bit in terms of other languages, which then seem very "quirky" with all their genders, irregular forms, declined adjectives, etc.)

I have met some foreigners speaking reasonably good Turkish who, when asked, told me they were started learning Turkish only 2 to 4 years ago.The lady who started to learn it 4 years ago was (or sounded) very advanced to me for example.

Being exposed to the language all day long is an advantage for example. Watching TV (I recommend watching the news channels), listening to some Turkish music and studying its lyrics may help. Find some catchy tune and try to understand it.

And this site has some native speakes around wiilling to help those who come up with their questions about Turkish.

well the problem Im having is I think its because I keep directly translating all the time from English to Turkish. Also when my friends here want to talk to me, they all speak to me in English. Ive gotta get them to stop or Ill never learn. My husband and everyone tries to speak to me in English. I hear turkish all the time 24/7. My understanding of it is getting better and better. However I need to know a way to learn thats quick and fast for me. I have a friend here who learned turkish and was speaking within 6 months. Thats just CRAZY to me. However Ive been here for 9 months and I still cant speak.

My husbands cousin told me the best way to learn a new language is by memorizing sentences. He did that to learn english, and it worked for him. Should I start just by doing that? Or should I start by learning vocabulary? 

Try to always speak Turkish with the people around you. That is the best way.

dont do it, please..it is the great mistake

you have to try to think in Turkish