An American movie with some Turkish/subtitled scenes. A romantic tragedy starring Robert Redford, set in an Agean island around 1914.

Very beautiful, very sad, very evocative of a vanished world.

My technique for learning a new language is to eventually start reading the New Testament in the target language. This trick has worked pretty well inside the Indo-European family tree, and I've acquired a reading knowledge of Afrikans, Italian, and Esperanto on my own.

I'm hoping to start reading Incil soon.

Meanwhile, my language partner friends gave me a copy of the Nasrettin Hoca stories in Turkish, and I'm translating 'em at the rate of one a week.

If you are living in the States, check out a local university and see if they have a "language partner program." I've really enjoyed getting to know one young couple, and am making consistent, if slow, progress with my Turkish.

Turkish STUDENTS should not be too hard to find. I mean students FROM Turkey, native speakers of that language, who can cheerfully help you with your pronunciation, if you are making a good-faith effort to teach yourself using other resources.

Finding a language tutor isn't hard -- just contact your local university, and offer to befriend a Turkish student. The social high point of my week is my visit to the place where I need to wear clean socks. A charming young couple ply me with tea and turkish delight, then exchange help with English for help with Turkish.

I imagine, if you are in Turkey, being a native English speaker would make it easy to exchange tutorial services with college students.

i taught myself to read italian a few years ago, while documenting industrial machinery made in italy. working on turkish now, with the help of a volunteer tutor in this country (usa) on a tourist visa. i hope to study and/or teach in turkish from time to time in the future.

'pascale's island' is definitely worth seeing. it's an older robert redford movie set in a pre-wwi greek island. the title character is a language teacher and turkish 'secret' agent. most of the movie is in english, but there are subtitled turkish parts. it's a poignent picture of a lost world.

Eski hamam, eski tas.

(Same old bathhouse, same old water bowl.)

it ürür, kervan yürür.

My favorite. "Great enterprises are not deflected by the yips and yaps of petty critics."

Literally -- "Dogs bark, the caravan moves on."

It's a language almost totally devoid of cognates to my native English. Building a vocabulary is hard work in Turkish!

I've started taking lessons with friends met through a local university's "Language partner" program, and am hoping to complete a textbook within the next 9 months or so.

Ouch. To quote an infamous American politician, "I feel your pain."