The difficult part is getting used to being a part of the traffic. In a big city like Istanbul, the distances are usually big, the traffic is unbearable in the rush hour and people drive recklessly. If you ask me stay away from driving in the city as much as possible if you don´t know where to go. Trying to experiment in heavy traffic might sometimes be suicidal (joking).

I thought about driving in Cyprus and Athens. I gave up on the idea in both cases. In Cyprus there was not much traffic but then the traffic was running in the opposite direction. With all turns and exits being on the wrong side of the road, your habits and instincts can be dangerous. In Athens, an old guy in a car rental office advised me to take a taxi rather than rent a car just for a day. Apparently, the first day is the most dangerous of all.

I hired an ATV instead on one of the Greek islands. When I left the road and almost crashed into a wall my wife refused to go any further and we took the vehicle back paying the full rent after having driven for 10 minutes. I think most of the danger lies in not being used to something. After a few days, you can drive anything. Of course, if you can survive the first a few days.

In Istanbul one needs to be fast, very responsive and accept that sometimes violating a rule or two is expected of you for the general benefit of the traffic. Cab drivers are great instructors about reckless and selfish driving. You can learn a lot from them.

A young German friend of mine described Istanbul traffic as a slow speed street race (he is used to driving 350hp cars) and found it very cool.

Good luck.

As far as I know, the problem here is not whether the applicant holds Turkish passport or not. Since educational systems in different countries are vastly different, there is an issue of compatibility among them.

For example, one of my cousins was graduated as a dentist from Moscow University and her diploma is not accepted in Turkey unless she goes through the hard way of re-entering country specific set of examinations. Since the syllabi are quite different a Moscow University graduate will find it difficult to become a dentist again in Turkey.  If two countries mutually accept the validity of diplomas obtained from each others´ universities there is usually no problem. For example, in Turkey there are just a few universities which are recognized internationally.

We are good, you are bad... You are good we are bad...

I wish everyone were as good as they believe they are.

I wish the problems of the black people could really be solved...

I wish there would be no black or white people at all. I wish there were just people.

The same goes for the Kurds.

I am not a Conrad expert.  Nevertheless, I do not (my apastrophe key is not working) believe in miracles.

There must be an explanation to how Conrad -a Polish citizien- could become one of the most intricate writers in English literature after having learned English at a senior age.

Could it be that Conrad and his wife had spent some years together before marriage? If that is not the case maybe he had an appetite for young British girls who would help him with his texts.  Did he write the texts completely on his own, LIR would probably find quite a few mistakes at the very least

Maybe the Polish members on this forum know something about his background.

That is a curious story. Conrad was a captain who as far as I know, traveled extensively. Some claim he never spoke a word of English until after he was 40-42. Some say, he got exposed to English at a young age. There are also those who claim his wife who was British helped him with at least with the proof reading of his texts.  Who knows, maybe Joseph Conrad was merely a nom de plume for for his wife at a time when women stayed away from writing either for avoiding social reaction or for the fear of not being taken seriously.

In Turkish, a suffix may change the entire meaning and function of a word. For example, while the root ver "ol" can be directly translated as "to be", "olmasý" goes beyond the world level capabilities of the English language and must be rendered as either "that it be" or "its being" depending on the context.

"Olmuþ" on the other hand has nothing to do with the past perfect. "Olmuþ" is reported speech but it also gives a meaning similar to that obtained by the use of linking verbs when expressing opinion on something you have newly seen. Here are two examples:

Reported:   Maç iptal olmuþ   => The match is said to have been cancelled. (or) They say the match has been canceled.

Duvarlar güzel olmuþ.   => (I find) the walls (are) well done. (well painted). 

The common point in both cases here: either through a third party or through your direct observation you become aware of some event. It indicates you were not involved in it. Instead, you only saw the result or you were notified of the outcome of it.

Turks in Turkey cannot be linked to a particular race. Since we are the heirs of a vast empire, there are all sorts of people with a multitude of ethnic backgrounds...

There are many things allegedly impossible to be done in y/our second language. For example, they say you´d use your native language for calculations. The correct word here must be "prefer".  Similarly, you could dream in another language. The amount of the foreign language conversation you get involved in during a dream on the other hand will be more or less the same as your daily use of that language.

Regarding your inner thoughts, you could technically use your second or third language here without any problems. Your native language will be silently filling in any missing words or syntactic rules with the help of your imagination.

Love can be felt for anyone regardless of what language he/she speaks. We often see people try to learn their lovers´ native language. The need for communicating with tyour sweetheart provides you with one of the strongest motives to learn a language. If your lover is Dutch, you would learn to say Ik hou van jou or if she is Finnish that would be Mina rakkastan sinua and believe me you will soon be able say it with befitting intonation, enthusiasm and your lover will love your pronunciation.  Love rarely happens in lifetime and when it happens it knows no boundaries, neither lingual nor cultural.

Well, there must  still be some envious monolingual psychologists and linguists around...

Francis Bacon regarded linguistics as a respectable way of wasting time. Did you know that there is not a single definition of language upon which all authorities agree.

Since language probably includes everything ever conceived or uttered by humans, it is virtually impossible to accurately characterize it. All  thoughts, intentions, desires and  feelings are conveyed by it. It is impossible for one to master all of the aforementioned in a lifetime.  Therefore, there is no such thing like being able to learn one´s language completely.

Language both sets the limits of human thought and serves a means for its expansion. Even the most prominent poets, writers or linguists  can only claim to have reached the bleeding edge of it.  Because thanks to their collective efforts, the scope of language is continually  expanding.

OK. I don´t agree with you.

Memur is a loan word from Arabic. It violates both of the vowel harmony rules.  Usually, loan words are pronounced the they are rendered in the language they are taken from. All the conjugations and stuff follow the rules of the source langue too. Try to find a Turkish word where you can point your finger at a long vowel.

A word of clarification. I made a mistake by saying "ae" is a long vowel. The correct explanation should be like this:

- All Turkish vowels are short

-They are usually shorter than the short vowels of English

-Some short vowels in English have allaphones with varying lengths. When they are used before p,t,k they are rendered shorter and when they are used before b,d,g they are prolonged a bit.