Archive for the ‘Turkish’ Category
May
May
A first look at the Turkish language
In my recent look into the Complete World Traveler language list, many people were surprised to see Turkish make the list. But the influences of the Ottoman Empire have left their marks from south-eastern Europe, through the Middle East, and across all of Central Asia, even going well into Mongolia and northern China, where Uyghur (a Turkic language) is common language.
Jan
Jan
A brand new plan for this year
This year, I’m going to take on the task of learning a new language in a brand new way. I’m going to try something that I don’t think anyone has tried before. Or perhaps it has been done, but not in a way as public and visible as this blog.
Just as I did last…
Jan
Jan
Why learn Turkish?
Before I get into the details of how I’ll be learning Turkish this year, I want to first take some time to explain why I made this choice. People often have no idea why they should learn a language or which one they should learn. Maybe after seeing my reasons for this choice, perhaps some…
Jan
Jan
Why no language-learning products?
Judging by the number of page views and retweets I’ve had, this year’s exciting new plan for language-learning has got a lot of people interested! However, judging by many of the comments and emails I’ve received, I haven’t done a good enough job of explaining my intentions and my purpose. I will try to clear…
Jan
Jan
Setting clear expectations
Just as I did last year, I am going to get my year started by setting some goals and laying out a clear set of expectations with the language. It is always important to do this with big projects, and learning a language is definitely a big project.
Saying you want to learn a language…
Jan
Jan
Discovering a language with my iPod
This year started with me settling into a new apartment, frantically working to finish my Italian eBook, and then leaving the country! I’m away from home, away from my computer and all the things that I use to learn, but that’s not stopping me. I’m already learning some interesting things about Turkish, thanks to my…
Jan
Jan
Discovering a new language from afar, part 1
I’ve spent several hours this week on planes, in airports, in stations, and on trains, but during all that time I’m already learning Turkish. And I’m doing it without and language books or lesson CDs, and without access to the Internet.
How? I’m glad you asked!
I did several things in preparation for my trip,…
Jan
Jan
Discovering a new language from afar, part 2
I’ve already told you how I’m getting myself accustomed to the Turkish language by watching videos of narration while reading along. Today I’m going to share another thing that I did in preparation for my trip, so that I could be learning Turkish even as I’m wandering through Italy.
Okay, so I’ve shown you a…
Jan
Jan
Ongoing action: -iyor
Today, I’m excited to share my first grammatical observation about Turkish, which I’ve learned without studying at all!
As I mentioned recently, I changed my iPod to Turkish on new year’s day of this year, and since then I’ve been interacting with the device in Turkish and learning things as I do.
When I’m checking…
Jan
Jan
Using one language to learn another
The very first thing I learned about Turkish this year was actually an interesting revelation about languages and translation tools.
On New Year’s Day, I commented on a friend’s Facebook photo, and decided to do it in Turkish, since this is my Turkish year. However, since I began the year knowing no Turkish, the only…