Lesson 67
Noobie
Noobie
Please Speak Turkish
No problem is more endemic to the beginner Turkish learner than English-speaking Turks. Be vigilant, stay alert, and don't let them switch back to English on you.
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Şeyma
yeah I had this problem with my Turkish friends but now it's totally the opposite they talk very fast to me like if I was born in Istanbul -_- and sometimes while talking to a friend I find myself forced to switch back to : Türkçem iyi değil tekrar eder misin lütfen :D I have no idea when I'll get used to the fast way Turkish people speak ! ^^"
May 24, 2013
Öğrenci
i can't beleive that i can speak much better than before
Şeyma
I agree with the comment above I've been trying to learn Turkish from other websites for more than a year but I can admit that I learnt much more since I joined your website! last year I visited Istanbul and I could speak just a few words I'm planning to go again this summer and I'm sure I will speak much more Turkish and that was obvious in my livechat with my Turkish friends I really can't thank you enough ! you know very well how to give useful lessons for each level ! recently I started to understand intermediate lessons easily but I still like to visit noobie & beginner lessons because I'm sure each time I'll find something that I missed when I was learning from other references! ÇOK TEŞEKKÜRLER!
Osaid
I so agree with your story esp. the part about Turkish friends, they speak really fast when they know that you can understand something (no matter how little that is :D) and I know for a fact that they would say the same thing about my English :D
Josef
Iyi günler, Türkçe nasıl diyorsunuz "I am sorry about x?" Does x get the accusative ending or is there some other suffix or post-position that specifies the about? Lets say somebody's kid is sick. For example, how do you say: I am sorry your kid is sick? I know i have to use üzgünüm.
Teşekkür ederim..
Teşekkür ederim..
Justin
I ran this one by Büşra to make sure I give you good, colloquial answers. She came back with three different sentences.
Çocuğunuzun hastalığına üzüldüm.
"I am sorry for your child's sickness."
Çocuğunuz için üzgünüm, çok geçmiş olsun.
"I am sorry for your child, I really hope it passes."
Çocuğunuza acil şifalar diliyorum.
"I am wishing a quick recovery to your child."
You'll notice that none of these uses the accusative. And your question gets to the heart of something really important and not always easy to predict - whether things are best expressed as direct objects, indirect objects, or prepositional phrases. You often can't guess by just comparing it to what we say in English.
So, in addition to the accusative, you will see ile, the dative (-e), the ablative (-den), as well as postpositions such as hakkında and için used to connect nouns with verbs. As you spend time with Turkish, you just pick up on which constructions are most natural.
Feel free to follow up if anything here is confusing. I'll leave you with this fun bit from Büşra:
"We normally don't use phrases like "that your child is sick", "that your child died". . . because we don't want to remind them of the awful situation that they are in."
Çocuğunuzun hastalığına üzüldüm.
"I am sorry for your child's sickness."
Çocuğunuz için üzgünüm, çok geçmiş olsun.
"I am sorry for your child, I really hope it passes."
Çocuğunuza acil şifalar diliyorum.
"I am wishing a quick recovery to your child."
You'll notice that none of these uses the accusative. And your question gets to the heart of something really important and not always easy to predict - whether things are best expressed as direct objects, indirect objects, or prepositional phrases. You often can't guess by just comparing it to what we say in English.
So, in addition to the accusative, you will see ile, the dative (-e), the ablative (-den), as well as postpositions such as hakkında and için used to connect nouns with verbs. As you spend time with Turkish, you just pick up on which constructions are most natural.
Feel free to follow up if anything here is confusing. I'll leave you with this fun bit from Büşra:
"We normally don't use phrases like "that your child is sick", "that your child died". . . because we don't want to remind them of the awful situation that they are in."
Josef
Merhaba Büşra and Justin,
I guess that makes a lot of sense when I compare the English constructions my Turkish friends use with Turkish constructions. It is such a wonderfully different language compared to most of the Indo-germanic languages. I can't use most of the analogues that have been useful crutches within the indo-germanic lingos. I often revert to German when English does not make any sense and vice versa but that has helped me only cok biraz in Turkish. That is why learning Turkish is fun for me as a scientist. The observations don't match the expectations, totally falsifying hypotheses and leading to the acceptance of different paradigms of thinking. Also, of course it is really cool to figure out how a culture works from the way language has developed. The whole thing about using the past tense to express emotion was excellent.
Just a little praise for your program (if you can take it). It's not just about teaching the language but also about the culture: "mükemmel!".
Teşekkür ederim, Büşra, for your advice. I will just go with üzgünüm and geçmiş olsun. I noticed that my Turkish friends are very tactful and beat around the bush quite a bit which is sometimes much appreciated. Reminds me of Germany when I grew up. You just did not mention these evils.
Hey, Happy Valentines Day to everybody at Turkish Teatime...
I guess that makes a lot of sense when I compare the English constructions my Turkish friends use with Turkish constructions. It is such a wonderfully different language compared to most of the Indo-germanic languages. I can't use most of the analogues that have been useful crutches within the indo-germanic lingos. I often revert to German when English does not make any sense and vice versa but that has helped me only cok biraz in Turkish. That is why learning Turkish is fun for me as a scientist. The observations don't match the expectations, totally falsifying hypotheses and leading to the acceptance of different paradigms of thinking. Also, of course it is really cool to figure out how a culture works from the way language has developed. The whole thing about using the past tense to express emotion was excellent.
Just a little praise for your program (if you can take it). It's not just about teaching the language but also about the culture: "mükemmel!".
Teşekkür ederim, Büşra, for your advice. I will just go with üzgünüm and geçmiş olsun. I noticed that my Turkish friends are very tactful and beat around the bush quite a bit which is sometimes much appreciated. Reminds me of Germany when I grew up. You just did not mention these evils.
Hey, Happy Valentines Day to everybody at Turkish Teatime...
Öğrenci
Hello. I was miffed the review didn't accept "çok üzgünüm" to sympathize with the fellow who broke his leg. Is it an oversight or is çok üzgünüm too much for a broken leg ?
Justin
Çok üzgünüm is a great response! We just can't anticipate every possible answer, so include some examples of good responses. In this case, you're right on :)
