Learn Turkish: A1 to B2

Posts0Likes0Joined27/7/2019LocationUS
Native
English
Learning German, Turkish

Hello everyone.

I've decided to finally try to get somewhere with my Turkish.


Background: Once upon a time I visited Turkey fairly often and, because the Turks are generally so hospitable and accommodating, let myself believe that my Turkish was not too bad. After several years away from the language, a recent day spent browsing Turkish websites led me to realize that my Turkish really isn't very good at all.


The plan: Some years ago I did the Assimil course, so I have a reasonable grasp of the basic grammar. Now I plan to start over as a false beginner, focusing for at least the first few months on intensive reading and listening. I plan to use mostly materials that have been produced for native Turkish speaking children, using whatever free and legal materials are available on secure websites - and as it turns out there are lots of good materials for the A! to B! levels (or I should probably say for 4 to 12 year old native speakers). I'll post links to useful materials.


Outlook: Well, for some time now life has been fairly complicated and recently it has become even more so, so this project will probably move along pretty slowly. Wish me luck - I will need it,



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#1
Posts1630Likes1092Joined18/3/2018LocationBellingham / US
Native
English
Learning German
Other Chinese - Mandarin, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Thai

Welcome John, and good luck!

In Thailand now. Next up Tanzania and Philippines.

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#2
Posts55Likes44Joined26/12/2019LocationBE
Native
French
Learning Chinese - Mandarin, Dutch, English, German, Japanese, Spanish

Luck! (By the way, I love your music).

There are a few shows on primevideo with Turkish dubbing and subtitles.

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#3
Posts1630Likes1092Joined18/3/2018LocationBellingham / US
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English
Learning German
Other Chinese - Mandarin, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Thai

Michel wrote:
By the way, I love your music

Wadada?

In Thailand now. Next up Tanzania and Philippines.

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#4
Posts55Likes44Joined26/12/2019LocationBE
Native
French
Learning Chinese - Mandarin, Dutch, English, German, Japanese, Spanish

leosmith wrote:
Wadada?

I was talking to John Williams but I will read your page(s) tomorrow.

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#5
Posts55Likes44Joined26/12/2019LocationBE
Native
French
Learning Chinese - Mandarin, Dutch, English, German, Japanese, Spanish

leosmith wrote:
Wadada?

I listen to 50 minutes of your music this morning, out of 3 youtube video. There is a very short passage less than 10 seconds at 26'14" that I love in a 35' duo with Vijay Lyer, a 2015 recording at The Stone. I didn't like Four Symphonies, 2017 performance at The Lab. The piano is ok but nothing more and the synthe got on my nerves at best. I'll give another chance to Four Symphonies. The third video was another duo with Vijay Lyer, 6' Passages. When I think about trumpet the first things that come to my mind are Aida, Maurice André and the guy who walked on the Moon and won the Tour de France. Thank you for sharing. Sorry I didn't know about you.

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#6
Posts1630Likes1092Joined18/3/2018LocationBellingham / US
Native
English
Learning German
Other Chinese - Mandarin, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Thai

Michel wrote:
leosmith wrote:
Wadada?

Thank you for sharing. Sorry I didn't know about you.

I was only asking - that's not me. Sorry if I accidentally misled you  


In Thailand now. Next up Tanzania and Philippines.

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#7
Posts0Likes0Joined27/7/2019LocationUS
Native
English
Learning German, Turkish

Week 1: A1/A2 Turkish reading materials


Here is a link to an online magazine for 3-6 year old native Turkish speakers. The site is sponsored by the Turkish Is Bank.


https://minikumbaradergisi.com


If you click on "Dunyamiz" at the top of the page, you will be directed to about 40 very short articles about animals and the natural world.

They are a good review of basic grammar and vocabulary.


The following link is to the same site, but takes you to a magazine for 6-8 year olds.

Click on "Bilim ve Yasam" at the top of the page to be directed to the articles.  

These are also about animals and the natural world. They are more challenging but still fairly easy.


https://kumbaradergisi.com/hosgeldiniz

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#8
Posts0Likes0Joined27/7/2019LocationUS
Native
English
Learning German, Turkish

Week 2: A1/A2 listening materials


I have been using the following two sets of materials from the lingq site.


Lingq Mini Stories Turkish

These are very short stories for beginners. Although they are simple, they effectively introduce a lot of very useful grammar and vocabulary. The audio is very clear, read at a good speed and can be downloaded as MP3s. There is a transcript for each story. These stories are available in a number of languages.


 Lingq Ayse and Ali

This is a very short set of texts with more basic grammar and vocabulary. The audio is good quality and can be downloaded as MP3s. Again there are transcripts. Both this set of texts and the mini stories work well for dictaiton or listen-and-repeat exercises.

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#9
Posts0Likes0Joined18/6/2019LocationSan Jose Del Monte / PH
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English
Learning Afrikaans, Cebuano, Chinese - Mandarin, Danish, Indonesian, Malay, Norwegian, Spanish, Tagalog

How are you progressing as a false beginner? I've considered going back to the basics in a few of my rusty languages myself.

Find me on Discord:

https://discord.gg/R4zepcA

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#10
Posts0Likes0Joined27/7/2019LocationUS
Native
English
Learning German, Turkish

Hi Clayton, thanks for stopping by. You asked how things are going as a false beginner. It's still early days, but being a false beginner is definitely much easier and more rewarding than being a beginner. The progress is much quicker, it's easier to remember new vocabulary, and it's much easier to notice how grammar is used to convey meaning.


Week 3: A1/A2 Turkish reading material


Hubert the farmer booklets

https://mediathek.fnr.de/broschuren/fremdsprachige-publikationen/turk.html


This link is to a site sponsored by a German agency for renewable resources. There are three short story booklets that can be downloaded. In the booklets Hubert the farmer introduces his two young friends to the concept of renewable resources. The booklets are aimed at 7 to 9 year olds and are also available in several other languages.


Healthy eating booklets

https://www.mustafa-turan.com/urun/MEB-Hikaye-Kitapları-2829


This link takes you to a site that allows you to download four booklets provided by the Turkish Ministry of Education. The slightly silly stories extol the virtues of eating lots of fruit and vegetables. These are also aimed at 7 to 9 year olds.


Elif story booklets

https://www.yemektedenge.org/okul-oncesi-hikaye-kitaplari


This last link is to a site sponsored by the Sabri Ulker Foundation (as in Ulker chocolates). There are three downloadable story booklets for 7 to 9 year olds that stress the importance of a balanced diet. The stories are sappy but short enough that they are tolerable, and they have lots of vocabulary and sentence structure that will help move your Turkish along. There are also downloadable videos but the sound quality isn't great.



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#11
Posts0Likes0Joined27/7/2019LocationUS
Native
English
Learning German, Turkish

Week 4: A1 Turkish grammar


FC Langmedia grammar lessons


Five Colleges/Langmedia has a playlist of 58 grammar lessons on youtube. Most of them are 3 to 6 minutes long. They are good for learning or reviewing vowel harmony and verb forms. I was a bit disappointed as I was hoping for some discussion of verb usage but the focus is almost entirely on form. If you are a true beginner, these are all useful. If you are a false beginner, you will probably want to pick and choose which videos to watch.


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#12
Posts55Likes44Joined26/12/2019LocationBE
Native
French
Learning Chinese - Mandarin, Dutch, English, German, Japanese, Spanish

https://www.languagetransfer.org/free-courses-1#turkish

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#13
Posts0Likes0Joined27/7/2019LocationUS
Native
English
Learning German, Turkish

Hi Michel. Thanks for the heads up about Language Transfer.


Week 5: A1/A2 Turkish listening material


Turkish class 101 beginner listening practice 


 https://www.youtube.com/user/TurkishClass101/playlists



This youtube channel has a playlist of 18 short dialogues for beginners. The audio is a bit slow but good quality. There is lots of good basic grammar here. There are subtitles, so these work well for dictation or listen and repeat. If the beginner dialogues are a bit too challenging, there is also a playlist of dialogues for absolute beginners (as well as playlists for intermediate and advanced practice).


There are also dialogues available in a number of other languages. This is a fairly limited resource, but worth checking out regardless of what language you are learning.












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#14
Posts0Likes0Joined26/5/2020LocationTR
Native
Turkish
Learning English

I admire your desire to learn Turkish.

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#15
Posts0Likes0Joined27/7/2019LocationUS
Native
English
Learning German, Turkish

Hi Nurgul. Thanks for stopping by. Maybe in a few months I will we able to write some simple posts in Turkish. But I am kind of a slow learner, so it might take longer than that.


Week 6: A1/A2 Turkish reading materials


Cevko Cocuk


https://www.cevkococuk.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=9&Itemid=103

 

This link takes you to the Cevko Cocuk site. There are two booklets about recycling that can be downloaded as PDFs. The book for first and second grade students has a lot of vocabulary that might be new, but overall it is not too difficult. The booklet for third and fourth grade students has the same information but is definitely more challenging to read.






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#16
Posts0Likes0Joined27/7/2019LocationUS
Native
English
Learning German, Turkish

Week 7: A1 - B2 Turkish grammar


Online Language School

https://elon.io


This site has a very comprehensive presentation of Turkish grammar from A1 to B1/B2 levels. There are 181 lessons, each with exercises. I am finding this very easy to use and very useful.


There are also lessons for Spanish, Japanese and several other topics.

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#17
Posts0Likes0Joined27/7/2019LocationUS
Native
English
Learning German, Turkish

Week 8: A2 Turkish listening


Cevko Cocuk videos


Two weeks ago I provided a link to the Cevko Cocuk site, where there are downloadable booklets about recycling for first through fourth grade pupils. Below is a link to videos on the same topic. There are no subtitles, so if you haven't read at least the first booklet and learned the vocabulary, these will be fairly challenging. 


https://www.cevkococuk.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=16&Itemid=143


Unfortunately, as is the case with so many videos embedded on sites, these videos don't play very smoothly, so, here is a link to some of the same videos on youtube. These provide a much better listening experience. The first video in the playlist is an episode from a children's cartoon series. It is more difficult than the Cevko Cocuk videos but has subtitles.


https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLULlBUyY5bb0SmozzdzaqUvKuRHCgN7i8


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#18
Posts0Likes0Joined27/7/2019LocationUS
Native
English
Learning German, Turkish

Week 9: A2 Turkish reading


I'm not afraid of earthquakes


https://www.isbank.com.tr/bankamizi-taniyin/Documents/hakkimizda/kurumsal_sosyal_sorumluluk/depremden_korkmuyorum.pdf


This is a short book provided by the Turkish Is Bankasi that explains earthquakes to school children.

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#19
Posts0Likes0Joined27/7/2019LocationUS
Native
English
Learning German, Turkish

Week 10: A2 Turkish listening


Bookbox Turkish


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiHbkNfR11_ZdhrBXTyvd_Q


This youtube channel has seven children's videos in Turkish, each about six minutes long. The audio is a bit slow, but the quality is very good and there are subtitles. There are also videos in other languages, including several Indian ones.

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#20
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