Learn Turkish: A1 to B2

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,

Welcome John, and good luck!

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

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

Michel wrote:

By the way, I love your music

Wadada?

leosmith wrote:

Wadada?

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

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.

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  

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

I admire your desire to learn 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.

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

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.

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.