TORONTO
August 29 - Speaking Turkish

So for the past year and a bit, I've been learning Turkish, and for an English speaker, it is a tough language to learn. I can only imagine how hard it has been for Ayhan to learn and speak English. In terms of grammar, a lot of the words are completely reversed. So when saying "I am going to school", you would be saying "School to going I am". So everything I say, I need to first know the correct words, then I need to conjugate all the verbs and nouns, and then have them in the correct order. It's a mind-bender.

But Turkish is an interesting language. It has strict rules compared to English. And it's very mathematical--so it's fun for me to learn, cause it's like playing a game. And it has its own harmony--words change to maintain a neat rhyming mechanism, by changing the vowels in the words.

As I'm learning, it reminds me of a song that I learned in elementary school. "I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas". A song that I loved as a child cause it sounded so silly as you change the vowels in the song to the same one. Little did I know that it would be the basis of an entire language! So the way the song worked, is that you sing the song over and over again, but each time you go through, you change all the vowels in the song. So you start with:

I like to eat, I like to eat, I like to eat, eat, apples and bananas..

And after we yelled out "U!!!!", the song would go:

U luke tu ut. U luke tu ut. U luke tu ut, ut, upples und bununus.

If you get into learning Turkish, this will be funny.

So overall, I think I've been doing well, and I can slowly build sentences. It is funny listening to me build a sentence, I'm sure, because I go through "iterations" of fixing my words. Having Ayhan to correct my errors helps too. I'm definitely going to be trying it out while I'm in Turkey--and I'm hoping it will improve during my 3 week stint there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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BOOK REVIEW: Teach Youself Turkish
- Asuman and David Pollard
I've been carrying this book with me for the past year in my backpack and pulling it out when I have some free time. It's really excellent for teaching Turkish from the basics to some more advanced stuff. It works through the grammar very logically and I found myself turning pages like a suspense novel. And also using it as a reference book. It includes a CD so you get an idea of what it really sounds like. Highly recommended.

BOOK REVIEW: Beginner Turkish
- Fuad A. Attaoullah
I picked this book up cheap at the BMV book store by my favourite sushi place. It is written by an academic who has dissected the Turkish language into extremely detailed rules. It's interesting because it helps you see some connections between different words and structures, which helps to build new words from ones you already know.

REVIEW: Rosetta Stone Turkish I
I've always wanted to try the Rosetta Stone program, and this was my first go. It's more expensive than using a book (about $300), but it uses a very different approach. You are presented with 4 pictures, you hear something in Turkish, and you pick the picture that applies. Essentially, it is teaching you a language as a child would learn. By seeing, hearing, and repeating. So when I see a dog, I won't think "dog....köpek"--It will come as "köpek". So the result is that words come more naturally. Now, I don't think it teaches language rules very well--and this is bad for Turkish which is totally rule-based. If I hadn't already known the rules through the Teach Yourself Turkish book, I don't know how I would have figured it out with this picture method. Also, it sometimes becomes monotonous and also becomes more a problem of elimination (which picture haven't you picked yet...) rather than trying to understand the language. I got super bored after a few lessons. Maybe if they mixed the pictures up randomly, it would be more interesting.

BOOK REVIEW: Elementary Turkish
- Lewis V. Thomas
This book is really good once you get the basics of Turkish. It was written for a university level course, and it quickly moves through the rules and gives tons of examples. And you can figure out how to build more complex sentences.

REVIEW: Federal Service Institute
I found a place for some free language courses too. The recordings are mediocre quality, but there is a lot of stuff there.

 

TORONTO
August 18 - Planning a Trip

Here are the tentative plans before I begin my trip:

Aug 29: Toronto to Munich

Aug 30: Munich to Istanbul

Aug 31: Istanbul, Nilgun's place

Sept 1: Istanbul
enjoying Sultanahmet
seeing the Hippodrome
under the shadow of Blue Mosque
awed by Ayasofya

Sept 2: Bodrum, Sea Garden Resort

Sept 3: Bodrum

Sept 4: Bodrum
day trip to Efes

Sept 5: Bodrum
seeing the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

Sept 6: Bodrum
Peninsula Tour

Sept 7: Bodrum

Sept 8: Bodrum
dancing outside at Halicarnas Disco

Sept 9: Denizli, Ayhan's friend's

Sept 10: Denizli
bathing in the travertines of Pamakkule

Sept 11: Bursa, Ayhan's friend's

Sept 12: Bursa

Sept 13: Istanbul, Point Hotel

Sept 14: Istanbul

Sept 15: Istanbul

Sept 16: Urgup, Yunak Evleri

Sept 17: Urgup

Sept 18: Urgup

Sept 19: Istanbul, Divan Istanbul

Sept 20: Istanbul

Sept 21: Istanbul

Sept 22: Istanbul

Sept 23: Istanbul

Sept 24: Toronto

 

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