Speaking The Lingo

[ceemac]

One expat woman's experience with Turkish...

'The shopkeeper stared at me as if I had suddenly sprouted another head. I know that even on a good day, my Turkish is far from fluent. However, I do speak enough of the language to usually be able to navigate my way through the local markets and seek out particular items that I need.'

Here


C

[Neil_Gumusluk]

i've had that experience sooooo many times. i can pass for turkish down the phone, but some people see my face and immediately assume i will be unintelligible and fail to understand i am speaking to them in their language ... no matter how many times i rephrase all i get is a blank look.

[lara]

I remember when I was first married and taking tentative steps with speaking Turkish, me and husband would be in some cafe and I would ask for tea with milk, and the waiter would look open mouthed at me, then my husband would repeat what I had just asked for and the waiter would toddle off and bring our order.
I asked my husband, "is my Turkish that bad", my husband laugh and said "no love, he just doesn't understand that anyone would put milk in tea".

I do have some of my husbands relatives who say stuff like, " you should be fluent by now!", that used to upset me, but now I have enough Turkish to tell them that if they spoke properly I wouldn't have a problem understanding them and I would talk to them more often, I say it nicer then that, but you get my drift.

Turkish is a very easy language grammatically but the sounds are really difficult for me, I have no 'R', which is very important in Turkish, and the dotted vowels make me say things better left unsaid.

Turkish for me is about confidence and practice, I remember asking my friend how to say "I want to get off here" when I used the Dolmus.
I then proceeded to catch the bus at every opportunity just so that I could ask to be put off.

I love the Turkish language, and would love to be fluent, noone has a cat in hell's chance of discouraging me, if I had been in that shop asking for the "'Aliminium roasting tin", you can almost guarantee that five minutes later I would have been sat behind the counter with a glass of cay, and would have found a subject that we were both fluent in. Friends for life, thats were it all starts, you have to make yourself open.

[babsgood]

My Turkish is OK and I try to speak it where possible but 90% of the time I am answered in English (we live in a tourist resort) and then I find myself reverting back to English, I do wonder if its worth bothering sometimes

[Sunny Seasider]

That's very good Ceemac, lol. When we go out to Yalikavak again in May I will, hopefully be able to put into practice all that I have learnt over this winter. I agree Lara, the more you practice it becomes easier, lol. It is mostly phoenetic like the English, but some of the words with the dots on I get mixed up too, haha. Ah well the shopkeeper's in the village and friends can always have a giggle at/with me again this year.

[LyndaW]

İ think it depends a lot on where you lıve and who you mix with. İ found the same in Yalıkavak, lots of people speak English so you dont really get a chance to practise your Turkish. İ have travelled to places in Turkey where no one speaks English...so its speak Turkish or dont speak.

İn the area of Alanya i live i dont know any English people...all my friends are Turkish and speak little or no English. My Turkish is still not good...i think it wıll take years to be fluent.

İ sometimes feel a need to speak to someone English....so i get the bus to Eden Bar where the English hangout.

Lynda

[de1amo]

İ've been here so long(3.5 years) and still have no level and feel too frightened to start learning
My wife and turkish step daughter have both become fluent and prefer watching the 'english' channels on tv and listening to radio 2 with me!-our home is like'little Britain' and any unsuspecting Turks entering are really bemused!-Most of our Turkish friends speak English well and there is only 1 who cant and i enjoy chatting to him in French! Even the corner shop man can chat to me in English and this is in a borough of 'İzmir' city!!
We have a friend who is a professor of Turkish at Ege uni and he wants me to let him teach me Turkish and i am too embarrassed because i am bemused and frightened of the bewildering look of Turkish!--My wife tells me the grammar is roughly the same as Spanish and i can get by well in spanish but i see the subtitles in turkish on the tv and say to myself this 'looks' impossible! İm 47 and do not have good tonal hearing--i cant hear and recite lyrics from music.-its embarrassing!

[Bibby]

I admit I am not good at Turkish, but I know a fair bit and have bee congratulated on my good pronunciation. But I soooo recognise what that lady was saying. It is very disheartening. Interestingly I have never had this experience in Spain. I have been going ther since '66 and no matter at what stage in my learning, they were always pleased I was trying and very open to understanding me.

[Harem]

My Turkish isn't good even after 5 years, but to go into a supermarket and ask for aluminium folyo and be looked at as if I was mad, did make me a little mad!!!!!!!!!!!!

[de1amo]

unless its got a picture -je ne comprend pas!- i generally wander around for ages and then wander out into the street and wander home-left wandering why i bother!--i tried impersonating cif kitchen cleaner once but to know avail!!