Hey there! My name is Ana and I am an Expat Woman in Turkey 🙂 I have been living here for the past four years. I am stay at home mom to a three-year-old boy and a baby boy. My husband is Turkish. I created this website to share my expat experience and connect with other expat women. Hope you enjoy browsing through my website! :)
How To Learn Turkish Language In A Fun And Enjoyable Way – Turkish Language Teacher Shares Valuable Advices
When I first came to Turkey I thought I could learn Turkish language on my own, just listening, reading and that somehow my brain will adopt the new language. But after some time I discovered that I wasn’t improving at all, that a whole year has gone by and I still wasn’t able to express myself and include myself in the conversations. So I decided that school can be a good option for me and that is where I met this energetic and joyful teacher Eda Ocak. I still remember her interesting Turkish language classes and her passion for teaching.
This amazing woman today has her own website where she shares great materials that I find very helpful and interesting and I believe that anyone who wishes to learn Turkish language easy and fast should find Eda on Facebook, Instagram and check out her website. It is a true treasure of phrases, stories, grammar and more. What makes Eda Ocak a great Turkish language teacher is that it is truly enjoyable to learn with her and her fun and interactive materials.
Here is an interview with Eda where she shares many helpful tips on how to learn Turkish language faster, easier and better.
Here is what she says about herself:
I’m a Turkish teacher and I’ve been teaching Turkish language to the foreigners since 2008. I started to teach in a language institute in a class and also private lessons for 8 years. One day one of my students asked me to give her Skype lessons because she wanted to continue and not forget what she learned when she goes back to her country. So this way I started the idea of online lessons and loved it. When I moved from İstanbul to Derince -close to Kocaeli- last year I started my website and teaching only via Skype. Now I am not only a teacher but a blogger for teaching Turkish as well. I write stories and articles, I make videos and flash cards for learning, then I share them on my website and on social media. Because after years of teaching I noticed that it’s not easy to find good materials especially reading texts which fit your level in Turkish. Now I started to write articles and short stories about different subjects and for different levels, which I also use for my lessons.
According to your teaching experience, how long it takes for an average student to become familiar with Turkish language, be able to go to the market, pazar, cafe on your own or just talk few words with neighbors?
Well whenever I am asked this question, people get disappointed because my answer is not accurate. I think this totally depends on the student and his or her motivation. If the motivation is enough I know some students started to make daily conversations in two of weeks.
What is the best way to learn Turkish? Language school, listen to Turkish songs, letting yourself free to talk to Turkish people, even you know only a few words?
As I said before, I taught in a language school, face to face, private lessons, and skype lessons. I can say all of them have different benefits. In this case, I can give you 3 different categories. If one lives in Turkey, has time and wants to be social, he goes to a language school and learns with 10 to 15 other people. You know they want some friends that they can discover the city with. In this case, it’s kind of luck if you have a group that you can get along and have the same education background. And you must be a talkative person, otherwise, it’s not easy to have the opportunity to practice in the classroom with others. The second category is that some people learn by themselves without a teacher. Usually, people who are interested in the languages do this. In this case, I should say that these people have a special talent for languages and already speak 3 or 4 languages. And of course they are not in a hurry, I mean this method requires more time than the others. The last category is private lessons. It’s more efficient because the lessons based on your needs. The teacher focuses only on you, finds the best method that fits you and makes you speak by using all the tools that she knows. Especially people who are busy and don’t have time to go to schools and who just want to learn the language without a group. In this case, online lessons have more advantages especially if you don’t live in Turkey or Istanbul or if you travel a lot and that’s why you can’t find a teacher.
On the other hand, even if you live in Turkey, I find online lessons for learning Turkish language more interactive because the teacher can use more tools like videos, websites, songs and the most important and the best thing about the skype lesson is the opportunity of recording the lessons, so the student can listen to it whenever he/she wishes to. And also sharing the materials is much easier than face to face lessons, wherever you go with your laptop you have the Turkish library with you. We all know that time is so important for us and don’t want to spend our time in the traffic. So when you have Skype lessons you don’t have to think about the time that you spend on the way. And I noticed that people are more talkative and confident when they are in their comfort zone.
Can you suggest some Turkish singer or music groups that have “clean” songs and uses good, useful Turkish language, so maybe we can learn Turkish language by listening to the songs?
I sometimes use Sertab Erener’s songs to teach because she has a good voice and easy to understand. My husband is also learning Turkish and recently I keep hearing him singing a Turkish song which made me surprised. Because he was singing very well without knowing the meaning 🙂 So obviously I can suggest that singer called Simge. And more Bülent Ortaçgil, Birsen Tezer, Nazan Öncel, Athena, Kenan Doğulu, Athena, Ajda Pekkan…
Did you notice in your teaching career that some nations learn easier Turkish than others? Which ones get it fast and which ones have more problem acopting Turkish language?
Yes, I noticed this. I even tested it. Because I noticed that people whose native language is the Ural – Altaic languages such as Japanese, Korean, Mongolian or Finish can learn easier than others. So once I started to study Japanese and Mongolian from a book and found that their grammar was so understandable and easy. I even found the pronunciation easier than all European languages, except alphabet of course 🙂 this means that you can understand the grammar better if you were one of those languages’ speakers.
What would be your best of the best advice for the ones trying to learn Turkish?
I think the key is just to speak even if you think you can’t. Also, it’s good to give some time for learning every day, even one new word will make a difference when you need it while speaking. Try to find someone to speak with, don’t be shy, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes, just learn how to fix them later.
How people who would like to learn Turkish language with you can reach you?
Students can reach me at my website; www.levelupturkish.com, here every week I share one new reading text for Turkish learners and also I have the facebook group that I share prompts about Turkish language, youtube account if they need to watch something Turkish with Turkish subtitles and also Instagram. And of course, apart from social media, I teach Turkish via Skype.
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What is your experience with learning Turkish language? Do you attend Turkish language classes or you try to learn it by yourself?
Share in the comments below, I would love to hear your bits of advice on how to learn the language faster and easier.
Great idea to learn a foreign language online! Especially when you find a good teacher, which is a bit tricky…Eda seems like a great choice and I will make sure to contact her! Thanks for sharing the info.
Dear Iva, glad you like the idea because also I think it’s great! Online lessons in today’s busy world are almost a must and Eda is doing a great job. My reccommendations for her, for sure.