“I WANT TO SPEAK TURKISH” DISTANCE LEARNING COURSE

I wrote this course book in 2005 when I was working as a teacher of Turkish. This is a free Turkish learning course, consisting of 10 lessons that cover basic grammar and rules of the Turkish language as well as vocabulary. Download the pdf version of I Want to Speak Turkish, Distance Learning Course, Learn Turkish in 10 Lessons. Unfortunately I no longer have the audio and videos files that accompanied the course book however I believe that this course book can still provide you with some insight and knowledge of the Turkish language and get you started with your learning journey.

If you would like to check out the contents of the course please see the content list below.

Introduction to the course

Welcome to the “I Want to Speak Turkish: Learn Beginner’s Turkish in Ten Lessons Distance Learning Course”.

Before starting your lesson I want to talk about some basics of learning a language.

Languages are the most important part of cultures. They enable us to communicate and understand each other. We learn our mother tongues in a more natural process than we learn foreign languages. Learning a foreign language takes a long time, depending on our age and characteristics of our mother tongue and the language we are trying to learn.

Turkish is a very different language than English but it is pronounced as it is written. Luckily we use the same alphabet (Thanks to Ataturk who changed it to Latin script from Arabic a long time ago). You will see that there is an article about the characteristics and history of the Turkish language to be read before you start your first lesson.

Language consists of three main elements. The first one is “phonology” and it is about “sounds of language”. The second one is “syntax”. The syntax is about the arrangement and the form of words. It also links together the sound patterns and the meanings. Finally semantics is to analyse the meaning of words and all other language components.

There are four important categories of learning a language which is determined by learners needs about particular languages they learn. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are these categories. If you are learning a language to use it in daily life (for example if you are going to live in a foreign country for five years) you might need to become advanced in all of these categories but if you are going somewhere as a tourist some listening and speaking ability will be enough for you.

Before starting your lesson you need to configure the settings of your computer. By doing this, you will be able to use Turkish characters to complete the exercises and your assignments. To do this: go to start menu= control panel= regional and language options= click on languages= click on details= to add option and choose Turkish Q for keyboard settings. (You can now use your keyboard to use Turkish characters: Use shift+alt key to switch to Turkish).

How to study

Lessons generally consist of grammatical explanations, example sentences, dialogues for social situations (for example: eating out, shopping, talking about the weather, directions etc.), pronunciation of key words to dialogues with recorded sounds and recording of dialogues. Additionally every lesson –apart from lesson 10 (lesson 10 has 5 exercises)- has exercises that consist of 10 questions. Read the explanations carefully, look at the examples. Listen to dialogues first without reading them and then listen and read together. You can also listen to them by stopping after each sentence. Try to complete the exercises and send them to me. I will check them for you. You will also find some extra dialogues, addresses of some useful websites, a guide to additional materials and a story book for reading and listening practice in the “extras” section.

CONTENTS

Lesson 1

1-The History and General Characteristics of Turkish Language

2-The Turkish Alphabet (Türk Alfabesi)

3-Agglutination

4-Vowel Harmony

5-Vowel Harmony and Personal Pronouns: (Ünlü Uyumu ve Kişi Zamirleri)

6-Merhaba (Hello) Adın Ne? (What is your name?)

7-Exercises

Lesson 2

1-Greetings and Farewells

Leyla:    Merhaba

Leyla:    Adım Leyla

2-Plurals

3- Mı?, mi?, mu?, mü?

4-Adjectives

5- Var and Yok (There is and there is not)

6-Degil (-Not)

7- Counting (Up to ten!)

8- Bu, Şu, O , (This and that)

Bunlar, Şunlar, Onlar (When using this form you do not need to indicate the object instead of bunlar arabalar only; “bunlar”.

9-Exercises

Lesson 3

1-Basic Turkish Words

2-Present Continuous Tense: -ıyor, -iyor, -uyor, -üyor

Action

Bakmıyor

3-Talking about the weather, Months and Seasons

4- Exercises

Lesson 4

1-Counting Beyond Ten

2-Question Words

3—im and –iniz

4- a and  the

5–Some More Adjectives

Sıkıcı: Boring

5-Telling the Time

Lesson 5

1-Commands

2-Do not

3- -de, -e, -den

4- Direct Objects

5-The Equivalent of the the

6-Endings and Personal Pronouns

7- Proper Nouns

8-Consonant Changes

9-Shopping

Dialog

10-Exercises

Lesson 6

1-Ben de (Me too)

2- Possessives

3- The possessed ending –i or -si

4- Possessives and personal Pronouns

5- Saying what you have got

6- -li and –siz

7-İstemek

8-Directions

Hastane: hospital

Dialog

9-Exercises

Lesson 7

1-The Past Tense

Present

Past

Action

Example

I did not come

Did I come?

Didn’t I come?

2-Using the Past Tense

3- Telling the Time (Repeat)

4- Compound Nouns

5- Verbs which need –I, -e, and –den

6- For

7- Question Words

Ne – What

8- Word Order

9-Exercises

Lesson 8

1-Simple Present Tense

A Little Story

2-Accommodation (1)

3-Exercises

Lesson 9

1-Future Tense

Dialog

2-Time Indicators

3-Eating Out

4-Exercises

Lesson 10

1-Ability Suffix  –abilmek, -ebilmek  (Can)

Dialog

2-Ability Suffix With Different Tenses

3-Drinks

4-Exercises

Additional Materials

Useful Websites