turkish chat

[skilly]

I like to try to speak a little Turkish when I am on holiday, I am not very good though ,but I think the Turkish people try so hard to speak English that we should try to speak to them in their language.

I have found a brilliant website and you can download audio Turkish. This is the only way I can learn, by hearing it spoken.
Has anyone else learned a little of the language?
I just want to be able to understand what they say to me and answer back correctly without looking a fool.

We went into a bar a couple of years ago and a young waiter had started work that night. he was thrown in at the deep end and told to speak English to the customers. He looked so shy and it must have been an ordeal.
I wonder how we would cope if the roles were reversed, I would be terrified

[Jozzyd]

I am west yorks born and bred and hubby is southerner born and bred we both have our own basic few words but both sound different. Our 2 year old son kast year kept shouting 'mewaba' from our balcony at anyone passing lol. Kids are a mixture and i am sure the locals can't understand any of us ha ha!

[bec]

I have managed to pick up a few words and conversations. I seem to be able to understand more than i can speak.
But where i work..a Turkish guy has started there (coinsidently he's from Icmeler) so he is also helping me!

Think its nice to be able to speak Turkish and think they appreciate our efforts too

xx

[Jozzyd]

We only know the bare minimum words please, thanks, hello and of course cheers a few more too ! Our barman nearly fell over when we tried our pigeon turkish last year lol. I agree the effort is much appreciated. Haven't learned many new words since we first went on honeymoon 10 years ago but we went to a tiny fishing village called Patara five times before we found Icmeler last August.

[salford_steve]

I have learned a few phrases, like how much, the bill please, do you have a lighter. That's about it. It's amazing what you learn in your lunch break browsing a bookshop in your lunch break

[mazz]

Merhaba and serefe (cheers!) - what more do you need?

Ok, I'm joking! I also understand more Turkish than I can speak, but I've been complimented (by Turks) on the way I say the few Turkish words I do know

I've downloaded a good programme which which shows the word and says it for you so you can repeat - it keeps going on and on as if it's trying to brainwash you - scares the dog to death!!

Mazz

[Erik The Viking]

i anlamak çok küçük

[Christabel]

I had Turkish lessons for a year but then gave up as I found it too time consuming with homework etc. Hubby is now coming up to the end of his 3rd year tho. He is good at reading and understanding Turkish but finds conversation difficult still. We need more frequent trips to Turkey to practice what we have learnt!

Christabel

[Jula]

I would love to be able to speak fluent Turkish, i have tapes,books,numerous prgrammes on my pc that i listen to now and then but i find it gets too difficult so i give up. Have picked up a fair wee bit over the years though and it seems to roll of my tongue when i'm drunk
Quite good at swearing in Turkish LOL

[jivebunnie0]

I find it very daunting, there are hellava lot of u's in the words

[skilly]

I don't know any Turkish swear words Jula

[skilly]

Eric, I am only a learner Does it mean something about understanding?

[Sue Pryer]

We have great fun with the boys in our local shop with our very pidgin Turkish words. They roll their r's (and eyes) at us and fall about in the aisles laughing at the way we pronounce the words, but they are really tickled pink that we want to try and always greet us in their language just to see if we have remembered the right replies.

[jivebunnie0]

I think in any foreign country you should at least try to say a few odd words. It does show you are prepared to make the effort, even if it does cause them great amusement at the pronounciation.

[philip]

Hi Skilly, do you think you could tell us the name of that audio turkish site. for learning turkish ,know a few words but would like to learn more thanks philip

[robbo]

There is a good site called byki which is free to download, it was mentioned in some earlier post, try it phillip, i bought a linguaphone course and its as good as that if not better

Robbo

[philip]

Cheers Robbo, i'll give it a try thanks again Philip

[Jula]

http://www.byki.com/

It's a really good programme to use.

I also have this translation site on my pc

http://www.onlineturkish.com

[skilly]

Yes, BYKI audio site is the one I downloaded. It's brilliant. It seems to know when you are struggling and keeps coming back to the word. Its like when I was ay school many years ago we were taught Latin & French parrot fashion and it sticks in my head to this day

[salford_steve]

Thanks for that Jula.

I have just downloaded it. At the moment I sit in waterstones on my lunch break and read the turkish language book, would buy it but it's about£30 so just read it for free, cheeky I know...lol

Steve