Your Turkish Lesson

When it comes to the Turkish language and my learning it I’ve gone through stages. My attitude when coming was enthusiastic for basic words for daily use because those are always helpful to know. I took Turkish lessons for a few weeks on Saturday mornings and then decided that I liked having my Saturday mornings to myself. For a few months I had the attitude of, “what’s the point? I can do everything I want or need to do without Turkish. Most people speak English. And when I leave there’s no where else this language is useful. Also, it’s hard.” Recently I have realized that this attitude towards my new home and culture is not showing the respect and admiration that I truly have for Turkey. In addition, I like Turkish. I like the way it sounds. To me it sounds like a mix between German and French. So in the last few months I have started putting in more effort to learn Turkish. My Turkish is not strong, but I do progress a little every week. I can begin a conversation (Hello, how are you, I’m fine, etc), I can count to 39 (seems random but the tens I only know up to 30), but I struggle to construct daily useful sentences like “I want” or “where is.” The way I learn is by hanging out with Turkish people and bugging them to teach me things (“What’s ‘how much’ again?”), and asking my students to teach me bits here and there (they have taught me a few things but I have to say “yavaş!“ (“slow!”) constantly as they get excited just telling me random vocabulary at a rapid-fire pace). When I’m practicing with other Turks I remember why learning a new language is so hard- everything you say is greeted with laughter and correction and it’s SO embarrassing! But everyone appreciates the effort no matter how bad it sounds. Getting over feeling self-conscious when learning a new language is a must.

Now I will teach you the most important Turkish expressions. These are all things that are simply picked up because they are the staples of the Turkish language.

Tamam (tah-mam, means okay)- This is the first Turkish word I learned, even before “hello” and “thank you.” About 90% of the time you ask a Turk ANY question they respond with “tamam.” Or sometimes “tamam, tamam, tamam.” And yes I’ve gotten this response when asking where, when, why, what, who, and how questions.

Canım (jen-um, means dear)- My co-teacher kept calling me this and I finally asked her, “Why do you call me that?” “Oh! It means dear. It’s just a nice word for a person.” She calls everyone canım: students, teachers, administration, everyone. A lot of people use this, and Kristen and I use it with each other. It is often paired with “tamam.”  “Should we take a cab or the metro?” “Let’s take a cab.” “Tamam, canım.”

Çok güzel (choke goo-zel, means very nice or very beautiful) - This is a pretty standard response for many things. You use it like you would use “ that’s great!” or “awesome!” or “that’s very pretty!” It can be used to describe student work, a cute outfit, or a delicious meal.

Allah Allah (Allah hallah, means good lord or oh my God)- This one has stuck in my brain from when I was hanging out with friends in someone’s home at 8am after dancing all night. Everyone was a mix of tired and hung-over and whenever there was a lull in conversation someone would just sigh out an “Allah Allah.” This phrase is also used a lot in the teacher’s room.

Tsk noise - When you ask a question to a Turk and the response is negative, they make the “tsk” noise (as in tsk tsk tsk shame on you in American terms) and jerk their head in an upward motion.

Yaaaaaaaahhhhhh…..- This is the disappointment/”come oooon” noise. When students think they’re going to watch a video and then are asked to get out their notebooks, “yaaaaahhhhh….” When teachers are asked to come in on a saturday to administer a test, “yaaaaaaahhhhhh….”

I hope you enjoyed your Turkish lesson. Görüşürüz! (This actually means “see you later” but you can use it for “bye!”)