Learn the top five mistakes people make when learning the language
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Ece: Merhabalar! I’m Ece! |
| Gina: And I’m Gina. Welcome back to TurkishClass101.com! This is All About, Lesson 12 - Top 5 Turkish Mistakes You Should Avoid. |
| Ece: In this lesson, we’ll discuss some mistakes that a lot of Turkish learners make. |
| Gina: And we’ll suggest solutions for how to overcome them. |
| Ece: But before we get to this, don’t forget that as you progress, it’s normal to make mistakes. |
| Gina: If you just focus on your fear of making errors, your progress can be affected negatively. |
| Ece: Now that we’ve made that clear, let’s begin! |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gina: Number one - Read as it is written. |
| Ece: Turkish scripts are read exactly how they are written. |
| Gina: For example? |
| Ece: A word is what it seems. For example, ‘Genetik’. No vowels elongated, no consonants squeezing a vowel; each syllable should be pronounced openly and individually - ‘Ge-ne-tik’. |
| Gina: We will see some words that have elongated vowels when they’re pronounced nicely though, but they are mostly loaned. As for intonation, don’t force yourself to use it for sentences at the beginning. |
| Ece: This will develop naturally over time, so don’t expect to speak with the best intonation and accent when you’re first learning. |
| Gina: And do keep in mind that Turkish is not a tonal language. Try to avoid applying the intonation from your native language to Turkish. |
| Ece: Our third tip is… |
| Gina: Try getting used to the word order in sentences. |
| Ece: If you know a language from the Ural-Altaic Family, or even Latin or German, Turkish word order will not be a burden. |
| Gina: The regular order is ‘subject, object, verb’. We’ve said that it is very flexible, but at the beginning it will make it easier to focus on this regular order. |
| Ece: The importance of the order is not just for the verb placement either. Because the object comes before the verb, the prepositions appear as postpositions in Turkish. First you have to say the word, and then add the positional suffixes. |
| Gina: Yes, try to speak while thinking in the Turkish way! |
| Ece: This will help you build correct Turkish sentences more quickly. Ok, our next tip is about culture! |
| Gina: In Turkish society, it’s crucial to make a differentiation when speaking with elders, strangers, or in formal situations. |
| Ece: Luckily, it’s not complicated at all. All you have to do is use ‘siz’, the second person plural, in the place of ‘sen’, which is the second person singular. |
| Gina: You don’t have to address yourself with a different first person singular pronoun, as you do in many Asiatic languages. |
| Ece: So please keep that in mind. Our last but most important tip for a better Turkish learning experience is… |
| Gina: Learn the alphabet immediately. As we mentioned before, the Turkish Alphabet is a modified version of the Latin Alphabet, right? |
| Ece: Exactly! Also, keep in mind that the letters that have different or varying pronunciations in other languages are (C, Ç, G, H, J, Ş, Y) and the vowels. |
| Gina: So please remember that each of these holds its own particular and constant pronunciation in the Turkish alphabet. If you aren’t confident about some letters still, please refer back to lessons 2 and 4. |
| Ece: Alright. These are all easy, but very effective suggestions for avoiding basic mistakes when you’re speaking Turkish. |
| Gina: Please keep these in mind, and start practicing from now on. |
Outro |
| Ece: Thanks for listening, everyone. We’ll see you next time! |
| Gina: Till then, good bye everyone! |
| Ece: Hoşça kalın! |
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