Monthly Language Journal #4 -
In comparison to other months, November at the first half of December were relatively restrained in my progress for Turkish. I solidified my presence in A2 and continued my work with the optative mood and commands. Most of the work consisted of comprehension activities where the two items were used, as differentiating between when it is appropriate to utilize them in conversation is significantly important to communicating properly and respectfully in Turkish. The optative mood concerns expressing wishes or ‘should’ about something. For example, if “I wish to buy” something, I would take the verb almak and conjugate it as “alayım.” Importantly, the optative mood can only be used for ‘I’ and ‘we,’ whereas commands apply, usually, to every case except the singular ‘I’ (ben) and plural ‘we’ (biz). To conjugate a command, one takes the lexical morpheme of the verb, which in the case of Turkish is always the portion of the word that comes before -mak or -mek, and add the appropriate ending. If I wanted to command ‘you’ (sen) to go, I take the verb gitmek and simply say ‘git.’ For he/she (o), it becomes “gitsin.” For the formal you/you all (siz), it would be “gidin,” while they (onlar) can either take the singular ‘o’ ending or receive -ler or -lar in addition. In the case of gitmek, it becomes “gitsinler.” I struggled with understanding the uses of these tenses initially, as I was uncertain on the firmness of the imperative in Turkish. As a Spanish speaker, commands are culturally understood to be suggestions, whereas they are far more concrete in English and German. As such, I was not certain on the amount of seriousness charged to a command in Turkish. However, through conversations with my language partner, I came to understand that commands are about the same in terms of rigidity as in English. I also continued to become more comfortable with giving verbal directions with commands. At first, I found this exceptionally challenging from the attribution of possession to location in Turkish. Effectively, locational words become possessed by what they are relative to and do not function as prepositions, as in English. For example, ‘between’ (ara) becomes arasına (to between) or arasında (at between) when connected to a noun, like sokak (street). So, “at in between the streets” is “sokakların arasında.” Nonetheless, I found that I greatly improved at comprehending this component of Turkish through extensive vocal and written practice with my language partner and outside of our sessions. I further discovered the usage of the -isa or -ise endings, which conveys the conditional tense. So, “if it is becoming” materializes as “oluyorsa.” I have already integrated this into my conversations, and it has enhanced my flexibility in situations where I am uncertain about possible outcomes or situations.
Regarding my struggles, I did have some difficulty with recognizing when to use the optative mood, as well as commands. I think this might have been due to me thinking situationally about the practice questions, as I found that I probably would not have used either of them in free speech. Yet, I still worked on this issue with my language partner to ensure that I was competent in these aspects. Overall, I believe that it was a very successful month, and I am excited to resume my Turkish studies at a more efficient pace once I have returned from a short hiatus after graduating in a couple of days.
In comparison to other months, November at the first half of December were relatively restrained in my progress for Turkish. I solidified my presence in A2 and continued my work with the optative mood and commands. Most of the work consisted of comprehension activities where the two items were used, as differentiating between when it is appropriate to utilize them in conversation is significantly important to communicating properly and respectfully in Turkish. The optative mood concerns expressing wishes or ‘should’ about something. For example, if “I wish to buy” something, I would take the verb almak and conjugate it as “alayım.” Importantly, the optative mood can only be used for ‘I’ and ‘we,’ whereas commands apply, usually, to every case except the singular ‘I’ (ben) and plural ‘we’ (biz). To conjugate a command, one takes the lexical morpheme of the verb, which in the case of Turkish is always the portion of the word that comes before -mak or -mek, and add the appropriate ending. If I wanted to command ‘you’ (sen) to go, I take the verb gitmek and simply say ‘git.’ For he/she (o), it becomes “gitsin.” For the formal you/you all (siz), it would be “gidin,” while they (onlar) can either take the singular ‘o’ ending or receive -ler or -lar in addition. In the case of gitmek, it becomes “gitsinler.” I struggled with understanding the uses of these tenses initially, as I was uncertain on the firmness of the imperative in Turkish. As a Spanish speaker, commands are culturally understood to be suggestions, whereas they are far more concrete in English and German. As such, I was not certain on the amount of seriousness charged to a command in Turkish. However, through conversations with my language partner, I came to understand that commands are about the same in terms of rigidity as in English. I also continued to become more comfortable with giving verbal directions with commands. At first, I found this exceptionally challenging from the attribution of possession to location in Turkish. Effectively, locational words become possessed by what they are relative to and do not function as prepositions, as in English. For example, ‘between’ (ara) becomes arasına (to between) or arasında (at between) when connected to a noun, like sokak (street). So, “at in between the streets” is “sokakların arasında.” Nonetheless, I found that I greatly improved at comprehending this component of Turkish through extensive vocal and written practice with my language partner and outside of our sessions. I further discovered the usage of the -isa or -ise endings, which conveys the conditional tense. So, “if it is becoming” materializes as “oluyorsa.” I have already integrated this into my conversations, and it has enhanced my flexibility in situations where I am uncertain about possible outcomes or situations.
Regarding my struggles, I did have some difficulty with recognizing when to use the optative mood, as well as commands. I think this might have been due to me thinking situationally about the practice questions, as I found that I probably would not have used either of them in free speech. Yet, I still worked on this issue with my language partner to ensure that I was competent in these aspects. Overall, I believe that it was a very successful month, and I am excited to resume my Turkish studies at a more efficient pace once I have returned from a short hiatus after graduating in a couple of days.
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