My interest in Turkish Language
I have always been interested in languages. When I was a child, I met one lady who was fluent in four languages, and I promised myself that one day I would be like her. I visited Turkey three years ago, just prior to coming to the United States. I spent about 10-15 days in Istanbul and Bursa. I was fascinated by the beauties of this wonderful country. My country, Bosnia and Herzegovina was under the Turkish Ottoman Empire for about 400 years so there is no wonder why Turkey reminds me so much of my country. We share many common characteristics, but one: same language. Although, we have some common words such as "pencer, kamyon and buyrun," most of them actually differ. Most of the words that are same are actually written differently but pronounced the same way. I got interested into Turkish ever since my first day in Turkey. I had a wonderful time and I am definitely planning to spend more holidays in Turkey in the near future. What I noticed during my time in Turkey is that not so many people speak English and it was very surprising to me, so I believe that knowing basic/intermediate Turkish could be very useful. I was also planning to study abroad next semester in Turkey, but since I changed my major and I am an accounting major now, I cannot take any accounting classes anywhere but at the University of Richmond. However, during summer I am planning to visit Turkey again.
I am very ambitious but I know that learning a new language takes a lot of time and work. Therefore, I know I cannot set out a goal to be fluent in Turkish in only one semester, but I know that I want to be able to lead a basic conversation with Turkish people, order food, ask/tell the time, talk about my family etc. I also want to be able to pronounce Turkish sentences without problems. This might be difficult in the beginning since there are some letters in Turkish alphabet that my mother tongue alphabet does not contain. I want to acquire new vocabulary and learn basic grammar such as present simple/continuous. I have many Turkish friends at the University of Richmond, and I think I will practice my Turkish with them, as they are all willing to help me. Also, my roommate from high school was Turkish and she is also willing to help me learn the language.
I am a big fan of watching Turkish soap operas, and I have been watching "Dudaktan kalbe" with subtitles in my language. I really want to be able to understand basic conversation between the actors without having to read subtitles. I know that this is extremely hard for beginners, but I believe that strong determination and persistence will keep me motivated to work hard and achieve my goals.
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