Turkey has always been a fascinating country to me. It is one of the cultural centers of the Middle East, both a giver to those cultures around it and a receiver of those cultures as well. Simply a look at Istanbul or any other major Turkish city shows the beautiful remnants of the Silk Road and hundreds of years of culture compacted into one living, breathing city. The beauty of Turkish architecture is echoed all throughout the Middle East, and the architecture of other parts of the Middle East are visible in Turkey as well.
This mish-mash of hundreds of years is clearly reflected in the Turkish language, a language composed of original Turkish words, Arabic loan words, Persian loan words, and a bit of English and French loan words. Knowing Arabic, Persian, English, or French is not necessary to learn Turkish, but it is certainly helpful. I find many times my knowledge of Persian allows me to recognize many of the Arabic and Persian loan words. I do not know much about Arabic grammar, but I do find that the grammar of Turkish is very similar to Persian. The addition of suffixes to words to create sentences is identical in both languages, and the actual suffixes used are quite similar at times. I do want to consider adding the slight study of Persian vocabulary and grammar into my learning plan though because I actually believe it will help me in my understanding of Turkish greatly. Otherwise, my study of the Turkish language and its vocabulary as is already stated in my learning plan (study sets, interacting with my language partner, listening to Turkish music, etc.) is plenty enough to learn not only about Turkish but the other countries that gave rise to the current state of Turkish and Turkey.
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