Monthly Language Learning Journal 1

[Nile Harris]

Merhaba (hello). Benim Adım Nile (my name is Nile) and this is my Turkish language learning journey. I really love learning languages. I have been studying languages since I started schooling in kindergarten. English is my first language and I was immersed in Spanish from kindergarten all the way through high school. Once I came to the University of Richmond, I started studying Portuguese. Now I have decided that I wanted to learn a non-Latin based language. I have always wanted to travel to Turkey and learn about the culture and rich history. Before starting to learn the language, I took an Ottoman history class in my freshman year which is what probably sparked my interest in Turkish culture. I have also seen many Turkish people in some of my favorite sources of media. On my first day meeting with my language partner/teacher Görkem, he first asked me about why I wanted to learn Turkish and what knowledge I already have about Turkish culture. He was very surprised about how much I already knew about Turkey. My knowledge included historical facts dating back to the Ottoman times, geographical locations, known politicians, bordering countries, cities within Turkey, ethnic groups, and some authentic foods. He even went on to tell me that a lot of people in Turkey do not even know much of what I had just told him. He then proceeded to give me an overview of basic facts about Turkey. He also asked me about what I wanted to learn about the language. We then came up with a plan of what I wanted learn. My biggest priority was learning the basics to conversational Turkish. The reason I wanted to learn these conversational phrases is so that if I ever have the opportunity to travel Turkey, I will be able to greet people in their language and have general conversation with them. From my traveling experience, people like it way more when you can speak or attempt to speak their language. It makes a lasting impression. After learning those basics, then I would like to progress to more advanced things with the grammar including verb conjugations and tense. In my opinion, it will probably be easiest to start with learning the present tense and then progress to the future and past tenses. So far we have decided to meet once per week for 2 hours. In our first material based meeting we learned  our basic conversational phrases like “hello”, “goodbye”, “where are you from”, “my name is…”, “thank you”, and “me too”. One of Görkem’s friends also decided that she wanted to learn a little bit of Turkish, so she joined us. It was very nice to have someone else who was just beginning. It made me feel less dumb and boosted my confidence a bit. Following our first class, I studied my notes for about 20 minutes per night. I was able to quickly learn and memorize every single phrase that we reviewed in our first class. One thing that was helpful for me, was to practice talking to myself even when I did not have anyone to practice with just to help me master the sounds of the Turkish alphabet. So far, I am very content with my language learning journey.

[Max Joynes]

Hey Nile, this was very well written and insightful, so thanks for sharing. I admire your determination in learning languages and think its extremely impressive to even attempt learning multiple language, let alone be able to communicate well in them. Learning Turkish is probably much different than Portuguese, but with your foundation of knowledge, I'm confident that you'll be able to accomplish whatever you set out to. Best of luck in the future!