Learn Any Language

When learning a language, you need motivation and methods. If you don’t have a goal, there’s no point learning. If you don’t have a method, you won’t advance. Ask yourself: why do I learn and how will I learn? I’ll share mine to learn Turkish in this post, in an effort to inspire you.

It’s good to list your motivations, so you can read them again when feeling demotivated. I have three main motivations to learn Turkish. First, it’s good as a language teacher to put yourself in the position of a student. What seems evident to a teacher may not be so to a student. Second, I wanted to offer my online courses in Turkish as well, so I’d earn some extra sales. More about that later. And third, I was invited in Turkey for an event. I may add that I love learning and languages. 

So how did I learn Turkish? And did those methods help? I ranked them (excellent – good – maybe later – just ok) based on how effective they were for me.

Good: Duolingo seems an obvious choice to start learning. It’s for free, easy and repetitive. It doesn’t take that much time and you can do it anywhere and anytime. The repetitiveness was especially useful since Turkish doesn’t have many words in common with my other languages. However, after a month or two, the typical ‘app-problem’ comes up: you learned many things but you can’t write one everyday sentence. Below are more tips to learn with Duolingo.

Excellent: Time for some online Skype lessons. Many platforms like Italki match students and teachers. With the help of a lovely Turkish teacher, I focused at first on one thing: talking. It’s amazing how fast you learn ‘again, please.’ Tips: make many mistakes, use humour and switch to another teacher if needed. Also: you can write texts in between lessons and go over them with your teacher. One thing I regret: not paying enough attention to grammar. Turkish grammar is hard at first, but easier once you know the rules. Get $10 extra on Italki here (*)

Good: Google Translate is the most extensive and performing free translator for many languages. Use it in your online lessons when you can’t find a word. Also let Google read the words out loud if need be.  However, it isn’t always accurate, especially while translating sentences or ‘smaller’ languages. A brilliant alternative is Reverso Context, putting words in context. Use it for more difficult conjugations, idioms or single words. There are fewer languages though.

Just ok: Language learning books are always a good idea. So I went to a local second-hand bookshop and bought myself this book (*). Use language learning books with your private teachers. Even if I did learn a bit with the book, I didn’t spend enough time with it. I’d also recommend using books with many exercises when learning a ‘harder’ language. And always try to find second-hand books, it’s good for both your wallet and the environment.

Excellent: Writing new words is an enormous help. Some students, including myself, can’t memorise without writing them down. So use a notebook to write down all the words you can’t memorise, both during and in between classes. I reviewed the words of the last class just before starting a new one. I also tried Cram.com to create flashcards, but I lacked discipline to use them. May work for you though, check out other people’s sets.

Maybe later: In the meantime, I found an interesting free course (*) on Udemy to learn Turkish. Online courses can greatly complement your language learning. However, again, I should go back to it because it’s excellently taught. A bit quick, but because you can review the videos over and over again, it can be incredibly handy. You do need to be disciplined though. Find your online language course on Udemy. (*)

Maybe later: As my departure to Turkey was approaching, time had come to go to a conversation table. These kind of meetings can easily be found on social media or via Google and are usually free. You go there to talk with other people studying a foreign language in that language you’re learning, assisted by a native speaker. What I learned: it was way too early and couldn’t understand enough. So be sure to be fluent enough to attend these kind of meetings. But don’t wait too long out of shyness. 

Just ok: I joined a Facebook group with other Turkish learners. I asked a few questions (in broken Turkish, but still in Turkish) and got good replies. I should ask more often and pay more attention on the other questions.

Good: Time to hit YouTube too. I found a good Turkish language channel. Don’t forget to write the materials down. It’s fun to watch these videos, especially with a good teacher. Especially if you’re having trouble with one particular issue: type it in the search bar, for example ‘past tense Turkish’. Listening or reading exercises are also something useful on YouTube. You can also watch online news channels, like CNN for Turkey. The level was still too high. Feel free to check out mine for Dutch. More tips on learning with YouTube here.

Excellent: In an effort to immerse myself further into Turkish, I switched my social media account’s languages into Turkish. I also switched my Google products like Google Translate to Turkish. This was a good move: I learned words like ‘discuss’, ‘like’, and ‘share’ very quickly, even though it took me a while to use Google products. The repetitiveness helped me memorise key words. Here’s how to switch languages on Facebook.

Just ok: I downloaded some MP3 podcasts from a news site for while driving in the car, but it didn’t help a lot. I did learn some things with the language learning podcast ‘Turkish Tea Time’, which also helped me loosen up during traffic jams. Combining fun with learning is very important. Here’s a list of an immense amount of language learning podcasts.

Just ok: on social media, I subscribed to some news pages. Every time I see them, I try to decipher the meaning of the titles but I don’t click through though. 

Maybe later: I spent a few days in Turkey but my level was still too low to have long conversations. I could express what I wanted but lacked a lot of vocabulary. I looked around as much as possible, asked the way in the middle of the night (‘there or there’ isn’t that difficult), talked with a few people in the restaurant and bought some sunscreen in a shop. 

Maybe later: back home, I took a break from Turkish but bought some novels. Their level was too high. In the ideal scenario, you should understand about 90% of the words you’re reading. But definitely worth trying when you’re more advanced. 

Excellent: attending group classes can be too slow for many students. True, it’s not enough: you need to apply what you learn. However, the teacher will typically explain challenging parts of the language at your level. And you get a lot of exercises. Social pressure also helps. I always try to get through the first year on my own tempo, because the first year is usually the most tedious. And don’t forget to send emails in the foreign language to your teacher. Here are more tips for group classes.

Good: to complement my language classes, I continued following Skype lessons and put Turkish subtitles under English films. Netflix offers this feature, for example. I started writing the little words I didn’t know. Especially if the film I saw was boring, I could still learn a bit. Watching Turkish films was still too difficult, even with English subtitles. Learn more with films here.

Good: I’ve asked language learning materials as presents for the end of the year celebrations. I received a language learning book (*) a bit above my level, which will be highly useful in half a year or so. So don’t forget to give your level while asking.

So where did it get me, after 9 months? I can definitely express what I want. I can make the main tenses, but with hesitations. And I made videos in Turkish to promote my own courses, feel free to check the results for my French and my Dutch course. It was fun because I didn’t have to write out the full sentences, a few keywords were enough, even though I made a few mistakes. But making mistakes is part of the effort.

So what did my learning confirm?
-Only few materials were too simple, as I was an absolute beginner. I’ll be happy if I find one!
-Expensive doesn’t mean good.
-If you can’t use a word in a sentence, you don’t know the word.
-Writing is essential for me.
-Immersion is key.
-Rely on different learning resources.
-Some resources you found too difficult in the past may be useful now.

And in the future? I’ll continue attending my group classes and watching films with Turkish subtitles for sure. And I’ll continue with the ‘maybe laters’ in the list above, and test a tool one of my students suggested…

(*) If you buy something through links marked with an (*), I might get a small reward.