Reply #34: Turkish

[fudge stripe cookays]

I decided one year I wanted to teach myself Turkish after watching Rick Steves' program on Istanbul. That was my dream before reprehensor and I were married-- I was going to take one of those little yacht cruises off the Turquoise Coast.

Since it's not Indo European, the verb structure isn't like learning French or German. They call it "agglutinative", where you stick parts of words together. Evidently, when Ataturk was westernizing the country back in the early 20s, he told his advisors he wanted a brand new language. I read somewhere that the closest thing to it is Korean (?!).

I had to use word association to try to remember the phrases I was learning.

I was just using tapes and the associated book, and didn't keep it up. I can probably still order in a restaurant since I remember the names of many foods (like Chai, Zeytin or Beyaz Penir), find the bathroom (tuvalet), say yes (Evet) and no (Hayr), and ask if there is a shower in the room ("Oda da dush varmi?").

NEver made it to Turkey. :cry: