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Learning Turkish How can a 'pure' beginner get started? Related Pages: Profiles of the Turkish People The Turkish Kinsey Report The Lying Eyes Club of Turkey Turkish Culture -- Two Turkish traditions we especially like Turkish Culture -- 4 things you shouldn't do in Turkey Turkish Culture -- 5 things you should do in Turkey Turkish Superstitions Turkish Circumcision Ceremonies A Boy's (and a Father's) Worst Nightmare About Circumcision Also: Whole Earth Catalog of Turkish Movies Turkish National Election, 2007 Movie Superhero Tarkan, historic and erotik Mature Dutch Bride in Turkey Mature British Bride in Turkey Mature Swedish Bride in Turkey The 10 Basic Varieties of Unfaithful Turkish Lovers Name that dog! Divorce Turkish-style American Girls One of the most 'Frequently Asked Questions' we receive from website visitors is... How can a 'basic' beginner get started learning Turkish at Learning Practical Turkish? The reply that we've developed (and kept updated) during more than a decade now -- which seems to have met most site visitor needs -- is as follows: Oftentimes, it's better to think of LPT as a Grammar Reference work -- where you dive in as the spirit moves you! But if you are just beginning Turkish, we'd recommend that you start by taking the links to... How To Learn Basic Turkish -- A Practical Philosophy for beginners (Found in the 'Introduction to The Whole Earth Catalog of Turkish Movies'.) The Story of the Modern Turkish Language Turkish folktales as building blocks for Turkish language learning -- 'The Plucked Goose' The Phonetic Pronunciation Guide The Spoken Pronunciation Guide The Free Downloads Page -- see our Cyprus Times articles for 'Beginners' After that, assuming that your computer has sound capability, we suggest the following step-by-step approach... As we mention in our Home Page 'opening statement', we see certain 'obstacles' that English speakers face when they try to learn Turkish -- obstacles that have to be overcome. What are they? 1) 'Difficult' vocabulary 2) 'Odd' sentence structure 3) 'So many' suffixes (agglutination) 4) 'Unusual' ways of expressing thought For overcoming the first obstacle (difficult vocabulary), we recommend: 'The Merciless Vocabulary' page... Essential Turkish Headwords Sounds of Specialty Turkish (where you may wish to take the link to Accent on Turkish, in preference to some of the others)... Turkish Tongue Twisters -- to help you get the rhythm of the language and...to make you smile. The Really Quick and Basic Turkish Language Phrasebook Numbers in Turkish Language -- all the ways there are to use numerals in Turkish... Turkish idioms -- starting with A, B, C, Ç, D, E, F, G, H, etc... Intimate Turkish -- which is not for everyone, we know... But if you are unaware of it, you may be left in the dark at very *crucial* points of certain Turkish 'conversations'. Turkish First Names -- the Plain English meanings An Online-only Turkish-English-Turkish Dictionary (See the Downloads page for an offline-dictionary...) Mini-Tips for speaking, reading, writing better Turkish [While we're on the subject of vocabulary... An as-big-as-you-can-afford bilingual dictionary is essential to your language learning success. We recommend the Redhouse Dictionaries (they have 4 or 5 different sizes), but they are not easily found in the states (although Amazon.com may have some in stock). If you can't find a Redhouse dictionary, the large Langenscheidt is acceptable (though curiously weak in places). The one to avoid is the Concise Oxford -- it's very misleading and out of date. Do not buy this one if the original publication date is between 1953 and 1985. It's terrible!] ~~~ For overcoming the second obstacle (odd sentence structure), we recommend: Turkish is reverse English! The 'Regular and Consistent' Turkish Language Turkish Pronouns -- Keeping yourself... straight Turkish Adjective Heaven Turkish Adverbs ad nauseam ~~~ For overcoming the third obstacle (agglutination), we recommend: 'Too many suffixes -- agglutination' A Conjugation Celebration, where many of the entries are suffixes The other various pages devoted to 'suffixes' found under 'S' in the Table of Contents (where the -den suffix may be of particular interest.) ~~~ For overcoming the fourth obstacle (unusual ways of expression), we recommend: 'Expressing Yourself in Turkish' Turkish idioms -- starting with A, B, C, etc... Lost Articles Doubles Troubles How to Translate Turkish, Part I and Part II The Commented Practical Turkish Translation Example, Hansel and Gretel folktale, 7 pages The Commented Practical Turkish Translation Example, Courtroom Comedy, 4 pages ~~~ And if you have time, check out the Verb Charts (for 'gelmek' -- to come, and for the 'verb to be') -- so that you can get a feel for the logic of Turkish verb-structure (which you will find very consistent, unlike our 'English' verbs)... That's a pretty ambitious program we've laid out, we know -- and you ought not concentrate all your effort in one area. Skip in and out of each of the areas -- so you can get an overall 'appreciation'. And don't let yourself be discouraged. Whatever you have time to learn, will pay big dividends. And lastly, make sure you *enjoy* the language -- recognizing that it's got a very high *cool* quotient... :^) P.S. For Turkish language 'self-drilling' -- don't forget: 1) The *free* 'Talking Turkish' program, the Interactive Turkish Dictionary, the Learning Turkish Verb Conjugator, the Turkish Language Vocabulary Builder, etc. that you'll find on our 'Downloads' page... 2) Our very own product, the Enhanced 'Learning Practical Turkish Website on CD'. Among other things, it's got 1,000s more voice recordings than we provide online. Related Pages: A Boy's (and a Father's) Worst Nightmare About Circumcision Profiles of the Turkish People The Turkish Kinsey Report Gossipy Turkish Who's Who The Lying Eyes Club of Turkey Turkish Culture -- Two Turkish traditions we especially like Turkish Culture -- 4 things you shouldn't do in Turkey Turkish Culture -- 5 things you should do in Turkey Turkish Superstitions Turkish Circumcision Ceremonies Circumcision and what many Turks believe about Westerners Also: Whole Earth Catalog of Turkish Movies Turkish National Election, 2007 Newsreaders Encyclopedic Dictionary, Index Movie Superhero Tarkan, historic and erotik Mature Dutch Bride in Turkey Mature British Bride in Turkey Mature Swedish Bride in Turkey The 10 Basic Varieties of Unfaithful Turkish Lovers Name that dog! Divorce Turkish-style American Girls TIME laid low by True Believers Freedom of Speech gets a fiendish French Twist The God-Awful State of Turkish-American Relations Unrelated fun: Frequently asked questions about Turkey and the Turkish language llustrated Nargile Users Guide -- and Encyclopedia Our Honda Generator -- A Member of the Family Habibullah and the Great Cannon Caper A simple Turkish 'thing'... Turkish Belly Dancers Sneeeezing in Turkish Turkish Terms Of Endearment Turkish Personal Names Politically Incorrect Turkish Humor Why Off-Color Turkish is important too Turkish Movies -- Conventional and 'Erotik', Index The World's Worst Sport Novelty Turkish Wedding Invitations