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Identify this Famous Turk... Click for enlargement! To Jim and Peri's Commercial-free CD for Turkish Learning -- now with triple ebook bonus! Also available in Downloadable Broadband Edition Essential Suffixes Printed Book

Learning Turkish Language Difficulties Merciless Vocabulary It ain't fair... Language-learning pages: How To Learn Basic Turkish -- A Practical Philosophy for beginners (Found in the 'Introduction to The Whole Earth Catalog of Turkish Movies'.) Why Off-color language is important too... Translating Turkish, the basics Translating Turkish, advanced Essential Turkish Vocabulary Turkish Verbs Essential Idioms, Index Essential Suffixes, Index Sentence Structure, Standard Sentence Structure Variations Turkish Pronunciation Turkish Accenting Numbers in Turkish Other Turkish Language Difficulties The Turkish Vocabulary is just tooo hard (we say, whiningly...) Memory Hooks are hard to find For instance, take yakışık and yaklaşık -- and many other examples too numerous to mention...OK, just a few, then... These two words look and sound too much alike -- with meanings that are far removed from each other. The first means proper and second means approximate. But sounding and looking alike isn't the worst of it. After all -- English suffers on that account too. The worst is trying to find the "memory hooks" that we're so used to using. I mean, how is a poor English speaker supposed to remember these two words? Where are the "memory hooks"? Can I remember that the first word means proper because the 4th letter is "i" instead of "l"? Puleeze, mister...do you call that a "memory hook"? I keep looking for a similarity to English (or at least a nice, familiar Latin or Romantic language base) to latch onto, but they aren't that easily found or concocted... So you just have to commit much of Turkish vocabulary to memory -- without the friendly hooks. And at my age (uhhh, more than 30) -- this is not so easy. Pay strict attention to the letters Words like yakışık and yaklaşık are just the tip of the iceberg! What about uç (meaning point, extremity) and üç (meaning three)? Or acık (meaning grief) and açık (meaning open)? Do you see the tiny differences in the letters? Have I made my point yet? You say you need a few more examples...? ihtira means invention ihtiram means respect, veneration ihtiras means strong longing, passion itiraz means objection Now, can you imagine saying to your lover that you have an "objection" to her when you really have a "passion" for her? Or to your boss that you have a "passion" for him when it's "respect" you meant? Or that you'd like to obtain a patent for your "strong longing" when you really want to get one for your "invention"? Well, it's easy to do in Turkish! And then there are our all-time favorite memory confounders... karşı -- opposite, contrary, opposed, against karşı karşıya -- face to face karşılayıcı -- a welcomer karşılamak -- to greet, meet, welcome karşılama -- a greeting, meeting, welcoming karşılaşmak -- to meet one another karşılaşma -- a sporting event karşılaştırmak -- to compare karşılaştırma -- a comparison karşılaştırmalı -- comparative Anyone got some good "memory hooks" for that list...?! Or, do you care to follow the next link, to learn about an outrageous memorization technique... Language-learning pages: How To Learn Basic Turkish -- A Practical Philosophy for beginners (Found in the 'Introduction to The Whole Earth Catalog of Turkish Movies'.) Why Off-color language is important too... Translating Turkish, the basics Translating Turkish, advanced Essential Turkish Vocabulary Turkish Verbs Essential Idioms, Index Essential Suffixes, Index Sentence Structure, Standard Sentence Structure Variations Turkish Pronunciation Turkish Accenting Numbers in Turkish Other Turkish Language Difficulties Also Related: Saying 'if' in Turkish A Turkish Language-Learning Fable Towards Better, Kinder Turkish Language Usage A Collision Between Turkish Language and Political Correctness Unrelated fun: Frequently asked questions about Turkey and the Turkish language Habibullah and The Great Cannon Caper Turkish Tongue Twisters Turkish Belly Dancers Turkish Terms Of Endearment Turkish Personal Names Politically Incorrect Turkish Humor Why Off-Color Turkish is important too Gossipy Turkish Who's Who Turkish Kinsey Report #1 - Turkey opens up about its seks Turkish Kinsey Report #2 - Did they hear it through the grapevine? Turkish Kinsey Report #3 - Was it good for you? Turkish Kinsey Report #4 - The first time, by age group... Turkish Kinsey Report #5 - Who's gotta have it? He? Or she? Hülya Avşar -- in a league of her own Translating Danielle Steele Post a comment...»

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