Hello everyone! Can you recommend me Turkish channels where the content is mainly about arts, books, theories, thoughts but that have English subtitles? most of them are just in Turkish. I want something similar to Bugra Gulsoy videos. I love Turkish thoughts and people's perspectives but I do not speak Turkish. Thank you so much!
Hello all,
I am an American looking for an in-person Turkish language program for adults in Istanbul. I would like to hear from people who have personal experience with a specific school or program they can tell me about. I am open to different lengths and costs depending on the program but am only interested in in-person classes, not virtual. My goal is overall fluency in writing and speaking.
If you have personal experience with a program or school and are willing to share, here are some things I am wondering about:
Overall including cost and experience, do you recommend the program?
Were the teachers patient with slow learners/students who struggled?
Were classes conducted in English or Turkish and did staff and teachers speak English in general?
What is something you know now you wish you had known beforehand?
-Thank you!!
There is an example of ana kadar:
okul cok yakin. otocuse binene kadar okula yuru
But why not say "Okul yakın. Otobüse binmek yerine yürü"
Is there any difference between ana kadar and yerine?
I’m studying alone in a place with basically no Turkish speakers nearby, so there is no casual pressure to answer quickly. Suffixes and SOV word order make sense when I read them, but speaking exposes the gap fast.
The useful distinction for me has been recognition vs retrieval. Recognizing -DIK in a sentence is not the same as producing it in 30 seconds.
My routine is Anki for words, Duolingo/Babbel-style review for structure, Pimsleur or shadowing for mouth movement, and occasional italki/Preply when scheduling is possible. While making evening tea, I also do one low-pressure voice slot with Issen, mostly because I need an AI speaking practice app when there is no conversation partner nearby.
The 10-minute drill: choose one pattern from the week, like **-DIK + possessive** or simple **Subject Object Verb**. Ask yourself 3 normal questions: “Bugün ne yaptın?”, “Türkiye’ye gittiğin zaman ne yapmak istersin?”, “Sevdiğin bir yemek ne?” Answer out loud. Then repeat, fixing one mistake only.
Shadowing helps pronunciation, but it does not force original answers. Tutors are better for nuance, but more intimidating and harder to book. AI practice is weaker socially, but easier to do daily.
For random speaking topics, I sometimes summarize a short article like this NPR one in simple Turkish: https://www.npr.org/2026/05/11/nx-s1-5816161/will-sharpe-white-lotus-amadeus-mozart
How do you turn Turkish grammar you recognize into answers you can actually say?
When you have nothing to say or want to gain time
Greek loanwords hiding in everyday Turkish
Most discussions about Turkish loanwords focus on Arabic and Persian. Greek gets far less attention, but it left a significant mark on the vocabulary of daily life. Food, seafood, coastal geography, titles of address, and even common idioms all carry Greek traces.
This carousel covers fasulye, lahana, marul, kiraz, enginar, fener, liman, iskele, yalı, kadırga, kilise, efendi, angarya, and the phrase "nato kafa nato mermer", each with its Greek source, transliteration, and a usage example.
The phrase entry includes the verified Greek original: Να το κεφάλι, να το μάρμαρο (na to kefali, na to marmaro), confirmed through Greek sources. My grandmother, a Balkan immigrant, used it regularly. That is how a lot of this vocabulary survived, carried by people
I’ve been trying to learn Turkish for a while now and one thing I noticed is that “traditional” studying gets exhausting really fast. After like 20–30 minutes of vocab lists or grammar exercises my brain just shuts off.
What worked way better for me was learning more passively through content I actually enjoy. I started watching Turkish YouTube videos and shows with double subtitles (Turkish + English) and it suddenly became much easier to understand patterns, common phrases, pronunciation etc. without constantly translating everything in my head.
I’ve tried a few tools for this and currently use Sublo sometimes because it makes the subtitle part pretty smooth, but there are definitely other good options too depending on how you prefer to learn.
Honestly feels way less like studying and more like just consuming content normally, which makes it much easier to stay consistent.
Curious if anyone else here learns this way or if you’ve found better methods for improving listening comprehension?
I know this is a long shot but I desperately want to learn and I am on a budget!
Merhaba! I started learning Turkish and want to surprise my girlfriend by learning a song. Could this community give me some recommendations?
Optimally, it would be a romantic song with male and female vocalists.
If possible:
A) A popular song she would already know
B) Something in the Turkish hip hop space because we have a cute English hip hop song we sing together
C) Other genres we like are funk, indie, folk, jam band, alternative rock
Je voudrais rencontrer des hommes français. Je peux leur apprendre le turc!!🇫🇷🇹🇷
Ne zaman “görünce” ve ne zaman “gördüğünde” kullanmaliyim? İkisi de "when you see" anlamına geliyor, değil mi?
Cevabınız için teşekkür ederim!
Hello, my family is Turkish and due to some circumstances of where we are currently living, we might go back to Turkey. I'm worried because our mother never taught us the language, and I don't believe she'll be very helpful with me learning it properly.
Even if we don't move, I'd like to learn the language because everyone but my siblings and I can speak Turkish. Are there any language learning books to help with these that are formatted like usual high school language learning books? (like French or German)? I found that with those, I'm actually a quick learner, especially when I see basic sentence structures and verbs explained, along with 'exercises' and questions I need to fill in.
Istanbul's cats are everywhere, and so are they in the Turkish language. These 8 idioms show you how Turks talk about jealousy, guilt, temptation, and conflict through a single animal.
An article to understand how the Turkish sentence order work compared to other languages.
Hi! :) I have a few questions for those who have taken the online course at the Yunus Emre Institute. Since the classes are conducted exclusively in Turkish, how did you manage to understand the teacher when they were giving explanations?
Second, since each group has between 8 and 20 participants, is there actually enough time for every student to speak during class and practice pronunciation?
And lastly, how do you generally like the course, and what are the teachers like?
Thanks in advance, any information would mean a lot to me 😊🇹🇷
I moved to Turkey 2 months ago and sadly I do not know how to speak Turkish what so ever. I do find the language very beautiful and I want to learn it. But learning alone is very hard. Is there anyone here who can help me? I will appreciate it a lot.
I also play video games. So if you also play games, maybe we can hangout and also talk in Turkish (I will try to learn as much as I can to keep up) and gaming will also keep things interesting and not boring.
Thank you for reading my post.
Hi, I'm a guy from South America who wants to move to Turkey. I had a list of many countries and decided on Turkey for my own reasons. I'm interested in a peaceful life. I'm not too concerned about financial factors, but they are important. What has your experience been like there? If anyone from South America has lived in Turkey, it would be great to hear your opinion. I'm learning Turkish and I also know a little English, but I'm focusing more on Turkish. I'll be reading your replies.