Learning a more common language (Turkish), so that I can learn a more rare language (Kazakh after)?

Open Forum
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Hey all,

I am really wanting to learn Kazakh, but my method for learning is normally heavy input. I have not been able to find even a single novel in Kazakh, and my resources would basically be a few news sites and the Bible. My fear is that I would start and lose motivation very quickly!

My thoughts are to maybe learn Turkish first (which is a lovely language, and it has many resources), and then to learn Kazakh after.

Has anyone does this kind of process before, even with other languages? What is everyones thoughts?

Many thanks,
Rom

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Your strategy sounds promising. Knowing Turkish will give you a head start when you you eventually start learning Kazakh. I am planning to do something a little bit similar with Modern Greek as a bridge language towards Ancient Greek. First I wanted to learn Ancient Greek, but I found out that self-learning material is hard to find in that language. That and the prospect of a convention taking place in Athens led me to start learning Modern Greek first and adding Ancient Greek later. I think it will be very helpful.

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I don’t think it will help you a lot. People think you natively speak french so spanish is easy for you. Well maybe it is more easy but I know spanish because I worked on spanish not because I speak french.

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I don’t know how close Turkish and Kazakh are but since they belong to the same family knowing one will surely help with the other. I’m not sure your strategy will prove effective though, at least not if you aren’t truly interested in learning Turkish. If you only view Turkish as a means of learning Kazakh, you’ll quickly get bored and won’t go very far. Turkish might have more resources but it’s still a very different language that will require a great dose of motivation and patience. We’re talking about years of dedication.

So I’d say that if you had no plan to learn Turkish and only want to learn Kazakh, then go for Kazakh right away.

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From what I know the Kazakh Wikipedia should be ok as far as input is concerned.

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As a general strategy, of course it does make sense. However, as others have already pointed out, your success will depend on how close the two languages are to each other. In that regard, you may find this blogpost interesting:
https://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/mutual-intelligibility-among-the-turkic-languages/

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Your Greek adventure sounds fun! For an ancient language, I guess the reasons for learning have to be quite strong, considering the resources are even more limited (you don’t even have access to native speakers!). Good luck! :slight_smile:

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What an incredible resource!! Thank you so much for sharing, and for your comments :slight_smile:

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Very good points! I am quite lucky that I am also in love with Turkish, so I am in a fortunate person that there is no wrong answer haha! :slight_smile:

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I think I was under the impression that Turkish and Kazakh were much closer!! Thank you for the link, its really thorough and useful for me!

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Thank you :slight_smile:
I am not planning to speak Ancient Greek, I just want to read it. When I start, I think I will try reading bilingual editions, they are available for reasonable prices here in Germany (publisher: reclam).

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That sounds great :). I think I have seen a few popular novels (Harry Potter 1 etc) have been translated into Ancient Greek in an attempt to promote the language a bit more. You might find it useful :slight_smile:

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It might interest you. It comes from the polyglott conference about turkic languages.

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