Hello,this is my first lesson of Turkish.
I found the teacher speaks very fast and ambiguously, I don’t know if that’s a characteristics of Turkish language?
Are there any Turkish native speakers can help me checking if the pronunciation of mini story good or bad?
I am not a native speaker of Turkish but I do know Turkish to a decent level, worked and lived with Turkish speakers, and stayed in Turkey for some time. It sounds very clear and normal to me. Not even fast to be honest. If you feel like it is fast, there is an option to slow it down.
2 Likes
That’s cool to know that this is a normal speed of Turkish
I feel that Turkish words are glued together, and they sometimes skip some syllables, it makes me hard to learn Turkish “word by word”, instead I try to memorize them “sentence by sentence”, is it a good practice to learn Turkish “sentence by sentence” ?
Or are there any tips for learning Turkish?
Thanks for your response, I will try harder to study this interesting language.
I have just started Turkish myself on LingQ, after having studied it for a while outside of it, mainly by listening to Youtube videos about the basics, grammar in particular.
I feel that if I had to start Turkish from scratch in LingQ, it would have been very difficult even with the Beginner 1 level lessons. Getting the basics of pronunciation and the basics of grammar, specifically the sound alternation rules that everything is based on, seems essential to grasp how words are constructed (it’s an agglutinative language, so understanding how words are put together from other components is essential). Once you know some basics, LingQ becomes a lot more helpful.
The Mini Stories are not even at Beginner 1, but Beginner 2. Start with something easier maybe. Hope that helps.
1 Like
The book Teach Yourself Complete Turkish is mainly what I used when learning Turkish. There is also a podcast, Turkish Teatime, there is a website for it too. They explain grammar in context and I found it very useful for some grammar points.
2 Likes
Hello! I checked the first one:) unfortunately, he speaks very slow. I think he emphasizes to each word for correct pronunciation. You can learn how to pronounce words and Turkish sound via the mini stories.
1 Like
Listen to a lot of content. It doesn’t matter what. Once you can hear the different words, continue with the mini stories.
1 Like
“he speaks very slow”…Wow, you really shocked me haha.
I am now in Turkish mini story 4.
I found Turkish not only very fast, but there is a very special characteristics: it’s very obscure to distinguish individual syllables.
Take an example. In the mini story 4,in the end of story (A), there is a sentence:
[Turkish] Birbirlerine ev ödevlerinde yardım ederler.
It sounds to me like: Bi…libilibili…ne ev de…vedevedeve…de yar…deredere…ler
It’s like a person speaking fast while having full water in his mouth (no offense).
If we compare it to Spanish mini story 1, the 4rd sentence:
[Spanish] Es un lugar para practicar estructuras básicas del lenguaje.
It’s also a sentence with many syllables, but it sounds much crystal than the Turkish.
I don’t know if it’s normal in Turkish (not pronouncing every syllables clear)?
Turkish is an interesting language, I will study it harder 
There are some international undergraduates in my department. Some of them pronunciation sounds to us like: bibiliibi ev vedevlende (birbirlerini ev ödevlerinde)…
Some of them who have prolonged exposure to Turkish have much better pronunciation. To distinguish the sounds can be learned by exposure to lots of listening. Keep your listening:)
At the beginning of teaching a new language, instructors emphasize each word for correct pronunciation, but we know that the whole sentence does not pronounce in natural dialogue form. You know, the one-way communicator tries to make one speech exciting so that you listen with interest. Usually, their style can seem to us a little bit weird:) Remember, it is part of the beginning, and their style provides us with a ground to distinguish the sounds.
Lastly, Kaufmann has some good advice for all of us. Don’t fight with language. Don’t question the language. We can learn any language through self-awareness, making mistakes, and putting our time and attitudes.
I hope you make peace with Turkish sounds:)
2 Likes
Thanks for the detailed guideline and encouragement.
It really helps a lot 
1 Like
Don’t mention. Anytime :). I wish you success
1 Like