24 - Çok güzel Türkçe!

I have 24 days left in Turkey.

I just finished classes, and am now in the studying-for-exams-writing-papers phase. If I don't take some time to reflect and record my impressions about living in Turkey I will never be able to really communicate why I have enjoyed it so much. Therefore, I'm going to write one post for each day I have left in Turkey.

For post 24, I want to talk about language.

Traveling in France, whenever I tried to use the basic Grade 11 French skills I possessed people would look disgusted. It was like I was personally insulting them by not having perfect pronunciation. Friends of mine who do speak French (Canadian French), talked about getting laughed at whenever they tried to talk to people in France because the accent is so different. My friends on exchange in Poland and Hungary have had the same experience, stating that people really don't have any patience for someone who doesn't fluently speak the language. This surprised me, because Turkey is the complete opposite.

I have never - not once - had a Turk laugh at me or be short with me when I've tried to talk to them in Turkish. I've made every mistake possible! Combining two words with opposite meanings, saying "please" in place of "hello", using the impolite form of words when the polite form is expected... everything! Never has anyone laughed at me.

Whenever I've tried to converse in Turkish people are always patient and understanding. They know that Turkish is a hard language to learn, and that not many people outside of Turkey speak it.

I can't count the number of times when complete strangers have enthusiastically congratulated me on how good my Turkish was upon overhearing me in a simple exchange - such as buying some baklava. It's an incredible feeling when you see genuine amazement and delight in the eyes of someone you've never met, just because you are making an effort to learn their language and communicate without sign language or "loud-slow-English". Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they interact with thousands of tourists each year, most of whom are in Turkey for such a short period of time that they don't bother to learn any Turkish at all.

Nevertheless, I'm really thankful to every Turk that's complemented me on my rudimentary grasp of their language, for it has motivated me to continue learning.

Çok teşekkür ederim!