Hoping you all have had  and will continue to have a great holiday season.  As a late Christmas present and a bit to get you going for the New Year I wanted to pass on a great resource.    It is the Peace Corps On-Going Language Learning Manual and it is 100 pages of self-directed learner heaven.  Great information and great insight into learning language in the community, from the community.  Check it out here.

Also, as part of my review and reflection of 2010 and looking forward to 2011, I am looking for a educational charity to support.  Know any?  Here is what I am looking for:

• educational program (educating kids mostly)
• non-profit
• working in Turkey, the Middle East or Central  Asia.
• Good reputation.

Let me know of your favorite charities and we will make it a little competition.  Details coming soon.

Merry Christmas!  Well, not quite yet, but today's podcast will be the last of 2010.  I will be back after the New Year.  I am putting a call out to all podcast listeners and Turkish learners for submissions of your handcrafted audio.  I can even get someone to record it if you write it and work through the mistakes with a Turk first.  Anyway.  Get to work and send in some content!


But today's program laughs in the face of the recent cold snap with a journal entry from the summer of 2008.  It must have been hot because today's show is all about finding ways to combat the heat in our unairconditioned life.  Hopefully it will warm you up a bit.  As always, jump over to the HCA Podcast page to download just the Turkish of the show which you can find at itunes or podbean.  And if you want to leave a comment at itunes that would be greatly appreciated.


Have a wonderful Holiday season.

Hey all.  Here is this weeks new podcast.  I had a few "issues" with this one, neither of which I solved.  First is the nasal drone of my allergy induced voice change. (See my story "Am I Allergic to Turkey")  The second is the eternal silence right after the intro.  Remember the pigeons from the movie Bolt, "Wait for it, Wait for it."  Anyway, sorry about both of those.  This weeks show as always can be found at itunes or at podbean.  I will let you listen to the summary on the podcast, but it is about trying to call home to the states.  Anyway.  Take care, have fun and blessings on your Turkish language learning journey.  


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Welcome to the new look of the Turkish Listening LIbrary.  If you are a follower of the blog and the website, you will have noticed that I have made a few changes.  In an effort to make the site more focused on Turkish Listening material, I have created a new blog where I will continue to write more about language learning.  I have been wanting to grow my language coaching business, but having it attached to the Turkish Listening LIbrary seemed to be narrowing the audience down quite a bit and I am wanting to serve a broader audience.  So, I have created the TLL Language Coach blog where I will will continue to write about language learning, share ideas, give tips, discuss articles, etc.  This blog will continue, but will now focus just on Turkish listening materials and updates to this site.  I hope it will be of better use to those of you wanting to just focus on Turkish.  As always, I do want to hear from you.  How can I make this site better for you, the Turkish language learner.  


Blessings on the Journey!


--Aaron

Today's podcast is a retelling of arguably one of the funniest stories I have ever heard in my entire life.  Really.  Squirrel  Cop was part of a series called This American Life and this particular week's episode was about first days on the job.  Two cops in Chicago respond to a call about a noise in the attic.  The ensuing mayhem will make you cry with laughter.  Listen to the story first by clicking on the picture to the left.  Then head over to itunes or Podbean to download the show if you have not subscribed yet.  Then of course visit the Handcrafted Audio page and download just the Turkish.  This one is a bit different I know - but I listened to it again and laughed so hard I thought it would be good therepy for all of you Turkish learners.  Next weeks show will be back to normal.  Enjoy.


Squirrel Cop Link: http://vimeo.com/6442040

I know that Cactus Language Training created this proficiency test to help them better place their prospective students, but it is a useful tool to find out where you are at.  As with all proficiency tests of this nature, it is not a complete picture of where you are at, but it can be helpful and will give you a basic idea of where you are at in general.  As a plug for Cactus Language Training, they seem to offer some great courses if you are in one of their locations.
link to turkish test

So i came across this list today at Wikipedia.  It is the list of the top 1000 most frequently used Turkish words.  I have listed the top ten below, but it is an interesting list and perhaps one to look over.  Here is an idea:  Print the list out.  Read through the list putting a red dot next to every word that you do not feel completely comfortable with.  Repeat this exercise every three months, using a different color each time.  It could be a fun way to provide a caveat of assessment for yourself.  Here are the top ten words:

1. bir
2. ve
3. olmak
4. bu
5. için
6. o
7. ben
8. demek
9. çok
10. yapmak

Yea! I feel completely comfortable with all 10 - though I am still wrapping my mind around the nuances of how demek is used.  The first one I had trouble with was #184 - alınmak even though I remember reading it, looking it up and writing it in the margin of the book I was reading just last week.  I guess I need more exposure.

In today's installment of the Turkish Listening Library Handcrafted Audio Podcast, I talk about the time I broke my wrist as an 18 year old working on a school project with some friends.  Ouch!   You can listen or download the podcast at itunes or at podbean.  You can also subscribe!  Be sure and download just the Turkish from the Handcrafted Audio Page.  Thanks for listening and if you have any comments or suggestions please let me know.  If you are at the itunes page, please consider leaving a comment and rating.  Take care and have a great week.  Kolay gelsin!

I was introduced to a great website tonight at a friends house.  They had been using this site a bit and found it very helpful.  When I got home, and after I got my son tucked into bed, I too had a look and think it is really a great site.  The site is called Turkish Tutor and seems to have been developed at UCLA, but the cool think about it is that it uses a long staniding Turkish television program, Bizimkiler, as its content.  I would suggest watching the short tutorial found on the home page of the site, but the basic gist is that you watch short scenes from the show (30 seconds or so) that allow you to explore different aspects of Turkish language and culture.   There are twelve different lessons each with three - four scenes to watch.  Topics include things like: welcoming, greetings, food, ordering food, food, asking for the time, health, leave taking, etc.  Each lesson has a glossary of terms, an exercise and one very cool feature - the ability to listen to the scene slowed down.  It actually has three choices of speeds to listen: normal, slow and really slow, so you can catch every aspect of the verbal exchanges taking place.  I think it could be a great set of lessons to go through for the beginner and a great site to visit to pick and choses a few lessons for more advanced learners.  Check it out today.  I have also added a link to the site on the Listen Now! page.