November 2009
I had had a rough week as a language learner. Early in the week, for one whole hour a Turkish friend continuously wondered aloud why I could not speak better Turkish after six months. Another day I spent what seemed like an entire afternoon trying to talk on the phone with the internet provider without any real success at anything that could be considered communication. It seemed the week of failure. It seemed the week that the entire population of Istanbul was determined to approach me on the street catching me completely off guard with a random question about directions or the time or where they could find a job. My blank stare seemed answer enough for most. I am not sure I even remembered how to say, “I don’t know.” But just as the darkness appeared to be collapsing in all around me, a ray of light broke through. It happened with the patient kindness of new friends found a a local bookstore. I came in to buy an envelop, asked a simple question about a famous Turkish poem, Yaş Otuz Beş, and was ushered into a new set of friendships, an afternoon of tea, and a language learning dream come true. My new friends seemed at once to recognize my desire to learn Turkish and were excited to be of help. They warmed to me so quickly and invited me into their lives, their homes, their circle of friends. It became a weekly and often twice weekly visit for me at that bookstore. It was the perfect community interaction that my Turkish needed at the time to really begin to grow and mature. It provided a place to delve into new topics, new ranges of vocabulary. It was a great place for cultural inquiry. It became a great group of friends, life long friends who I hope to one day be able to help as much as they helped me.
I hope all who are living in a new country, learning a new language can find a group that will take you in and call you one of their own. It is great for your language of course, but the real contribution is the lifetime of friendship that will result.
Good luck on the Journey.
