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.

I recently read an article written by Reid Wilson entitled Activities for Building Vocabulary Recognition and thought I would share the idea as a language learning tip.  Wilson, whose writing about the MP3 player in language learning was a big part of inspiring the Turkish Listening Library used this method on his journey toward fluency in colloquial Arabic but I think it is something we all could do as well.  Wilson had a few 30 minute blocks of time with his friend (they were exchanging English for Arabic instruction) and wanted to maximize the time.  What he did was to sit down with a friend and a recording device and have his friend share for two minutes about what he did the day before.  After making the recording, they immediately went back and began to listen through the audio together, one section at a time. After words and expressions were clarified, Wilson would immediately rewind and listen once more and then write down a note about the word and meaning.  In this manor, he continued through the entire two minute recording which took up the remainder of the 30 minutes.  That day, Wilson continued to listen back through the two minute recording.  At their next meeting, Wison again asked his friend to record a two minute audio of what he did the day before.  This created a narrow listening opportunity where much of the core of what he learned the time before was repeated and reviewed, but a lot of new vocabulary and topics were added in as well.  Overall, it seems like a great way to take control of the input and provide for multiple contacts with the new things you are learning.  There are lots of questions I can imagine you can ask of people to multiple times to get this kind of narrow listening opportunity.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.  And check out the full article by clicking on the title above.

I recently came across an interview on the Livemoha Blog about the shift that is happening, effectively moving the journey of language learning away from the classroom and onto the internet.  I guess I would qualify this by saying that you can build a pretty great foundation in a language with many of the excellent opportunities that can be found online.  In fact, the highly motivated learner could really get pretty fluent with the language in the confines of their own home.  But that is not why we learn languages, so we can hang out at home.  We learn them to communicate, to enter into the heart language of another culture and by doing so open up a whole new world to our own lives.  We learn language so that we can go out and enter into the culture and life of our neighbors in the world.  And to really move beyond just the foundation, we have to get out their into the community, into the lives of the those who speak the language we are learning.Anyway, it was an interesting interview even if it was a bit promotional.  

In today's podcast I share about my first time sitting down and spending some time talking at the bookstore.  It was a great place for language learning and practice and  Serdar, Kerem, Göker remain great friends.  If you are ever in Kucukyali, make sure and stop by Reha Kitapevi under the Kucukyali Cami.  

As always, you can listen to the podcast at itunes or at podbean and of course be sure and download just the Turkish at the HCA Podcast page.  

I think a big fear many of us face when brining our kids along with us overseas, is that they won't get the language and will be forever an outsider.  Today I came across a list of tips that may be of some help.  I found the list at Exploring Abroad and they have a lot of great articles for language learners.  The citation for the article and information about how to get the entire booklet it was excerpted from is found at the bottom.  But here is the article:

Tips for Parents to Help Children Learn their Home Language and English

• Always talk a lot to your child in your language. Even when the child is too little to understand you should talk to them about what you are doing when you are cooking, writing, shopping etc...
• Teach your child nursery rhymes and songs in your own language.
• Tell your child stories in your language. Encourage your child to join in with the story telling.
• Talk to your children about what they did at playgroup, nursery or school in your language. If they use English words repeat what they have said using your language.
• Don't be frightened to use your language in public. If some people don't like it, it is their problem not yours.
• Make sure that your child knows the names of the different languages he speaks.
• Check that your child knows which language has which name.
• Take your child to concerts, plays, poetry readings, films etc. where they will hear people using your language.
• Try to make sure your children play with children who speak the same home language as they do.
• Find out if there is a community language school in your area where your language is taught. Your child might benefit from attending classes there.
• Try to find books written in your language for your child. If there aren't any try to make your own or ask someone else to help you.
• Make your child feel proud of your language.
• Don't laugh or tease your child because of her accent or if she makes mistakes.

Source: Bilingual Children: a guide for parents and carers, written by Foufou Savitzky, London Language and Literacy Unit, South Bank University, 1994. Copies of this booklet are available from Avanti Books, phone 01438 747000, emailavantiord@aol.com

I I have learned a lot about life from other people - regular people like you and me as well as the experts who write books and teach college courses.  I think there is probably a lot we can all learn about language learning from others as well.  I have it in mind to begin a new podcast called the Master Language Learner Interviews in which I will interview successful language learners, educators, researchers and an occasional polyglot* to see if we can't learn a few things from their language learning journey.  I have a short list of those I would like to find to interview but would love to hear your input as well.  So here is the challenge to you:  Do you know someone who has done really well at mastering a second language?  Send me their name and their contact information and I will look into setting up an interview with them so we can learn their tricks, be motivated by their success and grow as language learners.  Thanks!