Learning a language? Keep going.
Hello from the frontier of what I think they call ‘intermediate’ in language learning. Maybe prompted by the change in geography–last week I moved from the dry yellow plains of Mesopotamia to the green mountains of Eastern Anatolia–I recognize that I have arrived in a new socio-linguistic place.
- Evenings can be ılık (warm) or serin (cool) – no longer just ‘hot’ or ‘cold’
- I understand questions faster, including the common beğendin mi? (did you enjoy it?)
- A child asks me where the el arabası is, and it takes only a moment to connect the words–’hand cart’–to the object in question, a ‘wheelbarrow.’
- Yaparım (I’ll do it) and yapayım (Let me do it), I can say, not just yapacağım (I’m going to do it)
- At the post office, when I need a tracking number and don’t know the word, I can guess with the verb for ‘to follow’ (takip etmek) and be understood. (The term is takip numarası)
- Somehow I’ve learned the words for holy ‘kutsal‘, spiritual ‘ruhsal‘, and religious ‘dinsel‘
- I don’t notice when I spend the whole day in Turkish.
The advice I give my students when they need some language learning motivation works. Keep going.
