Turkish is a valuable language to learn. If you speak Turkish, you’ll be an invaluable asset for companies that have offices or partners in the Middle East. Plus, more than 80 million people speak Turkish.
My own reasons for learning Turkish weren’t driven because I wanted to travel to Turkey or Turkish-speaking places or because I wanted to land a prestigious job or promotion. I was a Tarkan fan and Turkish was so different from the European languages I knew. It was a new challenge, and now I’m revising and improving my A2-B1 Turkish language skills because my family and I would love to move to Northern Cyprus.
If you are interested in learning Turkish, follow my 9 practical tips and tricks (all of which I still follow and swear by) so you can make progress and learn easily.
Is Turkish Easy or Difficult to Learn?
If I told you that Turkish can be easy to learn, you may think I’m biased. I get it, I’m a polyglot who speaks 8 languages so language-learning comes easy to me, right? Wrong.
I work hard to learn a new language and to keep up and improve my skills, but I’ll admit that loving languages does make learning easier.
I ensure I’m motivated by having clear goals that I work toward. I also ensure I don’t have any negative feelings about the language or culture from the get-go.
Overall, whether a language is easy or difficult to learn is a highly individualized and subjective topic.
For interests’ sake, the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) grades Turkish as a Category IV language, meaning it’s difficult to learn because it doesn’t share any or many similarities with English. According to the FSI, you’ll need to invest a minimum of 44 weeks or 1,100 hours to reach business proficiency in Turkish.
So if you think that Turkish is difficult, it will be. But go into learning the language with an open mind, and you may just realize that it’s easier than you think.
For example, aspects of the Turkish language that may be challenging include its agglutinative nature and vowel harmony.
But there are also features of Turkish that make it easy to learn. These include the use of the Latin alphabet, lack of articles, genders, and irregular words, and flexible sentence structure based on what you want to emphasize.
Once you get the hang of Turkish and the language rules, it’s learn-able.
Want to learn more? Find other articles here:
My 9 Practical Tips and Tricks for Learning Turkish
Here are my best tips and tricks that helped me learn Turkish:
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1. Define Your Goal by Developing a Learning Plan
When you start learning Turkish, know that it’s normal to feel overwhelmed, especially if you’re learning by yourself. Developing a learning plan with a clear goal and achievable milestones will quickly eliminate feeling overwhelmed and those “what did I get myself into” thoughts.
Your goal and milestones will help dictate what, when, and how much you learn, and ticking off milestones will make you feel successful, which will encourage you to keep learning.
I like to use SMART goals when I learn or review a language.
2. Start with Simple Polite Expressions and Everyday Verbs
I firmly believe in starting with the basics, and that’s using polite expressions and everyday verbs.
This active language is what you understand and can use every day, which means you get lots of practice so you are ready to progress to learning more inactive language (words and expressions you understand but aren’t able to use yet).
Everyday language you can start with in Turkish include:
Merhaba – Hello
Lütfen – Please
Teşekkür ederim – Thank you
Evet – Yes
Hayır – No
Hoş geldiniz – Welcome
Nasılsınız? – How are you?
İyi günler – Good day
İyi akşamlar – Good evening
İyi geceler – Good night
3. Listen to Podcasts as a Learning Aid
Podcasts continue to be a valuable learning resource. I can listen to Turkish being used in different contexts, and it gives me an opportunity to improve my listening comprehension.
Even if you’re new to learning Turkish, start listening to Turkish podcasts. While you may not understand a single word (at first) or much, it’s an opportunity to listen to the “melody” of the language and how words sound.
My favorite Turkish podcasts are:
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4. Read Children’s Books and Fairy Tales
It may sound really silly, but my Turkish journey started with reading children’s books and fairy tales. These are written for beginner language speakers — perfect if you are also learning Turkish.
I love that these books and tales are short in nature, so I don’t feel overwhelmed. I started with the Turkish editions of The Little Prince and Peter Pan – stories I’m familiar with, and this helped me pick up the Turkish translation in the books a lot faster.
You can also read kid’s stories in Turkish on masaloku.com.tr.
Instead of reading, I also watch Turkish fairy tales and stories. I like:
- Türkiye Fairy Tales, a YouTube Channel that has 837 thousand subscribers and more than 600 videos.
- Türkçe Masallar – Turkish Fairy Tales, also a YouTube Channel with 500 thousand subscribers and nearly 300 videos.
5. Watch Turkish Series and Films with Subtitles
Another great way to learn Turkish is by watching TV shows and movies in the language. As a newbie, you can switch the subtitles to English, your native language, or one you’re proficient in. Later, make the subtitles Turkish, which gives you reading practice while you listen and follow along with the spoken Turkish.
And when you’re ready, remove the subtitles and see how much you can follow along and understand.
Some of my favorite Turkish shows and movies are:
Aşk Laftan Anlamaz (Love Does Not Understand Words)
Muhteşem Yüzyıl (Great Century)
Aşk ve Ceza (Love and Punishment)
Siyah Beyaz Aşk (Black and White Love)
Kiraz Mevsimi (Cherry Time)
Or see what’s available on Netflix or Amazon Prime.
6. Listen to Türkçenin Sesi Radyosu: Radio for Turkish Learners
I loved listening to Turkish radio to improve my listening skills.
Türkçenin Sesi Radyosu, for example, has a broadcast stream and an “I’m Learning Turkish” series, which is aimed at all learners of Turkish (A1-A1, B1-B2, and C1-C2) as you can listen to topics about plants, animals, culture, education, and more.
7. Speak Turkish Often: Practice Makes Perfect
One of my best language-learning tips is to start speaking the new language as soon as possible. Use the active language you’re learning to greet your family (let them know you’re learning Turkish and using them for target practice, of course), speak to yourself, and with others.
Find a language tutor on Preply or italki, for example, or find out if there’s someone who speaks Turkish who lives near you so you can befriend them, practice, and learn more.
8. Play with Apps to Learn Turkish
There are many apps that will teach you Turkish, and I love to use a variety of apps because each has pros and cons.
Test out the different language apps that teach Turkish so you can find the one that suits your budget, needs, and learning method the best.
Here are my favorites:
Babbel: A great resource for learning Turkish vocabulary, everyday phrases, and simple sentences to improve your conversation skills. Choose between Babbel Self-Study with its interactive lessons (at US$13.95 per month) or Babbel Live that includes live group lessons (at US$99.00 per month).
Mondly: Many compact interactive lessons with AI conversation practice. You can also engage with augmented reality (AR) and learn Turkish in a futuristic way. Limited lessons are available for free, or pay US$9.99 per month for Mondly Premium.
Duolingo: Ideal if you want to learn for free, but Super Duolingo (starting at US$7.99 per month) gives you premium features that are nice. I like Duolingo because it motivates me to complete at least one lesson per day, ensuring I continue to learn.
Rosetta Stone: Teaches you via immersion, so you’ll learn Turkish without English (or another source language) translations. The app offers additional language resources, making learning interesting. A 3-month subscription costs US$15.99 per month, and you can join live classes at an extra cost.
Memrise: Is user-friendly, and while the app has official language courses (including Turkish), native speakers can also create and upload their courses to the site. Of course, the quality varies, but it gives you more learning options. Learn for free, or pay US$ 27.99 per month.
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9. Enjoy Learning Turkish and Don’t Take It Too Seriously
You won’t stay motivated to learn Turkish if you aren’t enjoying it. Don’t fixate on the final goal of language learning or the destination, which is likely being fluent in Turkish. Instead, enjoy the ride, journey, or process of learning.
Find new opportunities to learn, engage with different learning material and resources, and see the process as an adventure.
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My Final Advice for Learning Turkish
I’ve found the best language-learning methods that work for me, and you should do the same.
I believe in discipline and consistency, being curious about the language, culture, and people, and being open to exploring conventional and unconventional learning methods.
There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to learning Turkish. You know why you want to learn the language and what you want to achieve, so all you have to do now is learn, make progress, and enjoy it.
Happy learning!
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Disclaimer: I select and review independently. If you buy through affiliate links, I may earn commissions that help support my testing at no extra cost to you. Please read my full disclosure for more information.
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