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Language barriers in Turkey

Hello,

Learning a new language is a part of the expat process. Let's find out how crucial it is to know the language in Turkey.

What is the official language in Turkey, and what are the other popular spoken languages?

Is it possible to live in Turkey and get by without speaking the language?

How do you manage to communicate with the locals if you don't speak the native/official language fluently?

What are some popular and useful phrases that expats absolutely need to know?

Can you share some tips about how to survive in Turkey on a daily basis without speaking the language?

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Priscilla
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Dear Priscilla,

Living in Turkey without knowing the language was an extremely hard experience for me.

Not many people speak English, and I was laughed at a lot by waiters/ taxi drivers for speaking basic Turkish with an accent or not knowing the correct words to use.

I highly recommend that expats learn a basic conversational level of Turkish before moving there.

Useful phrases include:

Merhaba (hello)
Nasilisin (how are you?)
Iyiyim tesekkuler (I'm fine, thank you)
脟ok iyi (very good)
Tamam (Okay)
Bir daka (one minute)
Lutfen (please)
Bir tane (one piece of...)
Bir (one)
Iki (two)
U莽 (three)
D枚rt (four)
Bes (five)
Alti (six)
Yedi (seven)
Sekiz (eight)
Dokus (nine)
脟ok g眉zel (very beautiful)
Evet (yes)
Hayir (no)
脟ok sogak (very hot)


Also gestures are important, Turkish people colloquially say no by lifting their head and tutting, I confused this with yes in the beginning.
1 member reacted to this post
Great job Hsiegieda!

I would like to add some more:

Memnun oldum. (Nice to meet you)
iyi g眉nler (have a nice day!)
kolay gelsin (literally 'may it be easy')
hay谋rl谋 i艧ler (have a beneficial, good work)
buyurun (come in please, here you are)
bilmiyorum. (I dont know)
T眉rk莽e bilmiyorum (I dont speak Turkish 'literarally' --> I dont know Turkish)
Pazartesi (Monday)
Sal谋 (Tuesday)
脟ar艧amba (Wed)
Per艧embe (Thursday)
Cuma (Friday)
Cumartesi (Saturday)
Pazar (Sunday)
... var (there is/are聽 聽...)
... yok (there isnt/arent ...)
hesap l眉tfen (bill, 'check'聽 please)
bu ka莽 lira? (how much doest that cost?)
bu ne kadar? (how much is that?)
iyiyim (I'm fine)
hastay谋m (I'm sick)
Acil durum (emergency situation)
yard谋m edin l眉tfen (please help)
g眉le g眉le (bye bye buuut someone leaving should say "ho艧莽a kal" and the staying one telling "g眉le g眉le)
men眉 alabilir miyim? (can I take menu?)

Thats all for now!
G枚r眉艧眉r眉z! (See you!:):cheers:
2 members reacted to this post
Forget about living in Turkey without knowing Turkish. Not only most people do not speak English but also many a times they feel offended if they learn you live in Turkey but haven't learned its language. They are Very nationalist and they take pride in their language as a part of their identity and they expect you to learn it while living in their country.
Of course on the bright side, it's not very hard to learn Turkish, specially if you immerse yourself and you're willing to learn, you can make progress quite fast.
And about words, as others recommended good words/phrases I'm not going to repeat it. I just recommend you learn first Numbers and some simple phrases like hello/how are you/how much is this = merhaba/nasilsin/bu ne kadar. And you're good to go!

P.s. oh! I almost forgot. Turkish people are very very kind and they really love foreigners and you can really count on their help. So don't worry at all. Many times some of them literally went out of their ways to help me one way or another and I'm forever grateful to them.
1 member reacted to this post
Dear @Hsiegieda,

very informative post. it just needs a lil' bit of editing;
*Dokuz (nine)
*脟ok soguk (very cold), g is not pronounced here.
*脟ok sicak (very hot) 脟 is pronounced like Ch in Chalk, and C in sicak is pronounced like J like in japan.

Hsiegieda wrote:

Dear Priscilla,

Living in Turkey without knowing the language was an extremely hard experience for me.

Not many people speak English, and I was laughed at a lot by waiters/ taxi drivers for speaking basic Turkish with an accent or not knowing the correct words to use.

I highly recommend that expats learn a basic conversational level of Turkish before moving there.

Useful phrases include:

Merhaba (hello)
Nasilisin (how are you?)
Iyiyim tesekkuler (I'm fine, thank you)
脟ok iyi (very good)
Tamam (Okay)
Bir daka (one minute)
Lutfen (please)
Bir tane (one piece of...)
Bir (one)
Iki (two)
U莽 (three)
D枚rt (four)
Bes (five)
Alti (six)
Yedi (seven)
Sekiz (eight)
Dokus (nine)
脟ok g眉zel (very beautiful)
Evet (yes)
Hayir (no)
脟ok sogak (very hot)


Also gestures are important, Turkish people colloquially say no by lifting their head and tutting, I confused this with yes in the beginning.


lol . very good :D


Merhaba (hello)
Nas谋ls谋n (how are you?)
Iyiyim te艧ekk眉rler (I'm fine, thank you)
脟ok iyi (very good)
Tamam (Okay)
Bir dakika (one minute)
L眉tfen (please)
Bir tane (one piece of...)
Bir (one)
iki (two)
眉莽 (three)
D枚rt (four)
Be艧 (five)
Alt谋 (six)
Yedi (seven)
Sekiz (eight)
Dokuz (nine)
脟ok g眉zel (very beautiful)
Evet (yes)
Hay谋r (no)
脟ok so臒uk (very hot)

I fixed typos

Behnamk wrote:

Forget about living in Turkey without knowing Turkish. Not only most people do not speak English but also many a times they feel offended if they learn you live in Turkey but haven't learned its language. They are Very nationalist and they take pride in their language as a part of their identity and they expect you to learn it while living in their country.
Of course on the bright side, it's not very hard to learn Turkish, specially if you immerse yourself and you're willing to learn, you can make progress quite fast.
And about words, as others recommended good words/phrases I'm not going to repeat it. I just recommend you learn first Numbers and some simple phrases like hello/how are you/how much is this = merhaba/nasilsin/bu ne kadar. And you're good to go!

P.s. oh! I almost forgot. Turkish people are very very kind and they really love foreigners and you can really count on their help. So don't worry at all. Many times some of them literally went out of their ways to help me one way or another and I'm forever grateful to them.


what? I hope you are joking...

The actual reason why most people doesn't speak english has nothing to do with our pride in Turkishor nationalism. So its totally different from French people. I don't know where you get this impression but it's rather unfortunate observation.

it's because of education levels of society. Younger people tend to know better, people from 25+ mostly doesn't know because it wasn't necessary back then.

infoaboutTurkey wrote:
Behnamk wrote:

Forget about living in Turkey without knowing Turkish. Not only most people do not speak English but also many a times they feel offended if they learn you live in Turkey but haven't learned its language. They are Very nationalist and they take pride in their language as a part of their identity and they expect you to learn it while living in their country.
Of course on the bright side, it's not very hard to learn Turkish, specially if you immerse yourself and you're willing to learn, you can make progress quite fast.
And about words, as others recommended good words/phrases I'm not going to repeat it. I just recommend you learn first Numbers and some simple phrases like hello/how are you/how much is this = merhaba/nasilsin/bu ne kadar. And you're good to go!

P.s. oh! I almost forgot. Turkish people are very very kind and they really love foreigners and you can really count on their help. So don't worry at all. Many times some of them literally went out of their ways to help me one way or another and I'm forever grateful to them.


what? I hope you are joking...

The actual reason why most people doesn't speak english has nothing to do with our pride in Turkishor nationalism. So its totally different from French people. I don't know where you get this impression but it's rather unfortunate observation.

it's because of education levels of society. Younger people tend to know better, people from 25+ mostly doesn't know because it wasn't necessary back then.


Being a Turk you may not realize how your nationalism affects it and that's really ok. I lived in turkey around 4 years and mostly in everyday life I observed this to be true. Also, I don't deny element of education but the ironical point is even younger generation cannot speak English very good. What they are taught in school is just grammar and word memorization which has little to do with speaking english.

1 member reacted to this post
If you have stayed 4 years in Turkey and still didn't comprehend the notion behind why most Turkish people can't speak english and confuse it with a motive that comes from nationalism or being superior to other countries, you might have probably stayed more and observe throughly.
1 member reacted to this post