Customer Reviews

Colloquial Turkish (The Colloquial Series)

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Turkish people have laughed in astonishment at the phrases and words that I've used after learning them from this book. There are some mistakes in the text but these are easy to notice (mostly typos). What I like most is the the way the book concentrates on every day conversation. I love all the expressions of astonishment and especially the space-fillers used by Turks when they're thinking about what they're going to say next. I've not seen those described anywhere else! I thought the speakers on the tape were talking too quickly too soon but now I've seen some Turkish tv and understood a fair amount of what they were saying I've changed my mind.

All in all I'm glad I got this book and tape pack.

I purchased this book hoping to gain a better understanding of spoken, conversational Turkish, but was thwarted at every turn. The lessons are poorly structured; each starts with a box of phrases that are not defined or translated, and it is up to you to figure out what they mean. The lessons are arranged according to conversational topic (such as "Greetings" or "Inquiring about someone's age"), and gramatical concepts are interspersed throughout, which makes it difficult to look up how adjectives are treated, for example. The lessons should include a list of all new words/phrases and their definitions. Explanations of gramatical concepts aren't labeled as such and sometimes are confusing.

Maybe the problem is simply that the book is mislabelled -- it says it is for beginners or intermediate.

All I can say is, it is way too hard for beginners. Maybe it is good for intermediate, but I'm not in a position to know.

If you are looking for a good start for a beginner, 'Getting by in Turkish' is a really easy way to pick up a few words and phrases that you can use right away.