Customer Reviews

Turkish, Conversational: Learn to Speak and Understand Turkish with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Turkish has been a pretty glaring hole in the Pimsleur catalog for some time now. It always seemed a bit strange that a company that takes the trouble to make programs for Irish, Ojibwe and Lithuanian would overlook a language with over 60 million speakers in such an important part of the world. Further, Turkey does everything it can to reach out to the West, economically, culturally and politically.

But after studying Turkish on my own for a while, I came to see why it may have gotten pushed to the back-burner. It is not a terribly difficult language to learn, but it is quite different in its structure to languages that have previously been produced by Pimsleur. Like Hungarian and Finnish - other popular languages that don't have Pimsleur courses - Turkish is an agglutanized language, which simply means that sentence structures are formed in large part by building on the base word. For example, they don't use prepositions as we do in English, they merely add a suffix on the word. "Sut" means "milk", "sutlu" means "with milk." School is "okul" - from school is "okuldan." And so forth.

While this concept alone doesn't make Turkish improbable for the Pimsleur format, bear in mind that words can become quite complicated when you begin adding attachments for possessive cases, plurals, location, tense, etc. It is not uncommon for words to eventually grow into the size of small sentences. And note negation; "I understand" is "biliyorum" but "I don't understand" is "bilMIyorum." So proper listening requires you to catch agglutinzed portions of the word in the middle of the sentence, otherwise the meaning is completely the opposite of what is understood.

Ok, with that out of the way it must be said that Pimsleur did a superb job of comporting Turkish into the script format that has remained pretty consistent through the various languages. Unlike Spanish or Italian, the pace is a little slower to make sure you "get" what is being accomplished as the vocabulary is built up and key concepts are explained. But the pace does keep up, which I found to be very satisfying. One of the great assets of Pimsleur (as opposed to say, the "Rocket" audio programs) is the lack of pointless chit-chat in English, and the steady pace to keep you focused on the target language. The Turkish script not only navigated the tricky points of Turkish quite well, but also happened to give among the most clear and concise introductions into the points of grammar as they came.

Again the voices are good, the speech is clear, and the vocabulary is useful. This one is a winner. Turkish is a great language, and very easy to speak with regards to pronounciation (say, compared to Arabic, Chinese or Russian). A month invested in this program would be all you would need to have a fantastic time in Turkey. Though I have not yet visited, my Turkish friends say if you know a little of the language, the hospitality is overwhelming and you will never be lacking for an invitation for dinner. I imagine with this program under your belt you'd eat like a king in Turkey!

I've wanted to learn Turkish for a long time now. My wife is Turkish, and I can't communicate with her family (yes, I know, to some that would be a problem not worth fixing).

This is an excellent audio course, and it has no fluff in it whatsoever. You start playing the CD, and GO! I use it during my 1 hour commute each way in the car. As others have said, I sometimes need to rewind because I can't always think as fast as they want me to, but I transferred it to my mp3 player, and it's easy to go back a few seconds and try it again.

I've tried Rosetta stone, but basically it just sat there because I had to dedicate the time to sit in front of a computer and do it. For me, this is much better.

Be forewarned, however, that you need to repeat things out loud constantly, and if you are not in a private place, it's not going to work out.

In the very first lesson, they start by saying, "Listen to this conversation in Turkish." Only 30 minutes later, you listen to the exact same conversation and you understand it!

5 stars.

I am supposed to be going to Turkey to teach there for a year, so a few months ago I bought this program to start learning Turkish. I chose Pimsleur over Rosetta Stone for a few reasons: 1. It's much cheaper. 2. I can listen to it in the car while driving around instead of having to find time to sit in front of the computer. 3. Pimsleur teaches useful phrases whereas Rosetta Stone really does not in its whole language approach.

Overall I am pleased with Pimsleur. There are sixteen 30-minute lessons. I find I need to listen to a lesson at least three times before moving on. There is plenty of review though; each new lesson also reviews old material. They do explain some of the grammar but do not overwhelm you with it. It seems to me that some lessons introduce more new material than others. For example, I got through lesson ten rather quickly, as there was not much new, but I am now on lesson eleven which seems to introduce quite a bit of new material.

One thing I don't like about the audio program is not knowing how to read and write what I am learning to say. It is a good idea to purchase a Turkish grammar book and study that to supplement Pimsleur. Unfortunately there is no text or phrasebook included with Pimsleur, just the CDs in their own little case. I also bought "Teach Yourself Turkish" and although it is good, I just haven't devoted the time to it that I should.

As an experienced language learner (I speak French and some Spanish) and language teacher, I find Pimsleur great for an audio-lingual program. It helps teach proper pronunciation and intonation whereas simply studying a grammar book would not. However, I think it is best to purchase both Pimsleur and a book and devote time to both. The most effective language learning and teaching should involve not only listening and speaking, but also reading and writing.

I admit that I was skeptical about whether or not I would truly be able to absorb and learn to speak and understand Turkish with 30 minutes a day for 16 days but -- Wow! I have had this product for 4 days and I'm not only impressing myself but the native Turks that I work with. At the beginning of the first 2 lessons, I was a little overwhelmed because I didn't think I was retaining any of it and I was struggling to recall the words. I'm not sure how but, at some point, it became almost second nature and I relaxed and the words came out. It helps that I have native Turks to converse with and I get extra practice.

I don't really see any negatives in this program except the price of the full set. I'm not sure why it is so much more but, since I'm hooked and want to know more, I'm considering buying it anyway. I guess that explains the price! I've tried to learn Spanish and French before with traditional methods and I can't speak either of them. I think the biggest thing that I noticed is my ability to understand the native speakers. They certainly do not speak it as perfectly as the people on the CDs and there are some slight variations in pronunciation but I still understand it.

I'm amazed that something actually was exactly as advertized.

I'm convinced that with this teaching style, any one can learn any launguage. Having said that, I find myself needing to SEE some of the words. It would be nice to have a small vocabulary guide included with the software. I went to the library and picked up several Turkish language books so that I can visualize what I'm saying. Overall, this product is very good and I'd recommend it to anyone who needs to learn basic Turkish conversation.

It's good because it keeps on repeating itself- can be easily used in an MP3 player in the train. The course is built logically, and is easy to follow (assuming you listen to each lesson a few times). However, it is unfortunate that there is no book to accompany the CD-Rom, as I would like sometimes to see what I'm hearing.

This all-audio course introduces the Turkish language in 16 half-hour sessions. Lessons review and build upon material from preceding ones.

Pronunciation which will be awkward for native English speakers is carefully sounded out, and grammar rules are clearly explained as they are introduced.

In contrast, I tried another popular Turkish language set (book+CD), but found it much more confusing. At 40 years old, I wondered if I were "too old" to learn another language, but this course has got me started.

Try the first lesson for free at Pimsleur Direct's Web site:

http://www.pimsleurdirect.com/languages/turkish-language-courses


Update after finishing through lesson 12 (of 16) and visiting Turkey for a week:

I am very happy with my (admittedly casual) proficiency with Turkish. I was able to make myself understood and native speakers complimented my Turkish.

Having studied track 10 (of 16), I've studied Turkish for a month, and my Turkish language skills--albeit limited--have already impressed a few native Turkish speakers. I took another reviewer's advice to purchase Pimsleur as my first Turkish language learning tool. Basically, I listen to these tapes whenever possible: in the car, at home on my computer, and outside on my mp3 player. After a week of listening to the tapes (around lesson 3), I could catch single words, such as konusmuyor ("I don't speak/say"), when native-speaking friends were speaking to each other. These CD's were well worth the investment, as I can communicate basic ideas in Turkish, e.g. "let's eat at the restaurant" and "would you like to drink coffee or tea?". After I finish this series, I will pick up "Teach Yourself Turkish" to learn basic reading and writing.

I recorded this into iTunes and listen to it on my iPod. It's an excellent learning tool! My only wish is that there was a booklet with the phrases written in it so that I can tell if they're saying r or v and whatnot. Still, with a little effort, I can find out how to spell the words.

I've used several audio and/or visual methods to learn basic expressions in a dozen or so languages that I need for travel associated with my work, among them Pimsleur. The advantage for Pimsleur Turkish is its repetition of basic words and phrases, the clear enunciation of the speakers, and the high quality of the recording. The student can get a good sense of the cadence and inflection of the language, and some sense of verb forms and insertion of the particles used to indicate questions in Turkish. However, the Primsleur method, including the Turkish lessons under discussion, has two significant shortcomings. The absence of any written material leaves the listener with questions as to spelling and pronunciation, ignorance of the written language, and lack of a review sheet accessible on a train or plane. The other failing is the very limited vocabulary and the focus of Primsleur on situations unlikely for the typical traveler ('Shall we drink at your place?'). I agree with other comments that this method should be supplemented with another audio method having a written booklet, or other written material. I used the Berlitz Turkish in 60 Minutes as an additional source, and found most of my conversational vocabulary came from it rather than Primsleur. The final point I would make is the length of this intro course, 16 lessons, and the "nutrient density" that comes from it. One might be surprised to see how little is actually covered, and perhaps that's a reason written material is not included. However, to reiterate, the opportunity to hear cadence and inflection are good points.