Learn how to talk about yourself
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to TurkishClass101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 20 - Introducing Yourself in Turkish. Eric Here. |
| Elif: Merhaba. I'm Elif. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about someone's hometown and educational and professional history. The conversation takes place at Ahmet's home. |
| Elif: It's between Ahmet's grandma and Zeynep. |
| Eric: The speakers are strangers, so they will use formal Turkish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Ahmet'in babaannesi: Evladım nerelisin? |
| Zeynep: Eskişehirliyim. |
| Ahmet'in babaannesi: Ne güzel. Şimdi öğrenci şehri oldu diyorlar. |
| Zeynep: Evet, öyle oldu. |
| Ahmet'in babaannesi: Sen orada mı okudun? Meşhur bir üniversitesi var, adı dilimin ucunda. |
| Zeynep: Evet, Eskişehir Üniversitesi'nde okudum. |
| Ahmet'in babaannesi: Oh oh ne güzel. Maşallah. Bölüm ne? |
| Zeynep: Reklamcılık. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Ahmet'in babaannesi: Evladım nerelisin? |
| Zeynep: Eskişehirliyim. |
| Ahmet'in babaannesi: Ne güzel. Şimdi öğrenci şehri oldu diyorlar. |
| Zeynep: Evet, öyle oldu. |
| Ahmet'in babaannesi: Sen orada mı okudun? Meşhur bir üniversitesi var, adı dilimin ucunda. |
| Zeynep: Evet, Eskişehir Üniversitesi'nde okudum. |
| Ahmet'in babaannesi: Oh oh ne güzel. Maşallah. Bölüm ne? |
| Zeynep: Reklamcılık. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Ahmet's grandmother: Where are you from my dear? |
| Zeynep: I'm from Eskişehir. |
| Ahmet's grandmother: How nice. They say it has become a university town nowadays, right? |
| Zeynep: Yes, exactly. |
| Ahmet's grandmother: Did you study there? Eskişehir has a famous university. Its name is just on the tip of my tongue. |
| Zeynep: Yes, I attended Eskişehir University. |
| Ahmet's grandmother: Oh how nice. Wonderful! What major? |
| Zeynep: Advertising. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Elif, in the dialogue they were talking about a Turkish city. Is it famous? |
| Elif: Eskişehir, which is to the west of Ankara, is a mid-size Turkish city that has become famous for its recent development as a university town. |
| Eric: Are there many universities there? |
| Elif: The city houses two universities: Eskişehir Osmangazi University and Anadolu University. The latter is known for having the most students of all Turkish universities. |
| Eric: And what about the city itself? |
| Elif: Eskişehir means "old city" in Turkish and it is old indeed. Inhabited since 2000 BC, the city proper was founded by Phrygians around 1000 BC. |
| Eric: Throughout its history, special attention has been paid to this city because of its precious meerschaum stone, which is an easily carvable stone used for smoke pipe production. |
| Elif: To this day, the majority of the meerschaum used around the world comes from Eskişehir. |
| Eric: How can a tourist reach this city? |
| Elif: To visit Eskişehir, you can take a bus from Istanbul for four hours or from Ankara for about an hour. There are also scheduled flights but I recommend daytime bus travel for those who want to see the open plains of Anatolia. |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Elif: evladım [natural native speed] |
| Eric: my dear |
| Elif: evladım[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: evladım [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: şimdi [natural native speed] |
| Eric: now |
| Elif: şimdi[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: şimdi [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: meşhur [natural native speed] |
| Eric: famous |
| Elif: meşhur[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: meşhur [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: öğrenci [natural native speed] |
| Eric: student |
| Elif: öğrenci[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: öğrenci [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: üniversite [natural native speed] |
| Eric: university |
| Elif: üniversite[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: üniversite [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: şehir [natural native speed] |
| Eric: town, city |
| Elif: şehir[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: şehir [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: maşallah [natural native speed] |
| Eric: wonderful, praise be |
| Elif: maşallah[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: maşallah [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last... |
| Elif: reklamcılık [natural native speed] |
| Eric: advertising |
| Elif: reklamcılık[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: reklamcılık [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Elif: dilimin ucunda |
| Eric: meaning “on the tip of my tongue" |
| Elif: Dil is "tongue" and so dilimin is "of my tongue." Due to the vowel and consonant harmony rules, when uç meaning "tip" receives the -i suffix for the possessive construction, it becomes ucu, so you get dilimin ucu meaning "tip of my tongue." The “on” or “at” meaning is achieved by adding the -da suffix to ucu. The double vowel rule is what makes the extra consonant n appear. |
| Eric: When you know the name of something or someone yet cannot quite remember, you can use this expression. Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Elif: Sure. For example, you can say.. Şovun adı dilimin ucundaydı. |
| Eric: ..which means "The name of the show was on the tip of my tongue." |
| Elif: When you truly don't know, please just use Bilemedim, which means “I don’t know.” |
| Eric: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Elif: maşallah |
| Eric: meaning "wonderful” |
| Elif: This is an Arabic expression. The ma syllable should be elongated. It’s used to express admiration in a traditional manner and saying it up to three times indicates a greater level of admiration. |
| Eric: What is a situation when people use it? |
| Elif: Babies and children may receive this expression from nearby adults when they accomplish something like being able to walk or learning how to read. Remember that Maşallah isn't recommended for formal settings. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Elif: Sure. For example, you can say.. Maşallah, çok iyi bir okula girmişsin. |
| Eric: .. which means "Wonderful, you've entered a really good school." |
| Elif: Finally if you're shocked by something, even if that thing is wonderful, it’s better to use bismillah instead, which means "oh my god". |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to talk about someone's hometown and educational or professional history. |
| Elif: Turkish people will almost certainly ask about a person’s hometown when they are being introduced.The question can be asked as Nerelisin? or Nerelisiniz? |
| Eric: The first question asks "Where you are from?” or “where is your hometown?" The second question can be taken as the polite form of the first question, but it also can be taken as a question asking "where is your family from?" |
| Elif: Nere, meaning "where" with the -li suffix is used in this question word to ask the second singular person's hometown or country, as indicated by the -sin personalization suffix at the end. You'll definitely face this question no matter where you are from, since Turkish people love to make small talk about one's hometown, even when the other person is from Turkey. |
| Eric: No introduction in Turkey, formal or informal, is complete without this question. How can we answer these questions? |
| Elif: There are two ways. State your city or country followed by liyim, to mean “I’m from [somewhere]”. State your city or country followed by liyiz to mean “My family is from [somewhere]." |
| Eric: Let’s give some examples |
| Elif: İzmirliyim. |
| Eric: "I’m from İzmir." |
| Elif: Amerikalıyım. |
| Eric: "I’m from the US." |
| Elif: İstanbulluyuz. |
| Eric: "My family is from İstanbul." |
| Elif: For formal inquiries regarding one's country in places like passport control or a hospital, you'll be asked Hangi ülkeden geliyorsunuz? |
| Eric: which means "Which country do you come from?" |
| Elif: After that, you could also be asked about your educational background with these questions, Hangi üniversiteye gittin? |
| Eric: "Which university did you go to?" |
| Elif: Hangi okuldan mezunsun? |
| Eric: "Which school did you graduate from?" |
| Elif: In this case, you can simply answer with the name of the school you attended. |
| Eric: In the dialogue, the pattern was a little different. |
| Elif: Right, the question was Sen orada mı okudun? |
| Eric: meaning “Did you study there?” |
| Elif: and the answer was Evet, Eskişehir Üniversitesi'nde okudum. |
| Eric: meaning “Yes, I attended Eskişehir University.” This allows us to introduce the next topic, the simple past, which is used to talk about events that began and finished before now. |
| Elif: It’s often used with finished-time expressions like dün meaning "yesterday" and geçen yıl meaning "last year". |
| Eric: How is the simple past formed? |
| Elif: You make most simple past sentences by adding the -dı past tense suffix to the verb stem and attaching the personalization suffix to the end. The -dı suffix can change into -di/-du/-dü depending on the last vowel in the verb stem. Additionally, if the verb stem ends with f, s, t, k, ç, ş, or h then the suffix becomes -tı/-ti/-tu/ or -tü. |
| Eric: Let’s make some examples. What is the Turkish for “I ate”? |
| Elif: It’s yedim. Here you have the stem of the verb ye followed by the past tense suffix -di and the personalization suffix for the first singular person -m |
| Eric: Let’s see an example where the past tense suffix changes. |
| Elif: For example “we walked” is yürüdük. Here the verb stem is yürü-, which is followed by -dü, instead of -di since the last vowel of the stem is ü, and finally the personalization suffix for the first person plural, -k |
| Eric: Turkish also has another past tense form, right? |
| Elif: Right, the past tense with -mış. Also, this form follows the formation rules of the other one. |
| Eric: The past tense suffix is attached to the verb stem and finally the personalization suffix is attached. So what is the difference between the two forms? |
| Elif: The past tense with -mış adds the meaning "it seems like" to the sentence, implying that the speaker wasn’t there to witness the event herself or himself. Therefore, it’s sometimes called the "story past tense" in Turkish. |
| Eric: Let’s give an example. |
| Elif: for example yorulmuşsun, which is made by the stem yorul meaning “to get tired”, followed by muş instead of -miş, because u cannot receive any other version of the -dı and -mış suffixes aside from -du and -muş, and the personalization suffix for the second singular person -sun |
| Eric: All together it means “it seems like you got tired.” Ok let’s wrap up with a couple of sample sentences, with both the forms for the past tense. |
| Elif: Kahve içti. |
| Eric: "He drank coffee." |
| Elif: Kahve içmiş. |
| Eric: "It seems like he drank coffee." |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Elif: Hoşçakalın. |
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