Learning

I just had an entire half-hour conversation in Turkish! Granted, my conversation partner was my instructor, and she knew what types of questions to ask, but still... I'm feeling pretty proud of my burgeoning Turkish abilities. To escape painful chalk board experiences in the morning, I have to study Turkish a lot in the evenings, but it's actually really fun to learn something entirely new. Although the inevitable mistakes are frustrating, the improvement is almost tangible. Considering my ability three weeks ago was non-existent, things are rapidly getting better and better.

We have two instructors. One who teaches in English and Turkish, and one who does not speak a word of English. This can be challenging. Instead of splitting our time between the two, today we were with Nedmiya Hanim (non-English speaker) for four hours. This took some perseverance, but we sang traditional folk songs, played children's games, and did so many drills I was afraid my brain would stop working, to successfully finish the morning.

Luckily, I have only had to learn a few key phrases in terms of answering the daily "what did you do yesterday?" questions. "I went to the beach. I went to the gym. I watched the sunset. I studied Turkish." Tamman.