They've recently moved the schedule around at Kanal D, so I can no longer watch my two soaps - Asi and Yabancı Damat - at the normal time I've been watching them. Kanal D offers all Asi episodes online, so I can still watch that whenever I want, but Yabancı Damat seems to have been wiped from the site, so if I want to continue watching the show, I'll have to find other means.
Another show, "Gece Gündüz" (Night and Day), is now showing in the timeslot that Yabancı Damat used to play. I initially dismissed it. The first episode I saw prominently featured a character named "Sipsi", which was beyond over-the-top silly, but I've grown to like it. It's a standard good cop, bad cop show.
Speaking of cops shows, I'm also really getting into another show on Kanal D called "Arka Sokaklar" (Back Streets). The show initially ran in 2006. I'm liking it a lot!
And finally the last show I'm starting to watch is "Kuzey Güney" (North South). It's a fairly new soap on Kanal D that started broadcasting late last year.
I'm continuing to watch my normal news shows, Güne Merhaba and Günaydın, as well as Burada Laf Çok. There's certainly no shortage of video input for me, and it's all helping to increase my vocabulary.
Speaking of vocabulary, I've gone a couple lessons deeper into Yeni Hitit. I can't praise this course enough! While I'm not getting any new grammar (yet), I'm getting so much new vocabulary - all of it comprehensible. I run into a lot of words I don't know, but I rarely use the dictionary to figure out the meaning. There's so much included visually in the course, whether it's a photo or an illustration, that it's enough of a clue to figure out any unknown vocabulary. And that's what makes it stick for me. I wish I'd started in with this course sooner. It's that good.
Did you ever try the Foreign Service Institute's Turkish Basic Course that's available free online (two textbooks and a graded reader with audio and such)? I'm curious how it compares to Yeni Hitit. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHi JDTapp.
ReplyDeleteYes, I've used both volumes of FSI Turkish. FSI has some really good drills, but the overall content is pretty dry. The content itself is probably no more advanced than what you would find in Teach Yourself Turkish (a pretty complete course, in my opinion), but doesn't give you a huge amount of vocabulary - maybe 2000 or so words at most.
My goal with Yeni Hitit is to effectively double my current vocabulary, as well as get into more advanced grammar later in the course. I'll also say that the audio included in Yeni Hitit is so much better than FSI. Remember that FSI is a pretty old course - the audio suffers because of it.
I don't think you can compare the two. They serve different purposes, at least for me.
Interesting, thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteSorry, follow-up question: Is much of the FSI vocab outdated, or not fit well with what you're learning in the newer Yeni Hitit? (Beyond things like "telegraph"). The FSI is currently the backbone of my Turkish learning, which is why I'm curious. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteJDTapp,
ReplyDeleteSure there are a few words that may be considered "outdated", but you'll still have no trouble using them or being understood. I wouldn't worry about it, really. The grammar you're learning with FSI is solid. Vocabulary is easy to update when needed.
Good to know. Thanks for tagging your posts, I'm enjoying reading through them. I don't live there yet so don't have a language helper but you've answered a few of my grammar questions in your posts.
ReplyDeleteHave you considered picking up Azerbaijani or another Turkic subset?