Turkish comparatives and superlatives

It's amazing what you find just by searching for terms in your target language. I don't even remember now what it was that I was originally looking for, but I did my search in Turkish and one of the results that came back was on the web site Hürriyet.

The reason I don't remember what I was searching for is because once I found this web site, I ended up just digging and digging, excited at all the new things I can learn about Turkish without any instruction.

Just look at that home page, full... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

How to make friends in a new language

For the last three days, the Chicago Turkish Festival has been happening in the plaza downtown. Turkish people from all around the Chicago area come to celebrate their culture. There are information booths with travel information about Turkey, and tourism details from Turkish Airlines. Oh, and plenty of great food, too.

I saw this as a great opportunity while I am learning Turkish, so I've been going to the festival — in fact I am there now, as I write this. Sure, I use the opportunity... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Guest reading: Amigos Detectives

This week, we welcome back Paulino Brener for another guest reading. You may recall that he is a native of Argentina, and recently read to us from La Nacion.

Paulino's submission this week is a bit different from previous guest readings. He is very passionate and creative in teaching Spanish, and this is just one of the many innovative ideas he has come up with for that.

The reading is from Amigos Detectives, a book written by Pat Verano using simple vocabulary, for students of Spanish. All... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Best Language Blogs of 2011

I am proud to be taking part in the Best Language Learning Blogs 2011 Competition!

I need your votes.

Please take a moment to click over to the survey page and cast a vote for "The Yearlyglot". It will only take a moment, and after you've done it, you can click through all the links and find hundreds of other interesting blogs to add to your reader.

Thanks for your support!... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Set the tone

An interesting phenomenon that has often frustrated me as a language learner, and I'm certain is also frustrating to many of you, is how hard it often can be to get people to speak with you in the language you're learning.

Unskilled conversation isn't very fun
Let's say, for example, that you're learning Spanish. You've got a friend who is also a native Spanish-speaker, and you hoped to practice with that person. At first, your speaking skills are sure to be much less advanced than your friend's... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Bu Böyle

Today I'll be continuing my investigation of the Turkish language with a look at the song Bu Böyle by Sertab Erener. I found this song by clicking the related videos links along the side of a Turkish video on YouTube. Tools like that are a great way to find new things.

Okay, we'll start with the lyrics, which I found explained here. I cleaned up the translation slightly.

O zor günler solan güller
Eskidendi geçti
O zaman aşık olduğum
Rüzgarlar esti esti geçti

Geriye sadece yarım... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

How I used Yahoo! Answers to learn Russian

The concept of Yahoo! Answers is one of the best Google hacks ever created. You let people from all over ask questions, and let people from all over answer those questions, and while doing almost no work yourself, your site quickly becomes firmly entrenched in the first page of Google results for almost every topic. Brilliant.

When I was learning Russian, I had a lot of questions and I regularly found myself clicking links which eventually led me to Yahoo! Answers. You've probably had a similar... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Create urgency!

Until last month, all of my travels had been to places where I already spoke the language. But when I went to Poland last month, in spite of the fact that I had learned a lot of Polish in a very short amount of time, I was not fluent and there was a lot I didn't know. (There still is.)

Learning in the country
This was an interesting new experience for me, because for the first time, I was able to experience what it is like to learn a language while in the country where it is spoken. People... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Possession in Turkish

Remember when I said there was a lot you could learn from a social network? I wasn't kidding! I've already written two posts about how much Turkish I'm learning from Yonja, and that was without even logging in!

Today, we're going to change that. I'm going to look at what's inside, after you log in. And I'm going to start with the column of action links on the left.

We see a series of links on the left: mesajlarım, bildirimlerim, hediyelerim, ziyaretçilerim, arkadaşlarım, favorilerim, fotoğraflarım,... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Guest reading: Don Quixote de la Mancha

This week's guest reading comes to us from Clarence Olivier, a native Spanish speaker from Spain. Clarence is a linguist who speaks four languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian), and is currently learning German and Japanese at the same time, which he write about at his blog, The Fine Apps.

Clarence has chosen to read to us today from the infamous story Don Quixote de la Mancha, by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes.

Clarence reads from Don Quijote de la Mancha

Capítulo primero
Que... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Repetition repetition repetition repetition repetition

As most of you already know, I live in Chicago. With a Chicagoan in the White House, you may have figured out that basketball is a tradition here in Chicago. You might even remember a guy by the name of Michael Jordan being kind of good at it. When I was growing up, I loved to play basketball. Just like everyone else I knew, I liked to dream that I was Michael Jordan.

When the Bulls won six championships with Jordan, I was in my teens. Today, I'm 35 years old, and Chicago has a new MVP —... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Good Days Gone Bad

It has happened to us all.  You go out one day and you cannot even manage to get through a basic greeting at the supermarket.  What to do?  Break down and cry?  Give up?

The truth is that humans (and most everything in nature, in fact) are cyclical.  Our bodies operate on circadian rhythms, which means the fundamental chemical balance in our brains changes throughout the course of the day.  In the field of psychiatry it is accepted that mentally ill patients will have good days and bad... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Fake it 'til you make it

It's a fairly well-known saying, though honestly, I hate it. The idea of faking anything just doesn't sit well with me. However I really couldn't think of a more fitting title for the advice I want to share today.

This weekend I began testing out a new theory about learning. It's not extremely new, of course — I've used variations of this in the past, with every language I've learned — but this is the first time I made an attempt to learn from scratch using just this method.

What... continue reading at Fluent Every Year