Language & Water

I was always taught and told that English is the hardest language to learn. Actually, English is the 3rd or 5th hardest language to learn (Chinese is 1st and Arabic is 2nd). What makes English difficult is that the letters in our alphabet can have multiple sounds. There are even more possible sounds when we combine consonants. Then of course there are silent letters in words, all making it difficult for English language learners. For people who English is their first language, we have a harder time learning languages that are not based on the Latin alphabet.

The good news is Turkish is based on the Latin alphabet. One of the things I really like about the Turkish language is once you learn how to pronounce a letter, it is ALWAYS pronounced the same way. Each letter has only one sound, there are no blends. Another challenge with English is the plethora of irregular verbs. Thankfully, Turkish does not have irregular verbs. There are very few exceptions to the rules in the Turkish. I can now conjugate in the past, present and future tenses. I am learning a lot from this class. The fact that I go everyday I think helps a lot. I still don't get a lot of things, but I'm learning. The English language has around 400,000 words compared with 40,000 in the Turkish language. What I would say in English in 10 words, a Turk would say in 5. They add endings to their words to convey prepositions, possessive, plural, and pronouns. A lot of the signs I've seen around Turkey make a lot more sense now. I still have two more weeks of class and I need to make an effort to keep practicing Turkish once regular school starts back. We do get a fair amount of homework. The time it takes depends on how many words I have to look up on each sheet. I have a whole new appreciation for my ESL students. I do find it entertaining that the country may change, but the games are the same. Today we played hangman in Turkish class and last week we played Scattergories (which I won!).

As for the water shortage....well it continues. Apparently a water pipe broke on Monday. So the city that was already short on water got a whole lot shorter. The response was to shut every one's water off for four days. Luckily the building I'm staying in has a reservoir, so we've had water every day. I found out this evening though that Beth, who is at our apartment in Cigdem, doesn't have water. The apartment in Cigdem has a reservoir too, but many buildings have turned off their reservoirs to conserve water for later down the road. The whole city will get water back on Friday night. They have promised four days of water for the whole city, then they will reevaluate returning to the two days on two days off system. It's been a very interesting experience. Have I mentioned that Turks have a different definition than Americans of how often you should bathe? Add that to not having any water and the heat and you have a lovely bus ride! :) Seriously other than not being able to use the bathroom when you are out and about, it's been going pretty well, it's just very inconvenient. I've been amazed, this is the most prepared I've every seen Turks for anything.