{"id":3234,"date":"2023-05-31T14:51:31","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T14:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.annika-zang.com\/?p=3234"},"modified":"2024-02-26T10:50:40","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T10:50:40","slug":"5-reasons-to-learn-turkish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.annika-zang.com\/en\/5-reasons-to-learn-turkish\/","title":{"rendered":"Underrated Languages: 5 Reasons to Learn Turkish"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Underrated Languages: 5 Reasons To Learn Turkish<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Summary: There are many great reasons to learn Turkish: First, it’s a completely own language family that is not related to any Indo-European or Semitic language. Therefore, learning Turkish is like solving a puzzle, making it a great training for your brain. It’s also a great language if you’re into watching series, as the Turkish TV industry has been on the rise for quite some time now. Turkish is a very useful language because not many Turks speak English and due to its presence in Germany and in the Balkans.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Which language did you want to learn when you were younger?<\/strong><\/p>

When I was at school, I was thrilled about French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese or Portuguese. But never in a thousand years had I thought that I’d ever learn Serbian or Turkish.<\/p>

And I think there’s a reason for it.<\/p>

A couple of years ago, I read the book “Speaking and Being” by K\u00fcbra G\u00fcm\u00fc\u015fay. There were some passages about bilingualism and language learning that really stayed with me:<\/p>

If you think about bilingualism, which languages come to your mind? German and French? German and Chinese? <\/em>Probably languages that look good in your curriculum, in the world of economy, in business life. Languages with a privilege.<\/em><\/p>

Did you also think about German and Turkish?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>

When the British press discovered that Princess Charlotte spoke Spanish with her nanny, the Mirror wrote: “Princess Charlotte can already speak two languages – at age TWO.”<\/em><\/p>

Many Brits who were also raised bilingually, but not with Spanish or French in addition to English, but with Urdu, Hindi or Polish, asked themselves if the newspaper would be equally excited about their talent.<\/em><\/p>

Unfortunately, in Germany, the dominant conception is still this: You don’t learn languages like Turkish. You unlearn them.<\/p>

Well, I’m here to proof you wrong! After I’ve written an article about why I think Serbian is the most underrated European language, which you can access here<\/b><\/a>, I’d now like to talk about 5 great reasons why learning Turkish was one of the best decisions I’ve made<\/b> in language learning! Let’s dive in!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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1. Do Something Completely Different<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Turkish is neither related to Indo-European languages such as English, French or Russian, nor to Semitic languages like Arabic. Instead, it’s part of the so-called Turkic languages, which include Turkish, Azeri, some Central Asian languages such as Uzbek and Kazakh as well as some Siberian languages.<\/p>

But there’s an even more interesting connection:\u00a0

The link between Turkish, Japanese and Korean.
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There is a hypothetical language group called “Altaic languages<\/strong>“. It includes Turkic languages (e. g. Turkish, Uzbek, Kazakh etc.), Mongolic languages and Tungusic languages (spoken in Siberia).

But interestingly, some theories also include Japanese and Korean! Although this hypothesis is very controversial and has even been disproved by a number of linguists, it’s still a topic of ongoing research.

But ne thing is clear: Japanese, Korean and Turkish share a lot of similarities that set them apart from other languages:<\/p>