Monday, January 30, 2012
Wrapping It Up
We are now just a couple days away from our departure! We've said all our goodbyes in Missouri, and completely moved all our worldly goods to Kentucky, where they'll stay in my parents' basement! We've visited Justin's side of the family for a quick visit, and now we're putting the finishing touches on packing our bags for travel! Since anything we could want is available in Turkey, not to mention that we hear customs for international shipping is a major hassle, we're only taking what we can take with us on the airplane. That is resulting in some major decisions regarding what to take and what to leave behind! Things are looking good, though, and we are excited as the day draws nearer. We fly out from Lexington, Kentucky about noon on Thursday, and we should arrive in Ankara at 3:15pm on Friday local time (which is 8:15am EST). We'll keep you posted as much as we can! Thanks for support and prayers!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Packing, selling, and hauling
Blogging sparse here because we're still busy ridding our house of our belongings and packing up what will be stored with our families. Our church was kind enough to give us access to their guest house as we sell things like our refrigerator. We have five more days in Missouri before spending a week with family in Eastern Standard Time. We have plane tickets to depart for Turkey on February 2. Please keep us in your thoughts as we sell stuff, tie up tedious loose ends, and transition.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Moving to Ankara
Sorry for the blogging hiatus. I (Justin) took a quick trip to Ankara last week, being graciously hosted by friends of ours while I looked for an apartment. I have found a good setup in Çankaya, on the south side of town. It's a fully-furnished place which means it's ready the moment we get off the plane. The arrangement will be pretty informal with an indefinite time commitment, which is nice. So, we're still on track to leave for Ankara at the end of January. I'm really thankful that we've found something perfect for our immediate needs.
Not much development on the job front, but we're waiting on a few potential opportunities to develop. Now the next couple weeks we'll sell the rest of our stuff, pack up, and move out!
Not much development on the job front, but we're waiting on a few potential opportunities to develop. Now the next couple weeks we'll sell the rest of our stuff, pack up, and move out!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Turkish language learning tools
As we journey through Turkey we will chronicle what we're doing for language learning. I chronicled a few of my techniques here and here when we were in Moldova and I was working on my Russian. Since June, I've been working daily through some Turkish materials that I find really helpful. We're in a small U.S. town without frequent access to native speakers, so I have to be creative. I've recently stumbled across Aaron Myers' The Everyday Language Learner blog that has reminded me that it's important to share what we're learning to encourage others.
Here's my current lineup of tools:
1. The Foreign Service Institute Turkish Basic Course. These old materials were used by U.S. State Department personnel and are a goldmine. Two comprehensive textbooks (PDFs), dozens of hours of accompanying audio examples (MP3), and a Turkish graded reader (PDF) for additional literary challenge.
I read the FSI textbook on my iPad and iPod via the GoodReader app. This allows me to write notes, highlight, bookmark, etc. right onto the PDF file. I listen to the mp3 on my device as I go, so my tablet has become a critical language tool.
2. Busuu.com. Busuu is a free language learning site that features the ability to have your writing exercises graded by native speakers (I, in turn, grade others' English work) and to have interactive chat as well. The exercises are primarily good for building vocabulary. It is not a good teacher of grammar, it assumes you have something to help you understand. Premium access gives you the ability to download audio files, have speaking practice, and more, but it's too expensive for me to find worth it.
I find it invaluable to have my writing corrected and improved by native speakers. Busuu also has a couple related apps in the iTunes store.
3. Anki flashcards. Anki is a free, open-source flashcard program. I like Anki because it allows me to see a word in English and type the answer in Turkish. You can customize with graphics, audio, etc. and it syncs across various platforms including HTML5 (as a web app). It has a nice algorithm for determining the frequency of how often you need to see a word.
4. Turkish television and radio. WWiTV provides a list of plenty of Turkish channels that stream online. These can also be found using the moTV Free app for iOS. eCNBC plays movies and NBC sitcoms in English with Turkish subtitles. The nice thing is that I can pause every frame if I want to in order to record new phrases or think about the translation. I've always found soap operas to be great language tools since they use simple language, pause often for dramatic effect, and repeat ideas over and over. There are plenty on these channels.
Children's cartoons are also helpful and fun since I am familiar with some of the PBS counterparts that have been translated to Turkish, like Caillou. You can find many of these on YouTube, and I use keepvid.com to download them onto my computer and transfer them to my iOS devices.
Radyo is an app that contains hundreds of Turkish radio stations that stream live over the web. It also features a chat room while you listen, which is a great way to see how Turks interact in an SMS-style environment. My favorite radio stations are SlowTurk and Radyo SlowTime because, you guessed it, the music is slow and the words are fairly clear. Radyo allows you to record music and there are some I will listen to again and again to get the meaning. Popular videos are often uploaded to YouTube so I can keepvid them as well.
5. Other iOS Apps. Google Translate is handy via web browser or as an app along the way. But for the iPad I find the Sözlük Dictionary to be great as well as Zargan, both of which give examples of the word used in common phrases. The downside is you have to have an internet connection to access these. 3,000 Turkish verbs is good as a reference, and there are others, like Turkish Test, for more offline practice. Plenty of Turkish newspapers have apps, as do the English-language ones like Today's Zaman. I'm not reading Turkish newspapers much yet except for the occasional headline and to see what is of interest.
6. Kutsal Kitap. There are various websites and apps that allow us to access this book and compare text easily across languages. Joni worked to create our own handy version for iBooks, so it is also good offline practice. While this is "high Turkish" it's great to take something we read in English and learn its equivalent in Turkish. It's definitely a vocab-builder.
I greatly look forward to using language helpers in Turkey and getting back to using other resources like the Lexicarry. Oh, and the whole immersion thing. But for now, this is what I have to work with. There are other websites and resources out there but the above are the ones I find most efficient for my purposes. You can see that my mobile devices are now a crucial part of my language toolkit.
Here's my current lineup of tools:
1. The Foreign Service Institute Turkish Basic Course. These old materials were used by U.S. State Department personnel and are a goldmine. Two comprehensive textbooks (PDFs), dozens of hours of accompanying audio examples (MP3), and a Turkish graded reader (PDF) for additional literary challenge.
I read the FSI textbook on my iPad and iPod via the GoodReader app. This allows me to write notes, highlight, bookmark, etc. right onto the PDF file. I listen to the mp3 on my device as I go, so my tablet has become a critical language tool.
2. Busuu.com. Busuu is a free language learning site that features the ability to have your writing exercises graded by native speakers (I, in turn, grade others' English work) and to have interactive chat as well. The exercises are primarily good for building vocabulary. It is not a good teacher of grammar, it assumes you have something to help you understand. Premium access gives you the ability to download audio files, have speaking practice, and more, but it's too expensive for me to find worth it.
I find it invaluable to have my writing corrected and improved by native speakers. Busuu also has a couple related apps in the iTunes store.
3. Anki flashcards. Anki is a free, open-source flashcard program. I like Anki because it allows me to see a word in English and type the answer in Turkish. You can customize with graphics, audio, etc. and it syncs across various platforms including HTML5 (as a web app). It has a nice algorithm for determining the frequency of how often you need to see a word.
4. Turkish television and radio. WWiTV provides a list of plenty of Turkish channels that stream online. These can also be found using the moTV Free app for iOS. eCNBC plays movies and NBC sitcoms in English with Turkish subtitles. The nice thing is that I can pause every frame if I want to in order to record new phrases or think about the translation. I've always found soap operas to be great language tools since they use simple language, pause often for dramatic effect, and repeat ideas over and over. There are plenty on these channels.
Children's cartoons are also helpful and fun since I am familiar with some of the PBS counterparts that have been translated to Turkish, like Caillou. You can find many of these on YouTube, and I use keepvid.com to download them onto my computer and transfer them to my iOS devices.
Radyo is an app that contains hundreds of Turkish radio stations that stream live over the web. It also features a chat room while you listen, which is a great way to see how Turks interact in an SMS-style environment. My favorite radio stations are SlowTurk and Radyo SlowTime because, you guessed it, the music is slow and the words are fairly clear. Radyo allows you to record music and there are some I will listen to again and again to get the meaning. Popular videos are often uploaded to YouTube so I can keepvid them as well.
5. Other iOS Apps. Google Translate is handy via web browser or as an app along the way. But for the iPad I find the Sözlük Dictionary to be great as well as Zargan, both of which give examples of the word used in common phrases. The downside is you have to have an internet connection to access these. 3,000 Turkish verbs is good as a reference, and there are others, like Turkish Test, for more offline practice. Plenty of Turkish newspapers have apps, as do the English-language ones like Today's Zaman. I'm not reading Turkish newspapers much yet except for the occasional headline and to see what is of interest.
6. Kutsal Kitap. There are various websites and apps that allow us to access this book and compare text easily across languages. Joni worked to create our own handy version for iBooks, so it is also good offline practice. While this is "high Turkish" it's great to take something we read in English and learn its equivalent in Turkish. It's definitely a vocab-builder.
I greatly look forward to using language helpers in Turkey and getting back to using other resources like the Lexicarry. Oh, and the whole immersion thing. But for now, this is what I have to work with. There are other websites and resources out there but the above are the ones I find most efficient for my purposes. You can see that my mobile devices are now a crucial part of my language toolkit.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Making Progress
The past couple days we've made some huge progress toward our move! Some big deals this week:
The next month, besides Christmas/New Year travels and Justin's trip to Ankara for house-hunting, we'll be focusing on sorting and packing. It's a little overwhelming to go through all of our possessions and decide what to take with us, what to put in storage, and what to sell! But little by little, we'll get it done.
- Justin finished his job at the university and turned in his key.
- Justin sold his car.
- We turned in our notice to our landlord that we'll be moving out at the end of January.
The next month, besides Christmas/New Year travels and Justin's trip to Ankara for house-hunting, we'll be focusing on sorting and packing. It's a little overwhelming to go through all of our possessions and decide what to take with us, what to put in storage, and what to sell! But little by little, we'll get it done.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Our Journey
We are in the process of figuring out how to move our family to Ankara, Turkey! This site will be a place where we keep our friends and family updated on the process, and then also share about our life once we get there!
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