Let’s be honest, us Yabangees know all too well that the online resources available for learning Turkish are far from enjoyable and rarely interactive. Like us, this was problem Justin faced. Unlike like us, he decided to take his background in online entrepreneurship and put it to use in Turkey where he bought a mic and started making podcasts.
And boy, are we’re sure glad he did. The result was the Turkish Tea Time podcasts and an accompanying interactive site designed to help foreigners tackle the tough grammar points that make Turkish just so darned difficult.
Each episode explains a grammar rule through a carefully constructed and reliably funny 8-line dialogue demonstrating its use; Justin and his partner Busra then gleefully break it down. With lessons like “People are Delicious,” which demonstrates how the past tense can be used for the present in a dialogue about cannibalism and “Only as a Friend,” in which the two “lead a revolution against beginner Turkish grammar books,” Turkish Tea Time is a much needed a breath of fresh air.
Yabangee sat down with Justin and Busra to find out how just how they’ve done the impossible: making Turkish grammar fun.
What inspired you to create Turkish Tea Time?
Justin: When I lived abroad in China, I used these interactive sites to learn the language. It was something I could engage with everyday, and it was inspiring to here this white guy with this thick accent, just like I have in Turkish, and he was trying. He was doing it. When I came here I wanted to learn Turkish but I really couldn’t find a whole lot online.
So you thought: Why don’t I fix this?
Justin: I originally thought this would be easy to do some podcasts and make some supplemental material, I thought, “it will be fun.” But as these things go it turned out to be a ton more work than you’d think. We made 5 lessons, through them up online and asked around: “what do you think of this?” We took a lot of that feedback and incorporated it into what we have today.
You and Busra have such a wonderful dynamic. How did you find her? And what do you each bring to the podcast?
Justin: I didn’t find her until after maybe 50 lessons. I was constantly searching for people then one day I went to Bogazici to visit an MIT alumn and she introduced me to Busra. She’s so good at it. Now it’s just her and me. We do everything.
She provides the very fundamental knowledge behind all these grammar points. It’s my job to pull it back up to casual bar talk. If we were at the bar, had a couple drinks and started talking Turkish grammar, that’s sort of the tone we go for.
Busra: I’m doing my MA in linguistics, so I always go for the harder points.
Justin: We’ll sit down to do a lesson and think it will take 15 minutes, then I’ll say, “Wait a second Busra, wait what about this?” and then we’ll argue about it for an hour. It usually ends with Busra saying, “Well, it’s an open problem in linguistics.” The best results always come when we write together.
How do you plan each podcast?
Justin: Say we’re doing one on present continuous. We do a good job making each other accountable. Like what’s it look like when you’re adding it to a verb that ends in a vowel? What’s the buffer letter? What’s the vowel harmony? What happens if it’s negative? We try to incorporate as many different cases as possible.
Busra: Turkish is like that. You have one word with 8 forms according to vowel harmony according to the root, that’s why we try to combine all the things in one dialogue. Then we sit down, talk about what points we should make and examples to give. Then we start naturally.
Justin: It’s not really scripted and we do that intentionally. I’ll come up with something silly, but I wont tell her what I’m going to ask.
Busra: He doesn’t tell me! And he starts, so I have to naturally answer.
Justin: Usually in the middle I’ll pause and say, “Wait a second Busra!”
Busra: He’ll say, “Wait! We didn’t talk about this! What’s this?” and I’m like, “Let me think about it. Actually in linguistics there’s no consensus about it.” Or, “You just have to memorize this form; nobody knows why.”
What do you think is difficult or redeeming about Turkish?
Justin: After doing 138 lessons we have a good overview of where the pain points are in Turkish and we repeat some of the exact same things in every episode. For example, “kedim var” (“I have a cat”), that construction’s very difficult for English speakers.
Busra: The sound system can be hard. If you cannot pronounce the vowels sometimes you do not have the courage to talk.
Justin: One redeeming quality is it’s incredibly regular. If you can get a handle on some of the basics, you don’t have to worry about exceptions.
Any advice for us Yabangees on learning Turkish?
Justin: The trendy movement in language learning is not to learn grammar, no rote memorization, speak as much as you can, don’t learn it from a book. It’s fantastic advice, I’m not putting it down, but you need to define the terms, especially when it comes to Turkish. It’s very hard to understand what the accusative suffix is if you don’t know what a direct object is. I think the people that like what we do would agree that our grammar heavy approach is incredibly beneficial. We try to hide the assumed pain of it. We try to infect it so that it’s actually very fun and interesting so that people will come with us.
