25-year- experience as a private Turkish teacher

I HAVE BEEN TEACHİNG ONLINE AND (IN PERSON)

I am a native speaker of Turkish and was born in Istanbul. My name is Hatice.

I have been teaching Turkish to foreigners and I have taught hundreds of students from all ages and professions for 25 years. I am a professional English teacher but I like teaching Turkish more as it is my mother tongue and it is a great pleasure for me to share its secrets and beauty.

While teaching I also love giving some useful information about the culture, people, cuisine, films and literature in Turkey to help you get connected to Turkish culture. I prepare written and verbal dialogues in the areas the student is interested in.

I am from Istanbul but I have traveled to almost all the cities, mountains, rivers and lakes in Turkey. I am a person who likes less traveled roads and back streets. Traveling around the world and reading on the areas of spirituality, philosophy, psychology, and literature are my number one hobbies. I have lived and worked in London, Toronto, and S. Korea. Living as an expat and learning several languages have helped me having sympathy with my students. Motivation, feeling relaxed and setting realistic targets, in the beginning, are usually the first thing to do.

I teach Turkish that is tailored for each student. Each student is unique for me and I know that every student has her/his own way of learning.

If you are a beginner I give a short lecture about the history of Turkish and its characteristics and help you find your way in this very logical, consistent and elegant language.

You understand that Turkish is different but that does not necessarily mean difficulty.

From the first lesson, you start speaking Turkish and find yourself in a dialogue.

I have been teaching Turkish for foreigners for more than 20 years now. I also taught English at the university in Istanbul. I have studied with hundreds of students.

As for my formal education, I studied Economics, International Relations, Western Philosophy, and American language and literature at the university (MA and BA). And after 40 years, I learned classical Arabic and Persian and started to study Islamic spirituality at the doctorate level. I taught English at the Prep. school at Istanbul Technical University and Yeditepe University and am retired. Ever since I could remember I have been a teacher. Now I only teach Turkish privately and translate classical novels from English to Turkish. I translated 12 books from English to Turkish.

I use several books using a grammar-based approach integrated with communicative methods to boost the development of all language skills. But we always focus on TALK, TALK, TALK. As a language learner for many years, I know one can learn, improve and take pleasure in a foreign language only by talking and communicating. It is essential to get direct pleasure from what you have learned. My aim is to motivate and inspire you to speak Turkish ignoring minor mistakes and without thinking grammar.

Each student is unique to me. I like to design the lesson according to student's way of learning and purpose of learning.