And a grammar with almost no exceptions worth the name. Turkish is not a difficult language. It is an unfamiliar one, and that is a different problem — the kind a teacher can actually solve.
One to one, online, from Istanbul. Lessons are in Turkish — see the first question below.
Turkish has 29 letters. Six are not in the English alphabet; three English letters are not in Turkish. Every letter is one sound, and it is the same sound every time.
Eight vowels, arranged by three yes-or-no questions: is the tongue forward or back, are the lips rounded or flat, is the mouth open or closed. Every Turkish vowel is one corner of that box.
Vowel harmony is the rule that a suffix moves to the corner its word is already standing in. Ev takes -de; okul takes -da. Same suffix, same job, following the vowel it lands behind.
They look unrelated and they are not. Each one is someone meeting an alphabet: a new one, an older one, or the one they can speak but never learned to write.
I am Sedef Buğday. Turkish is what I studied and what I read all day — a degree and then a master’s in it at Mimar Sinan, with a thesis on the syntax of Ali Şîr Nevâyî and a philological edition of a handbook of medicine.
I am certified to teach Turkish as a foreign language, I hold a teaching qualification, and I spent a year teaching Turkish reading and writing to foreign-national children aged six to twelve. I currently teach adult literacy at a public education centre in Istanbul.
That mix is the reason this site has three tracks rather than one. They are the three things I am actually qualified to do.
A sentence from a student will go here.
— · · ·A sentence from a student will go here.
— · · ·A sentence from a student will go here.
— · · ·Turkish. From the first lesson, for every track.
This is how teachers of a foreign language are trained, and it is faster than the alternative, but it is also an honest constraint: my English is workable rather than fluent. I use it for scheduling and for questions between lessons. If you are looking for Turkish grammar explained to you in fluent English, I am not the right teacher.
It depends on the track, the lesson length and how often we meet, so I quote rather than publish a price list.
Send the form and tell me what you are after. You get a real number back, not a sales call.
Istanbul, on Türkiye time (UTC+3). The Gulf is on my own clock, give or take an hour, and I keep evening slots that work across Europe.
If you are in the Americas or East Asia, say so in the form. I will tell you straight away whether I have a time that works, rather than after three emails.
Yes. Every track on this site is one to one.
If you want to learn with a partner or a sibling, ask — two people at the same level sometimes works well, and I will say if I think it will not.
Send the form at the bottom of this page. Tell me which track, roughly where you are starting from and what you are aiming at.
I answer within one working day with a quote and two or three possible times.
Tell me what you are after and roughly where you are starting from. I answer within one working day with a price and two or three possible times.