The Mysterious Turkish SC

[MysteryLearner]

I noticed you had a couple of Celil Oker books on your list. I found Ciplak Ceset to be a fairly easy read. Not much more difficult than Agatha Christie. And it was fun to read a mystery that was set in Istanbul.

That's great news, then! He seems to be a pretty reputable mystery author, so I wanted to try out some of his books and, if I like them, I will read the rest of his collection.

And yes, the length of his stories also seems to be pretty digestible, exactly to my liking!

If you don't mind, what other books have you read that you have also found to be relatively not
that complex?

[mothercondor]

That's great news, then! He seems to be a pretty reputable mystery author, so I wanted to try out some of his books and, if I like them, I will read the rest of his collection.

And yes, the length of his stories also seems to be pretty digestible, exactly to my liking!

If you don't mind, what other books have you read that you have also found to be relatively not
that complex?

The second, Kramponlu Ceset, was okay as well, but not as interesting or easy as the first. Other than that, the only native Turkish author I've read is Aziz Nesin. He has a novel called "Şimdiki Çocuklar Harika" that was quite easy and sweet. It's about two children who write letters back and forth about their family and school experiences. If you don't like books written for children, I've heard that his adult novels are good and simply written as well.

[MysteryLearner]

The second, Kramponlu Ceset, was okay as well, but not as interesting or easy as the first. Other than that, the only native Turkish author I've read is Aziz Nesin. He has a novel called "Şimdiki Çocuklar Harika" that was quite easy and sweet. It's about two children who write letters back and forth about their family and school experiences. If you don't like books written for children, I've heard that his adult novels are good and simply written as well.

Good to know, then! I'll check out Aziz Nesin's books. Thanks for the recommendation.

[MysteryLearner]

WEEK 3

Pages read: 13 pgs
Minutes watched: 14 min

READING

So....only 13 pages. Granted, I'm busy with exams until halfway through June, but...the main factor was the book I'd started reading.... 11/22/63. 800+ pages..

I literally couldn't motivate myself to read anymore as that many number of pages seemed too daunting to take on. I should probably put it in the back burner for now and continue reading Agatha Christie's books.

WATCHING

I have finally watched something. Suddenly, I feel like watching content may not be so bad after all...provided I actually sit down and do it.

To be frank, most of my lack of progress hinges on my laziness.The good news is, I'll be on holiday soon, so that would mean I have no more excuses to spew regarding immersion.

Well, well, well....It was a pretty uneventful week. I'll try to focus mainly on watching now and get to know the world in a different language. Good luck, future me o7.

[MysteryLearner]

WEEK 4

Pages read: 0
Minutes watched: 109

READING
I've decided to put off reading for some time until I'm done with my finals since...well, I need to study.

WATCHING
I...actually watched some videos? I'm kinda surprised myself as I could never just sit down and get to watching anything in Turkish, so I'm proud of myself. But...Although I'd planned to start watching dramas, they just seem like an unsurmountable mountain.

No matter how little, progress is progress. Looking back at my level even just a couple of months back, I could see that I've improved leaps and bounds.

Anyway, the moment I start my summer break, I'll actually immerse in Turkish a lot. Hopefully I also overcome my procrastination and my hesitation to watch content that I don't a 100% understand.

Thanks for listening to my TED-talk.

[MysteryLearner]

WEEK 5

Pages read: 0
Minutes watched: 9

COMMENTS
Well...finals have started . As such, I won't be able to immerse much, but I'll try to read during my commute...unless I have revision to do.

Hopefully, I'll be done in around 10 days and gain a semblance of freedom .

Anyway..., see you next week, where hopefully I'll have done something productive .

PS: I seem to be hoping a lot .

[MysteryLearner]

WEEK 6

Pages read: 21
Minutes watched: 0

READING

So... I've started Mavi Trenin Esrarı by Agatha Christie. I think that since I'm pretty used to reading her books, I should, for now, continue with them. Also, I love murder-mysteries and I can't bring myself to read in any other genre, currently.

WATCHING

Ok, I've done 0 watching this week, but I have developed a plan for my holiday (which starts in 2 days ). After reading the rules of the SC for the nth time, I saw that the watching section doesn't necessarily entail listening to TL audio. In other words, can't I hypothetically watch anime or other foreign dramas just with Turkish subtitles?

To be honest, I'm not sure if that even counts as watching something, moreso reading. (I don't know if I can get into watching Turkish dramas, those episodes lengths drive me crazy .) Of course, I'll watch youtube videos of all topics in Turkish and even some cartoons, who knows.

Well, I suppose when the holiday officially starts, I'll post my goals, plans and whatnot.

Here's to future progress.

[MysteryLearner]

WEEK 7

Pages read: 10
Minutes watched: 0

COMMENTS

I haven't done much this week as I finally got the chance to wind down after my hectic finals. Now it's time to get serious.

My plan for the holiday will be the following:


1. At least 10-20 pages read per day. (Hopefully I read more than that but knowing myself... , better keep a manageable amount)

2. Watch at least 30 min of content per day. (Pretty straightforward, good thing that I found some Turkish dubbed anime and stories on Youtube, so I'll probably mainly watch that)

That's pretty much what I want to do on a day-to-day basis.

I also want to keep consistent with some other stuff:

1. Anki. (Okay...to be honest, nowadays I'm just reviewing my cards and not making nor studying new ones, so...perhaps I should change that?)

2. Analyzing song lyrics. (Pretty self-explanatory. If I find a catchy song, I write the lyrics down in my language notebook and memorize it. I also search up any new vocab if there are)

Hopefully by the end of my holiday I'll have leveled up.

[MysteryLearner]

WEEK 8

Pages read: 3
Minutes watched: 75

READING

...3 pages. Quite close to my at least 70 pages per week goals . But in all seriousness, I had 0 desire to read this week in Turkish, mainly for 2 reasons. The 1st is that I found tons of spelling mistakes in the book that I was reading (some letters were merged together, e.g ın became m) and obviously I'd rather read something more...well, readable. Second is that I spend 100% of my time reading in English because... drum roll.... everything is in English. I like reading webnovels and whatnot and they are NEVER translated into Turkish .

I mean... I could switch out my manga reading from English to Turkish. Only downside is that, depending on the manga, few chapters are translated.

If anyone knows a good website to read webnovels, please hit me up.

Anyway, seeing that my very lovely book has mistakes, I think it's best to set it aside. I'll probably read (and hopefully complete) Celil Oker's Çıplak Ceset. It's less than 150 pages so...not that daunting.


WATCHING

I started watching a Minecraft survival let's play by a youtuber named Luser. His videos are actually pretty high quality and his voice is somewhat clear, so I feel like it's not a strain to watch his videos and be entertained.

But other than that, most of what I watch on Youtube is documentary-style videos which, admittedly, aren't exactly the MOST entertaining.
I actually want to search for some animated shows that are originally in Turkish (preferably not for little kids) that have a good plot AND are interesting.... I need to conduct some research for that then.

Well, well, well....super uneventful week, but I'm getting more and more comfortable with the language.

[MysteryLearner]

WEEK 9

Pages read: 67
Minutes watched: 58

READING

So... I reached the half-way point of the book I'm reading . The story has also started to pick up, so at least I won't be bored and put off reading. I should hopefully be done by next week, which led me to think about the next book I want to read. Do I continue with the same author's series or do I read something unrelated? I'll open that can of worms when I get to it .

WATCHING

Not much time dedicated this week unfortunately. I watched some minecraft videos and that's pretty much it. On another note, I found what looks to be an interesting animated show called Cille on the TRT Çocuk channel (I think it's a popular show..? Not sure actually), so I'll watch the first episode tomorrow and see if it's worth watching. I think I should also do some research and find more content that I actually enjoy watching .

Let's see what this week has for us.