Let's talk about TOMER.

Hello fellow expats!

TOMER is THEE language school throughout Turkey where you go to not only learn Turkish but other languages as well.  Its the oldest program and most distributed as nearly every language school uses TOMER's books.

I want to hear some experiences from you who have gone to TOMER, or what your experiences were learning Turkish here in Turkey.  Mine is, not so happy..

My Story:

1st Time at Tomer: 3 years ago as soon as I arrived I had enrolled in TOMER here in Ankara, Turkey, seeing that it was a logical thing to do.  My teachers were, different for me...they wore really short skirts in winter, tattoos, things that you actually don't see often in America but nonetheless I was overly respectful despite feeling weirded out.  After I finished my exam to move from A1 to A2, they failed me.  I actually passed my exams, homework and everything but my teacher personally wanted to hold me back another month because she felt I "wasn't ready."  Which led my then fiance to argue and after winning that argument I got into A2.

2nd month:  All was going well at the A2 level, a bit harder but nothing crazy.  My teacher seemed nice but made little snide remarks to me, asking if my fiance was doing my homework for me.  My classmates asked what her problem was, and I had no idea.  3 weeks later with just 1 week left to go my teacher informed me I never enrolled in the course.  When I showed her my paperwork she explained its not her problem and to go to the office.  My whole class protested saying really "what the hell..."  Even though I could verify not only did I have proof of payment, a student ID card and signed paperwork they still refused and told me I would have to repeat A2 again

So I left.

2nd Time at Tomer: 2 years later, my Turkish was better but a bit rough so I thought lets try this again, but a different school...Hacettepe University has a Tomer program.  I started again at A2, my teachers were clearly on the opposite political side than me but who cares!  I was kind, made cookies for them and tried to make peace.  Some lessons I politely left due to religious conflicts other than that it was going well, until the teacher told me I probably won't pass...which started to kill my confidence.  Yet the final day was when we had a lesson about suicide.  Which...was odd because I just read two stories about suicide previously last week.  One of the example questions we had to use is "I want to kill myself" in Turkish.  I immediately walked out and never looked back.

Conclusion:
I had a rough time at school because I am an American hijabi girl, and all my teachers were very strict secularists and even though I had absolutely no clue about Turkish politics I was judged just because of my clothing.  Also the whole lesson program is really bizarre, almost masonic in nature.  The people I know who had an easy time at TOMER weren't Muslim, and its quite odd.  I don't recommend the school to anyone particularly if they are Muslim.