Wanna know about the standard of living in turkey

am a nigerian planning to move to turkey by MAY2014 but i dnt know the style of living there, some said there is racist and some said there is language barrier....please i want to know more because am thinking of changing my mind and go to another country...what can i do?

I can only speak for Istanbul...

I wouldn't say Turkish people are particularly racist, they may stare at you but that's purely because there a not many African people here. I first visited Turkey over 5 years ago and there were not many African people here but over the last few years the number has increased a lot.

Yes there is obviously a language barrier, Turkish people speak Turkish not English. If you live in a tourist area you might be ok but you need to speak at least a small amount of Turkish. I know a women from Cameroon, she's been here over a year and speaks zero Turkish. To put a long story short she struggles with everything she has to do and my sister in law (who's Turkish) helps her do most things. Most Turkish people are welcoming, if you can show you're attempting to speak Turkish they will be more inclined to help you.

Can't really compare Nigeria to Turkey as I have never been Nigeria, sorry.

thanks for the reply, am planning to move to istanbul by May

good luck

hello guys,
i'm living in morocco and i'm engaged with a turkish guy we'll get married soon and then i'll  move to turkey and i'm abit confused  and afraid to dont fusion with people especialy i don't speak turkish and also feeling homesickness..
may somebody help me with some information like how turkey is and people there.. is it easy to fusion with people .. ?? how is life..?

I hate my life because of the language barrier  :sosad:
The other problem no time to take a course or 101 classes
"English is a bless"
I have nothing againist Turkish language "don't get me wrong" but doctors, IT  and engineers MUST speak english
otherwise they not up2date with the world..
well that's not what you were asking about but today I am annoyed because of this  :dumbom: 
anyway Turkish people not racist, this is Turkey not ... the other country :D you know what I mean  :cool:

cheers all...

Lavoz :) Turkish people that deal with foreigners for business or services speak English and their local language Turkish. You can't expect your local shop keeper to speak English because you can't speak Turkish. He's probably never left Turkey in his whole life and this is his country.

Turkish isn't hard once you understand the grammar, I can help you if you're struggling.

I think if you come to live in a foreign country and you're not willing to change or adapt to find ways to fit in with the culture of the country then you're going to struggle. Every country is different, you can't expect the country to change for you, therefore you need to change for the country.

The grammar and syntax is where the learning curve really bends, how does one overcome this obstacle??

I am afraid like learning most things in life it's practice and getting used to it. Overtime you wont even think about it, you will just do it. If you are new to Turkish grammar the best place to start is to just take one verb and say it in all the different tenses. You may not understand first time but it will give you an idea of what is going on.

All Turkish verbs in their basic forms end with 'mak' or 'mek', I will show you a few common ones now:

Bilmek - to know
Almak - to take
Vermek - to give
Bakmak - to look

Why are some 'mak' and others 'mek'? it depends on the last vowel in the word (This is very important for Turkish and what the grammar is based around) don't worry about this yet, that's for a future lesson....

Lets do a simple grammar changes using one verb, 'Almak' to take. When you are only using 1 verb you chop the 'mak' or 'mek' off so you are left with 'al......'

al - take

aldım - I took          aldın - you took          aldı - he/she took

Alıyordum - I was taking          Alıyordun - You was taking          Alıyordu - he/she was taking

Alıyorum - I am taking          Alıyorsun - you are taking          Alıyor - he/she is taking

alacağım - I will take          alacaksın - you will take          alacak - he/she will take

There are rules as to why I am using 'I' and not 'İ' and 'A' not 'E' but again don't worry about that yet. I just wanted to show you how basic Turkish grammar works.

It seems confusing because in English it's always took, taking, will take, only the person changes. He took, I took, you took.

It's just practice and I know its hard, I had been speaking English for over 20 years before I started learning Turkish but if I can do it there is no reason you can't.

MRS.WALL?S wrote:

If you are an open-minded and liberal person you will have a hard time here
besides language is really a barier


Well said

Thank you for the quick crash course :) Some this I knew, some of it I didn't, and I often forget what I know too. I can read a very small amount of Turkish and I'm a little familiar with the grammar, but even if I could read it well.. speaking it is different altogether. Oh well, I guess I'll learn eventually. I wanted to learn before I go there, but that's probably not realistic.

  Thanks again for the reply  :)