Turkish Tuesdays - "Why study Turkish?"

Greetings from the Center for European Studies and welcome to our second Turkish Tuesday post.  Please come back later this week for new posts from other CES grad students who seem to be flung as far as the four corners of the Earth.  

Today's post comes from Greg Mason, a graduate student in history who is working on Turkish guest workers in Germany in the post-WWII period:

In Spring 2013 I finished my sixth semester of Turkish at the University of Florida. Learning Turkish has not only been a lot of fun, it has also opened a lot of doors for me.  There are only a handful of universities in the United States that offer Turkish language classes, and this means that the Center for European Studies at UF is truly exceptional as their program offers not only language classes but also courses on Turkish culture and history. 

I am a graduate student at UF specializing in German history. My research focuses on Germany’s post-WWII Turkish guest worker communities. It was therefore an obvious choice for me to take advantage of the opportunity to learn Turkish here at the University of Florida. For those of you for whom Turkish may not be such an obvious language of choice let me provide a few reasons to consider learning the language. For one Turkish is considered a “critical language” by the U.S. government.

What does it mean to be a “critical language?” It essentially means that for strategic and security purposes the U.S. government considers knowledge of Turkish to be a valuable asset. As such, having learned Turkish at UF is an excellent thing to have on one’s resumé for any person considering a job with the US State Department or any other federal agency. Second, because Turkish is a critical language several funding opportunities are available for those interested in learning the language. For example, the UF Center for European Studies partners with the US Department of Education to provide Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships for the learning of lesser taught foreign languages. While this fellowship is not limited to languages on the ‘critical languages’ list, priority is given to applicants applying to learn a ‘critical language.’  (For information on FLAS, see the CES website at http://www.ces.ufl.edu/FLAS/faqs.shtml).  The US State Department even sponsors a program for critical language learning, which offers students a chance to enhance their Turkish language skills in intensive summer programs.  (For summer scholarships in Turkey, see the Critical Language Scholarship Program’s website at http://clscholarship.org/lang_turkish.php).

 

I have been lucky enough to receive a FLAS for summer 2012 and for the 2012-2013 academic year. The summer of 2012 was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I did a 2-month intensive intermediate language course at Boğazici University in Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul is a vibrant and historically rich city of 15 million people, whose cultural diversity and love of tea is readily apparent! Boğazici University is an absolutely beautiful campus nestled against the Bosphorus.  In addition to improving my Turkish skills by leaps and bounds, I also made close friends with whom I still communicate regularly. One of my proudest moments while in Istanbul was at the Grand Bazaar where I was able to use my Turkish language skills to barter an item down to a 1/3 of the price of that being paid by the Americans standing next to me.

While Turkish is in many ways a difficult language chock full of idioms and cultural eccentricities, the challenge of learning the linguistic quirks of the language while navigating an unfamiliar vocabulary and set of grammatical rules has been provided a fascinating window into Turkey and its people at large. In my experience the language instructors have been great about making the language fun and engaging rather than intimidating. Whether it be through a game of Turkish scrabble, watching the Turkish version of Game of Thrones (Muhteşem Yüzyıl) or a lesson in culture through delighting in Turkish cuisine, Turkish class has generally been a case of ‘fun while learning.’ I have not only enjoyed the reward of learning a language that not many Americans know, I have also made a lot of friends in a small, relaxed language setting. Whether you plan to use Turkish to help you in your professional career or simply want to enjoy learning about a language and culture different than your own, I highly recommend learning Turkish at the University of Florida!