[Course Forum] Duolingo Turkish by skstudio

skstudio · July 5, 2016, 10:32am

This is a course forum for Duolingo Turkish (no typing, 100% audio). Please leave your feedback and suggestions here.

louis.vangucht0b · July 6, 2016, 4:21pm

Hey skstudio,

Thanks for making this course.
It was the first memrise course i found for the duolingo course.

Now, i know there are two other courses.

But i think your course is the best of the three courses.

You have a voice (one of the two other courses don’t have).

You have the most words / levels.

And you have different voices for one word.

Maybe we have to give more publicity for your course.

skstudio · July 9, 2016, 8:28pm

Hi Louis,

I’m glad that you like the course. Ektoraskan and Super_Nerd, the moderators of the Duolingo Turkish, help me with the voice a lot. If you have any suggestions how to improve the course or give it more publicity, I would like to hear them!

zieLiz · July 13, 2016, 7:52am

Hello skstudio,
thank you for making this course. It makes a great complement to duolingo, I especially like that you have included words related to what is taught in the duolingo course. It helps me understand how the words and phrases are built. The course also seems to be surprisingly lacking in mistakes and inconsistencies, it seems a lot of work has gone into making sure everything is in good condition.

I was wondering one thing though. In level 47 we have the word geçirmek, “to spend”. I wonder if this covers all meanings of “spend” or only the time-related parts. I know English makes no difference between spending money or spending time, possibly because time is money , but my native language Swedish differentiates between the two and I am wondering if perhaps Turkish does as well?

Edit: Just as I had already posted, I ran into a problem in level 47. hastalanmak and hasta olmak should have each other as acceptable options I believe? Well, this happened:

skstudio · July 14, 2016, 5:57pm

Hi zieLiz,

it is a lot of work indeed and it is still work in progress. That is why I really appreciate constructive feedback, such as yours.

I don’t think that the translation “to spend” for geçirmek is correct. I encountered the word on Duolingo only in phrases, such as “kalp krizi geçirmek” (to have/get a heart attack) and “nöbet geçirmek” (to have/get a seizure) in which it is translated as “to get/have.” In phrases, such as “geceyi geçirmek” (spend the night) and “beraber zaman geçirmek” (spend time together) it is translated as “to spend.” Tureng.com states that the word alone is commonly translated as “to pass.” My guess is that “to pass” in the meaning of “to go through some situation or a period of time” is the most accurate translation. Note, that the verb is transitive and requires an object. There is also the intransitive variant “geçmek,” the translation of which puzzles me too.

I marked “hastalanmak” and “hasta olmak” as alternatives. From now on, they should not appear together in a test.

zieLiz · July 14, 2016, 9:10pm

Checking a Turkish-Swedish dictionary I found, I think I am getting a better idea of how to use those words. They have a bunch of possible translations, some of which are:

geçmek: pass by, move some distance, pass over, pass through, happen, cross (over), cease

geçirmek: transmit, transfer, undergo, perform (an action, not on stage), suffer through, bring about, spend (time, not money)

Obviously this is now twice translated, but Google translate seems to agree to some extent. So I guess in the context of kalp krizi geçirmek I will think of geçirmek as “suffer through” or perhaps “undergo”.

Thank you for fixing the alternatives! It will make my revising sessions much easier.

zieLiz · July 15, 2016, 6:39am

Hi again,

I am afraid this didn’t work. I just got both of them as alternatives at the same time again. Just like last time I choose ‘hastalanmak’ when it wanted ‘hasta olmak’. Perhaps this is a bug on Memrise’s end.

skstudio · July 15, 2016, 10:57am

I’ve had such problem too. I think there is some kind of caching, so the changes need some time to start working.

zieLiz · July 21, 2016, 7:46pm

Hello again! I’ve run into another issue with synonyms. When reviewing I got “quickly”, where the options included both “çabucak” and “çabukça”. This happened when the word wanted was “çabukça”, I don’t know if it also occurs the other way around.

skstudio · July 21, 2016, 8:22pm

Thanks for reporting! I’ve added “çabukça” just yesterday. I also checked all alternatives at least twice. So it may be the same problem with caching again.

BTW, “quickly” seems to be the word with the most synonyms in Duolingo TR: hızlıca, hızlı, hızla, çabuk, çabukça, çabucak.

zieLiz · July 22, 2016, 4:32am

Oh, I see! Then it should fix itself by next time I run into this word.

I did notice that it has lots of synonyms! I think that is great, it’s always helpful to be able to express yourself in more than one way.

zieLiz · July 23, 2016, 7:59am

I once more got both “hastalanmak” and “hasta olmak” as options. I just decided to ignore this word now, I know it well enough, but I thought I’d tell you. I don’t know much about how Memrise works “under the hood” but I would guess that it’s now a bug rather than a caching issue.

skstudio · July 23, 2016, 1:05pm

I will report it as a bug.

zieLiz · July 26, 2016, 7:31am

Hi again! I am nearing the end of the Duolingo tree as well as your course, I learn the level here after finishing the same lesson there. I must say your course is really helpful with the vocabulary. Before your course, I wrote down words as I came across them and then erased them when I thought I knew them, but with words that appear rarely I just had to jot 'em down again as soon as I ran into them next time. No need for that anymore!

I realized that in levels 39 and 59, the same english word is used for different turkish words: “to apply”. Perhaps uygulamak can be translated as to apply, to enforce and başvurmak as to apply, to appeal or something like that? Thank you for all you do!

skstudio · July 26, 2016, 10:15pm

I expanded the English translations to remove ambiguity.

zieLiz · July 27, 2016, 6:38am

Much appreciated!

zieLiz · July 31, 2016, 8:38am

Level 21 you have yan and level 31 you have taraf, both translated as side in English. I don’t think they have ever appeared together in a test so there may not be any problems when taking the course, but I am curious whether they are synonyms or whether there is a difference in meaning. Do you know?

skstudio · July 31, 2016, 9:07am

According to these explanations, they are not complete synonyms:
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/12680113
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/7885633#body-12180067

Therefore, I would not make them alternatives. I added a note to “yan” (which is displayed during learning and testing) that specifies its meaning and can be used to differentiate it from “taraf.” Furthermore, “yan” can also be an adjective, as in “yan sokak” - “side street.” The parts of speech are also shown during learning and testing.

zieLiz · August 7, 2016, 9:28am

Hello again! I’m on level 66 now, it is interesting to find words for relations that I haven’t even though of before, like co-sister-in-law. Thank you for adding these words!

It seems that the audio for bacanak is broken, at least for me. Does it work for you?

Also I am wondering what my sister’s wife would be called. Yenge, to indicate that she is a female, or enişte to emphasize that the relation is through my sister. Maybe a combination, yengişte? I don’t expect that there is a word for this relation, but it’s fun to think about.

skstudio · August 7, 2016, 7:05pm

Works well for me. You could try it on another device or browser to see if it is an OS/browser combination problem.

Honestly, I don’t even know how those relationships are called in my native language. I’ve just added those words, because I had a list of them. I am also not sure about the correctness of the translations. You could ask your question on the Duolingo’s Turkish discussion. It will be interesting to see if the native speakers there can answer it.