Can I survive in Turkey, just speaking in English?

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Eclectic Mind

That actually pretty much depends on you :)

If you have an outgoing independent personality and determination to adapt yourself into the new environment I'd say why not! Eventually you will learn the basics and your bearings after staying a few months

You were moving to Ankara, if I remember correctly, if that's still the case chances are pretty good

Irmak

'How can I go to the bank?'
'100 metre go go go, sonra sağa dön go go go, ışıklardan sola go go go, karşıda banka go go go!' lol

Maybe yes maybe not..It's up to your chance :)

Tanju

Zoe,

City is important ...
If you talk Istanbul, Ankara or Izmir, You will not see any problem ...

Everybody help when you speak English ..

eda

i think it's a little bit hard for you.especially if you wanna go eastern part.maybe in Istanbul, Izmir or the other southern parts you can feel more comfort.

Emma-xo

In the tourist areas almost all of the locals know english to some degree. The friends I made are fluent in English, and they are helping me learn Turkish :-)

It's a beautiful language, and it wouldn't help to learn the basics, such as:

Hello - Merhaba
How are you? - Nasılsınız?
I'm good, thank you - İyiyim, teşekkür ederim
Good morning - Günaydın
Good night - İyi geceler
Good evening - İyi Akşamlar
Good day - İyi Günler
Please - Lütfen
Goodbye - hoşça kal or güle güle
Yes - Evet
No - Hayır

** Pronunciation **
ü - (the same as the 'ou' part of 'you')
ş - 'sh'
ç - 'ch'
c - pronounced same as english letter J
ı - undotted i, pronounced as 'uh'

The Turkish are very friendly people, and will always be willing to help you learn :)

amada

Teachers of English in Istanbul, Ankara, Adana, İzmir etc do. Also the managers and engineers of International firms and their wives and children do. And most are quite contennt about it.
Depends on what you plan to do, and where you plan to live.
They learn a few words while living here.

Ipek K

No, unfortunately, you can't.

You will not have much of a problem in touristic areas and cities but not very many people know English well enough to carry on a dialog. No worries, though; we have a reputation to teach Turkish to Germans in Germany therefore I believe we can manage to teach the basics to you, too :))

fenerli

if you go to places where tourism is high

Stuart

You will sure be able to survive! :-) Everybody is a polyglot here, knows at least 20 basic conversational phrases in every language! :-) Seriously, almost everybody speaks English in touristic areas of Istanbul.

loraxan

stick to istanbul and you'll do fine, but anywhere else, you don't have much chance. any other big city, you can survive but you dont have much chance of socialising. any other regular city; you are dead.

HsN

that's ok there is no problem.

just try to find me :)

TURKO BEANER

yes, the 97% of the population are totally bilingual

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