Why is it so difficult to learn English in Turkey?

Learning another language, for most people, is excessively difficult and takes much commitment. Not all of us are gifted with the talent of learning languages. In fact, the majority of us find learning languages difficult. But what makes it so difficult? Not being talented? This is barely a reason. Talent is learned, not born. So what makes learning languages so hard?

At the time when I was at Germany at a primary school, I learned much English than the year which followed it at Turkey at a Private School. The Education System in Germany is more different than the Education System in Turkey. Scholars in Germany know that Education needs to be fun, otherwise, it is hard to stay motivated. In addition, the Students in Germany didn’t learn much boring grammatical rules as the Students learn in Turkey. The Students in Germany; read much newspapers, magazines, novels etc. At the same time, the schools in Germany have a lot of partner Schools; the Schools do a lot of programs together to learn better English or any other languages.

In Turkey learning English is very difficult as in the other countries. The English Education System in Turkey is poor. The School Books are filled with too much boring grammatical knowledge. One of the major problems in teaching in Turkey is that the Students don’t do enough practice; they are not  allowed to change programs like that in Germany or in other Countries. Furthermore, the Students don’t read enough English books, magazines or stories. Moreover, they neither speak English except the lessons nor listen English Music enough. The English Education System in Turkey should be changed or the problems like this will be repeated always. Scholars in Turkey discuss much about effective methods in teaching, but don’t explore any resolves to better learning English at Schools, “We think too much about effective methods of teaching and not enough about effective methods of learning.” Said John Carolus S.J. .I will tell you a horrible situation that the English Education System in Turkey is; I met a lot of Turkish Students who was in the University, they said: “I have learned a high level of English at the University.”, and much of them didn’t know to introduce themselves, it is really interesting why much of the Turkish University Students and High School Students don’t know enough English.

The best way of learning a language is living it. Most of my teachers tell me this advice: “You must dream the language that you will learn to learn it easier.” Getting started with simple vocabulary, polite expressions and reading a lot of books in the language that you will learn; is a more reasonable goal and can be more fun to learn the language. After initial success, more difficult goals may be attained, everything must be step by step. Nobody said that it would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.

                                                                                                                                                                                    Eyüb Yegen

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