My Turkish Teacher Wrote this Post for Me

My current Turkish teacher Çiğdem, is the most excitable person I have ever met.  Her voice has a range of four octaves, and she uses all of them to express her (always strong) emotion about whatever we are talking about.  One of the big elements of class is conversation.  About half of every class is just spent talking about whatever Çiğdem or anyone else wants to.  Topics have included everything from UFOs to whether they put stray animals in cheap döner, to why women get cellulite.  So long as the conversation remains in Turkish (or Swahili*), everything is fair game.

Thanks to Çiğdem, I also have an easy blog post.  Who wants to know what noises animals make?  I did.  It turns out Johnny wanted to know the names of just about every organ in the body in Turkish.  Also as an added bonus, Çiğdem wanted to teach us a bunch of similes in Turkish.  So without further adieu, here is a sizable portion of my Turkish notes from a couple of weeks ago

Animal Noises:

Lamb, Goat:       meeeee
Cat:                        miyav
Dog:                       hav
Cow:                      möö
Donkey:               ai ai
Horse:                   iii
Chicken:               gı gı gı gıdak
Rooster:               ü-ürü-ürü
Crow:                    gak
Wolf:                     uuuuuuuuuuuh
Frog:                      vrak

Similes:

Dangerous like a snake
Timid like a rabbit
Hard working like a cow
Docile like a lamb
Tall like a giraffe
Rude like a bear
Early-rising like a chicken
In love like a dove
Loyal like a dog
Ungrateful like a cat
Sly like a fox
Quiet like a mouse
Hungry like a worm
Fast like a horse

Hot like hell
Cold like ice
Light like a feather
Lazy like a dead donkey
White like cotton
Dark like Night
Spicy/Salty like poison
Smelly like a carcus
Good smelling like musk
Eyes like almonds
Lips like small roses
Teeth like pearls
Rich like a landowner

I would list organs, but I doubt anyone wants to say gallbladder in Turkish.  Comment if you dissagree.

*One day we were playing Taboo and a student asked if they were supposed to call out the word in Turkish (the answer was obviously yes, since the while class is in Turkish).  Çiğdem replied, “No, answer in Swahili” at which point, the student asking the question (British) and another student (American) started chatting in Swahili.  Çiğdem brings this up almost every day now.