TURKISH LANGUAGE
Dear Parents and Students,
It looks like it has been a very short term. I see that students have learnt more during this time even though it has not been so long. The reality that kids learn through games is really effective. Every single student has different ways of learning such as some are interested in reading and learn a lot in this way, others learn by writing, some others learn by visual means. However, the most important thing is that kids learn a lot when they practise and do tasks by themselves.
I have here some ideas from year eight students regarding what they have learnt:
Ebru:
This term we had Turkish and it was only Zac and I. I have learnt a lot because I was not good at writing or talking in Turkish. It helped me learn my writing mistakes and to write better. Also, we started reading and I feel like I can read better than I used to.
Zachariah:
In Turkish class I have learnt more words, writing and punctuation. I found Turkish punctuation hard. I learnt a lot about seasons, months and a lot about how people feel about different seasons. The Turkish teacher was really helpful and he was always offering extra classes, he wanted us to learn Turkish. He really helped me out in Turkish. It was a class I was always looking forward to.
It is clear that learning a new language might be very difficult for some reasons, for many students, even if it is their native language. Moreover, it is very important for kids to take advantage of every moment of having verbal communication with family members since it is crucial for them to have a lot of awareness about learning a native language.
'Keeping in Touch with Your Roots’
“Learning your native language also helps connect you to your ancestors and culture in a way that many other things don’t. For immigrants or children of immigrants, it’s increasingly important to keep some form of connection with one’s heritage, to serve as a continuous reminder of the hardships and challenges that have been overcome to sustain the immigrant lifestyle.
Language also helps foster a sense of belonging. Many children may be struggling to fit into their communities or their schools. They may feel as though they need to abandon their roots and the cultural differences that set them apart from other kids, but it’s important to teach them how to foster diversity and how valuable culture is to enriching our society. For children who are growing up in a different country than they are ethnically from, it can help them feel more connected to their parents and relatives, those who speak the native language, and it can help them feel as though they have some form of ‘home’. This ‘home’ may not be a physical place, but even having the capacity to think in your native language can serve as a reminder that you’re culturally diverse and always have a ‘home’ to escape to.
Our native language not only allows us to communicate and connect with one another, but it allows us to understand and appreciate the history of our ancestors and our upbringing.
All in all, there are many benefits to learning to speak one’s native language. It may appear to be more work than a benefit at first, but the rewards of internalizing a people’s dialect through communication are well worthwhile.''
Mr. Sinan Baydogan