Intensive Turkish

First of all I want to thank to the school for the way how they lead their school, even thought I could not come every day, they offered me another days. I really appreciate that. I was in a school in Izmir and in Istanbul. If I should compare them, the school in Istanbul is bigger and I also had the feeling like the teacher there was better, but both of the experiences was good and I will take another lessons in the future. The group was good too, the location as well.

The course was well timed . The teacher did a great job . The number of students in the class was perfect .

Ich besuche die Royal Turkish School in Izmir seit 3 Wochen. Ich habe viel gelernt, viel von dem was ich schon besprochen hatte in meinen Kursen davor, habe ich vertieft, so dass ich auch ausserhalb der Schule Türkisch sprechen kann.

Ich bin in der 1. Woche mit Sabine zusammen im Unterricht gewesen. Momentan habe ich "Privatunterricht". Meiner Lehrerin Esra möchte ich danken und ein grosses Kompliment machen für ihren professionellen Unterricht. Danken auch für die Tips und Unterstützung zur Freizeitgestaltung. Auf Fragen diesbezüglich habe ich immer nützliche Antworten erhalten. Alsancak, wo sich die Schule befindet ist ein lebendiges Quartier, was mir sehr gefällt. Ihre Ausschreibung, dass man bei einer Türkischen Famile wohnt, weckt falsche Vorstellungen, wenn man dann bei einer alleinstehenden Person einquartiert ist. Meine Gastgeberin hat sich sehr bemüht und schön war auch, dass ich bei ihr noch mit anderen Student*innen gewohnt habe.
Es gibt keine "Social activities".

I had one very good week in the Royal Turkish Schools Izmir.

I was alone with my teacher Tuğba, she was really nice and I lot of improve my Turkish.

The location of the school is also very good.

I hope to come back again !

We had a small class with only two students. Therefore learning was excellent. The teacher also was superb.
The location was in the middle of a busy street and therefore noisy. The facility was weak!

I liked: very goog location, very nice and motivated teacher (caring a lot), always reachable, in the beginning i was the only pupil of my teacher. City is really nice. Hotel i stayed was very good.
I did not like: very new teacher with lot of motivation but a little unstructured. I have the feeling, that i could not take so much language skills from this week than i expected.

Everything was nice. The location of the school is perfect and central and near to see. The 3 Teachers in the school were too nice, qualified and helpful. My teacher Mrs Kübra Bayındır could explain the language very well and answered every my questions.

We did many activities after the school for example: Visiting one Photo Exhibition together and eating together in restaurant.

Everyone was very welcoming took extra trouble to be helpful. My teacher, Duygu, was well organised, but also flexible and very willing and able to clarify students‘ particular problems as they arose. My fellow student and I were at the same level - an excellent match.
I was very happy with the course, as I was in Istanbul in February, and I look forward to continuing in Antalya in the near future.
Colin.

Learning process was very good organised. Course books are great as well. They contain rules and exercises in such manner that you train a lot. Teachers are great (from both professional and personal sides). They are very friendly, explains everything you want to know, always ready to help with things outside class if you need help. And also you are asked questions, so you have to speak in Turkish that makes a very good practice. I adored my time with the school and there is no a single thing I didn't like. Great place!

The location of RTLC is wonderfully central in Alsancak and easy to find. The classrooms were bright, restful and well equipped with air-conditioning if required, comfortable chairs, a sturdy table, a large white board and plenty of plug points for audio and computer aids. A flush toilet is available for students on the same floor. Walking up the stairs to the second floor was not a problem.

The standard of teaching was excellent. The course books are modern and provide plenty of practice of language skills with revision pages for each chapter and a grammar synopsis of each chapter at the back. Students are encouraged to speak about their previous evening at the start of each lesson which is initially a challenge but gradually became easier. The course was also taught via the computer so that Turkish dialogue could be heard by different voices to give us more experience of the spoken word. This also helped us to pronounce words more accurately.

Our teacher was flexible and offered a variety of activities - such as an off-site visit to a museum or to a local cafe - if we wanted. Lessons were always started on time and finished on time. We were always offered a refreshing cup of Turkish cay every ten-minute break.

Home works were set and marked by the teacher. This meant that more progress could be made over each week of lessons.

The school was in a very good location, at the city center close to the sea. The teacher was excellent. After only 2 weeks of lessons I felt the difference!

The service from school was very perfect. From airport pick-up to organisation of accommodation and courses. The classes was very small, so I could learn very fast. Teachers were all friendly and they could teach the language very good with listening, writing, conversations and some activities. Especially the books are very good. We got on the first day 3 books and a CD. 1 Lesson book, 1 work book and a grammar book. The CD was for the work book, which I can also learn on my computer by listening. School location was very central. Sea side was very close. But you can not swim there. You have to go by bus about 30 Minutes to swim. I was in a Turkish host family, which I also enjoyed it. My family was very friendly. Mother cooked very delicious and we drink after dinner "çay."

Classes: The classes were 4 hours per day, 5 days a week. The class basically consisted of going through exercises in the course books one after another. As a language teacher myself, I found the class to be very focused on grammar through reading and writing skills, rather than having a balance with fluency, listening, and speaking. I would have liked more practice with speaking and listening in more authentic and spontaneous ways. I felt that because the class size was very small, just me and my husband, the course material could have been tailored more to our needs. The course book was clearly geared toward high school aged students. If I could make a suggestion, I would ask the school to do a brief needs analysis of incoming students, in terms of the students' purposes for learning Turkish, which would hopefully inform choices about the vocabulary and language points to focus on, rather than sticking somewhat rigidly to a book that doesn't necessarily cover the needs of adult learners. I do not wish to sound ungrateful, as I indeed learned a lot from our class, but I do think that some of the vocabulary we focused on were not very relevant to my specific needs as a Turkish speaker. The small class size allows teachers to really tailor a lesson, and I would have liked to see more effort toward that.

Teacher: Our teacher was very pleasant and gave us corrective feedback as needed. She was willing to be flexible if we brought in our own work to ask her about, but she otherwise did not deviate from the exercises in the course books.

Location: The school is in a bustling, fashionable district of Izmir. I liked that!

Facilities: The school facilities were small, just two rooms, but it was sufficient for the number of students and classes going at the same time.

The school does not provide activities or housing, which is fine with me.