Turkey: teaching the language I grew up inside
Every other story here starts with an airport. This one starts with a kitchen, a glass of tea and a language I never had to learn.
Teaching your own language is stranger than teaching a second one. Nothing is neutral. A student asks why the verb goes at the end and I hear myself say "because it does" before I catch it and go and find the actual answer.
Most of my Turkish students are about to visit — a wedding, a work trip, a partner's family. That changes what we practise. They do not need to write essays. They need to survive a table where everyone talks at once and nobody lets them pay.
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