# Turkish pronunciation and accent in English



## kalamazoo

The US is full of people for whom English is a second language. Almost always, no matter how long they have been here, they have a tiny foreign accent, even if it's very slight. For instance I have a German friend who has been here for decades and is even herself a professional speech therapist in English- her English is just about perfect but has a very very slight accent.  I have noticed, though,that some Turkish people end up with essentially perfect American accents in English,so that you really can't tell they are not native speakers.   I wonder if this means that Turks are good at accents or if there is some kind of similarity between Turkish and American English sounds that makes this possible. Also I wonder if some Americans are able to speak Turkish without a detectable accent sometimes.


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## Black4blue

I'm really surprised to hear that. Cause English education in Turkey is so weak. Most of English teachers speak more like Turklish  
I can't say I've seen so many Turkish-speaking American, but I've never seen one without accent.


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## kalamazoo

I'm really thinking of Turkish people who live in the US and have been here for a while.  Maybe they came as adults as university students and stayed on. But I have known several who really had no discernible "foreign" accents in English at all.  You would think they were native speakers of English.  In my observation, this is not true of other nationalities. I just wonder if somehow this has to do with the pronunciation of Turkish making it easier for a Turkish speaker to pronounce English.


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## Black4blue

For me, English is easiest language to learn and to speak. Especially American accent. So your supposition can be true and maybe there are some similarities. For instance, Turkish R and US English R letters are quite close. Unlike strong Spanish R or guttural French R. It makes easier to speak. I don't think there is a hard sound to pronounce in English for us. Nevertheless I don't think Turks can speak English well in general. Maybe cause of the education system.


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## ancalimon

I think Turks can mimic sounds that exist in other languages with little trouble. I don't know the reason for this though.


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## Guner

I can tell you that in Australia, Turks pick up the accent easier/faster than the others too. But I disagree with the ideas here that the English education in Turkey lacks quality. Maybe in public schools it does but not in private schools or universities. 

Turks were nomads before they settled in Asia Minor and they were  exposed to many languages for many centuries in Ottoman era. Plus the Turkish language itself has a rich set of vowels, sounds, accents, dialects etc. Hence, no wonder we can differentiate and mimic sounds better than others. But here is a confession for you guys: When I was 15 and trying to speak to a US officer in Ankara, it took me 10minutes or more to figure out that he was saying "radar" rather than "reader"  And in my first week in Aus I pronounced "QANTAS" (Australian Carrier) in the worst possible way as "_qunt..arse_" 

Cheers,


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## kalamazoo

Certainly some Turks in Turkey have learned English very well there,so there must be a number of good schools. I think usually the best English is found in the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands, because the grammatical structures and vocabulary of their languages are very close to English.  But the English spoken in Turkey is pretty comparable to the levels of English in Italy or Spain or other non-Germanic countries, and a lot better than the Engish in Japan or China!  At least in my experience.


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## Guner

In Holland, English is practically the second language so no surprises there but I am not so sure about the Scandinavian countries. We have a well-educated Finnish family living here and their spoken English is not on the brightest side to say the least. Their written English is much better though. And English level of the Phd students in Sydney from Asia always has shocked me! I know that they need to pass the likes of TOEFL tests with flying colors to study at this level but their spoken English is neither understandable nor grammatically accurate.


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## graywolf

Hey, I'm a Turk and I realize and agree that Turkish people are really good at immitating almost all the languages' pronounciations very easily, I think that's because in the Turkish language sounds are mainly certain, what I mean by certain is that you cannot pronounce the sounds in a different way from the way they must be pronounced. and I disagree with the idea that english education sucks in Turkey. There are different kinds of high schools  which accept students according to their abilities or intelligence. Like Anatolian high schools and science high schools. And I need to say that in my school, which is an Anatolian high school, english education is great but it's necessary to admit that the teachers have a little Turkish accent.


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## cicikuş

I very strongly disagree with that Anatolian high schools and science high school have good English education. They teach grammer perfect; but student's listening, speaking, writing skills does not improve as much as grammer. Private school's English education is way better than public schools.

I am graduated from an Anatolian high school which is known with its good English education. But I gained nothing from school. I just improved my English myself, by books and forums. Some People who graduated in same year with me did not improved their English very well. Because they just thought to pass exams.


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## YaMukPreNseS

Aaand if we return to the original question, my answer is that Turkish has similar sounds with english. I live in france and I know how it's difficult to pronounce french sounds not existing in turkish. (by the way kurdish people have less difficulty in french sounds) 
Also vice-versa I see french people's limited capacity to speak english. Every language has its spectrum of sounds. Far eastern languages have their owns, apparently quite different from others. (sorry for my potential mistakes in english, whenever I intend to speak/write english, it's french dominating my brain and tongue)


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