Practice your Turkish

I think we all agree that learning only grammar won’t make you speak the language.

Practicing your second language is crucial to grow your vocabulary and listening skills. In this page, Turkish newspapers, books, radios and tv channels streaming online are listed.

Turkish Radios:

1. TRT (Turkish radio and television corporation): The national tv and radio of Turkey. First radio broadcast started in 1927 and the Tv broadcast in 1964. It had the monopoly until 1990.

2. NTV Radio: NTV started its broadcasting in 2000. It is owned by Doğuş yayın grubu. You can listen to its 24 hours news service.

Slogan of CNN Türk Radio: ‘İlk bilen siz olun’

  • ilk: first
  • bilmek: to know, to hear of
  • siz: you (formal)
  • olmak: to be

3. CNN Türk Radio: CNN Türk radio founded in 2001. It is a joint venture of Time Warner and Doğan medya grubu.

4. Euronews Radio: Founded in 1993 in France. It services multilingual news in European countries, Russia, and some Arabic countries. Its Turkish broadcasting started on 30 January 2010.

5. ODTÜ Radio: It is the radio station founded by Middle East Technical University (METU) student radio group. The station broadcasts mainly pop-rock and alternative rock.

6. ITU Radio: The first university radio in Turkey. ITU stands for Istanbul Technical University. Its broadcasting includes classical music and Jazz/Blues.

Turkish Reading Book:

Turkish Short Story Book – For Intermediate to Advanced Learners

This book has 9 captivating short stories written with simple Turkish and reading is assisted with the vocabulary section at the bottom of every page.

Some knowledge of grammar/vocabulary is highly recommended to enjoy these short stories which are written by real Turkish authors such as Ömer Seyfettin, Sabahattin Ali, or Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil.

Turkish Newspapers:

You can read your favorite newspaper on daily bases and practice your Turkish without even studying.

1. Hürriyet: Hürriyet (eng. independence) is one of the most popular Turkish newspapers which has the highest circulation. It is founded in 1948 by Sedat Simavi and also printed in Germany for the Turkish society.

2. Sözcü: Sözcü (eng. the spokesman) is first published in 2007 and rapidly became one of the most popular newspapers today. It is the fourth most popular newspaper. It follows a secular and nationalist orientation.

3. Cumhuriyet: Cumhuriyet (eng. republic) is the oldest newspaper in Turkey. It is established in 1924, with the leadership of journalist Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu. Numerous journalist of the newspaper is sentenced to prison by oppressive Erdoğan government after MIT trucks scandal.

  • Millet: Nation
  • Milliyet: Nationality

4. Milliyet: Milliyet (eng. nationality) is started to publish in 1950 by Nuri Akça press. It is now a daily newspaper in Turkey.

Turkish TV Channels:

Choose your favorite TV channel. Watching TV is not our first piece of advice if in your first language. However, watching TV in a second language is quite helpful and the easiest way to observe the culture.

1. Tv8: This channel launched broadcasting on 22 February 1999. It is now one of the most popular tv channels in Turkey. Its broadcasting mainly consists of reality shows such as İşte Benim Stilim, Survivor, and O Ses Türkiye ( the local adaptation of ‘The Voice’).

2. Kanal D: Kanal D is one of the first commercial channels. It started broadcasting in 1993. It is owned by Aydın Doğan who is a media tycoon.

The slogan of Star TV: Türkiye’nin bir Star’ı var!

3. Star: ‘Star’ is the first commercial tv channel in Turkey and was founded in 1989. It is still being watched nationwide.

4. CNN Türk: CNN Türk is the most-watched news channel today. It was launched broadcasting in 1999. Its broadcasting style is more liberal/secular-like. However, it is quite interesting the channel broadcasted a documentary about penguins during Gezi while CNN International was broadcasting the protests live. Since then, the channel has lost its credibility.

5. NTV: NTV broadcasts news nationwide. It is launched at 1996 as the first news channel in Turkey.

6. TRT Belgesel: The channel broadcasts documentaries in Turkish. It is launched in 1991 and operated by TRT (Turkish radio and television channel). The documentaries mostly made by Turkish directors in Turkish. If not, they are dubbed into Turkish.