A little while ago, a friend asked which language I think in. This question had been asked a few more times and I can say I don't know. Probably I think in the language I speak at that time. English and Turkish are different in structure, and a conversation is too fast to translate in the mind, so I must be thinking in English now to be able to type in English in the right structure.
But I realised that I always do the maths in my native language.
I know it's a late answer, but better later than never. It's always good to answer a British for they are the most curious people I know. Especially after I learned that the scientists who found out that ants always fall on their right side when intoxicated were English, I gave up asking why the English are nosey.
But I have a question. Why are you guys are so eager to learn everything but another language? I know you'll say you're lazy, everybody speaks English, and so on. Do you believe this too?
One side of my brain says "Come on!", the other side of my brain doesn't speak any English. Literally.
I'll try to be objective and share my observations on this language learning issue.
In my town Fethiye, we assume there are over 10.000 people from the UK, either living or at least spending most of the year here.
Some hang out with English comunity only; go to places that only British people go and refuse to speak any Turkish. Some of these people don't like Turks at all, some tried and have given up learning because it won't work, some feel uncomfortable when their mistakes or mispronunciations keep being corrected, some find it easier because there's always someone speaks English for them so why bother?
Another group of British people try and learn Turkish because they want to understand what's going on around them. So they go to Turkish classes, ask what things mean, but keep speaking English either because they feel unconfident or Turkish people don't let them to.
The third group of people try and speak Turkish and insist on doing so. They do it because they want to be a part of the country, they like speaking another language, they want to show respect for native speakers, or they don't want to feel left out when people speak Turkish among themselves.
The other side of the coin is, British people need native Turkish spekers to practise. It gets a bit more complicated here, because there are four types of native Turkish speakers that you communicate.
The first type speaks very little English or they're simly shy. They help you the most for your language practice. They encourage you to speak and correct you, which makes them great teachers. You generally start learning greetings, slangs and swearwords but isn't it how you start learning a language?
The second type of people think they're being rude if they keep correcting you. They think they're making you feel incapable or discouraging you, so they choose to speak English to make things easier for everyone's sake.
The fourth type of Turk is the selfish one. They want to practise English so they don't let you practise Turkish. You say something in Turkish and get your reply in English. You try, learn and want to make a Turkish sentence and they say "Well done!" in English.
There's another group of Turkish people always complain about British people coming to this country and not learning the language. How 'bout that!
As a language teacher, I would recomend you to go for the swearwords. Learning 10 swearwords means learning 10 degrees of politeness, 10 different situations in real life and 10 answers to them, which makes 30 different grammar rules or sentences as a good start.
