My English Sucks

I’ve talked to a lot of teachers of English while living in Turkey, and it’s really interesting to see how their English usage has changed while living abroad, mine included. We make really annoying mistakes, like spelling errors (writing “your” instead of “you’re”), for example. Or we change how we speak based on how our students talk. For instance, in Turkish the verb for “open” and “turn on” is the same, as is “close,” “turn off,” and “hang up.” So we catch ourselves saying things like: Open the lights, close the computer, and he closed the phone on me! The one that really bothers me is “true/right.” In Turkish, again, it’s the same. But in English, there is quite a different meaning between saying “Is that true?” and “Is that right?” So our students say “Is this true?” when they mean “Is this sentence grammatically correct?” What is so frustrating is trying to explain the different meanings of what they are asking, and they really just can’t understand it.

Last year in Isparta, I remember trying to play “Two Truths and Lie” with my university students. I explained that I was telling them three things about me, two of which were true and one was a lie, or wrong. How they interpreted this game then was to write three sentences, one of which was grammatically incorrect. It was definitely an interesting learning experience for me in my first month of living in Turkey.

What concerns me about all this is my regression of academic English. I first noticed it while I was writing my essays for my graduate school applications. And now I am honestly worried of how I will do in graduate school because my English is so much worse now. You’d think then that my Turkish would be really good, but instead, it’s like I’ve developed a pigeon version of both languages. I am also concerned now about taking the CSET English exams in order to get my full English teaching credential. I’ve got to (here, my acquisition of British English) write six essays on the exam! I’ve also never really had a good vocabulary, and now it’s just reached a sad state. So hopefully with starting to study for this exam, and being back home, my English will improve and I won’t face a lot of problems in school, especially when it comes to writing my thesis…