I knock on the door and come in. It is the time of Turkish Club. One of the participants reads “sach uzu, acly kisa, then translates “long hair, short brain”.

– Our elders also say so, – the other participants add with laughter and then continue reading.

It has been 2 years since 2016 that Gyumri “Youth Initiative Centre” NGO has been implementing Turkish Club.

The club leader is YIC member Karapet Ayvazyan, who has lived in Istanbul for several years and now shares his knowledge with the club’s participants. He says everything started with one of YIC hiking days. This was the first time he got acquainted with the organization and came with the idea of leading a Turkish Club.

– There were more participants in my first club, at first 38-40 people, but now I have to admit that my second club’s team is small, but stronger and better to learn than first. It also depends on me,- Karapet smiles,- Now I have more teaching skills. At the first club, I was just getting used to them, but now my approaches are different, so my expectations and results are consistent. Of course, a lot depends also on the learner. I have spent two months in the second club, but my participants are already able to write, read, make small translations, even try to communicate in Turkish. We have almost four months before the end of the club, so there are quite a lot of expectations from this team.

Anush Sargsyan has learned about Turkish club from her friend. And as she likes to learning and especially different languages, she has decided also to study Turkish.

Petrosyan Bella, who is one of the youngest participants in club, does not love Turkish, but sees the need to learn. She says that knowing the language is good. You can understand Turkish conversation; you can watch films without translation. It’s not the most important thing to love language, it’s important to have curiousity about language, – says Bella, then adds, – But I love Armenian more.

Hovhannisyan Juliet has long been interested in Turkish, so when she found out that the new Turkish Club in YIC was going to be launched and there was opportunity to learn the language from the basics, she decided to attend.

“I got acquainted with the organization through Turkish,” says Juliet, “I like the course, the language is not complicated, and we are well explained. My expectations are to be able to speak, understand and communicate until the end of the course”.

All participants say that language is not so complicated, even if there are some similarities, differences are a lot also. Also we have heard many words from our grandparents, thus we understand it better.

“For example, oghul,” Vanetsyan Azatuhi says, “our grandparents use this word a lot, many of us have heard it, and it’s translated from Turkish as a boy”.

Azatuhi is also a member of the Turkish Club, whose interest in the language is that of television series, in which the culture and the life of the nation are deeply expressed.

– My interest was so strong that I started to love their language, I knew a few phrases, but now I have a bigger opportunity to deepen my knowledge.

I didn’t manage to take part in the first club, but I did everything to participate this time.

Yes, Turkish Club is one of YIC’s successful initiatives.