Please provide some Internet locations where I can find Turkish 'pen pals' to help me improve my Turkish.
You can
find potential Turkish pen pals on UseNet
and on Internet Relay Chat (and on some WWW) sites. And once you’ve found a special
pal(s), you may prefer speaking with him or her through your Instant Messenger. Let’s look at these
Internet capabilities one at a time…
UseNet
UseNet
provides a time-delayed means for people with similar interests to have a ‘town
meeting’. And once you enter the UseNet, you’ll find town meetings in progress
on all manner of subjects – from aardvarks to zabaglione.
With any
luck, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) already offers you a ‘private’ News
Server (requiring a password), for use only by your ISP’s ‘private’
subscribers. Because, otherwise, UseNet is awfully hard to access during peak
hours.
If your ISP
does not provide such UseNet service, then there are free servers
available. But be advised that they are often busy (and thus difficult to
access) ‑‑ and slow (after you finally do gain access).
Or, if you're willing to pay a small monthly fee to gain the added accessibility and speed, then by all means consider one of the ‘for pay’ UseNet services.
Such as:
In any case, to access the UseNet, you need ‘News Reader’
software. Fortunately, Internet Explorer and Netscape both have
such software imbedded in their more recent versions (under the ‘Mail’
function) – in a bare-bones sort of way.
And if you prefer more 'meat on bone', try one of the free/shareware software programs (dedicated solely
to UseNet purposes), that you'll find available at download sites like:
Anyway, assuming you now know enough about
UseNet to try it, here’s the oldest and most famous Turkish UseNet address of
all – where participants converse in a mixture of Turkish and English:
If you have
difficulty finding it with your ‘NewsReader’ program of choice, then navigate
with your Web Browser to:
Once there,
you may enter the newsgroup name (soc.culture.turkish) and, thereafter, you’ll
be able to directly access the message archive for that group from within your
web-browser. (Warning…This newsgroup often
contains anti-Turkish *flaming* from the 'un-enlightened' -- so wear your
face-protector and your boxing gloves when you enter!)
Internet Relay
Chat (IRC)
Another
source for Turkish Pen Pals is ‘Internet Relay Chat’.
IRC let’s you participate in UseNet-style ‘town meetings’, but the meetings are
in real-time (and meeting-size can be limited by the ‘Chatroom moderator’).
You will need specialized software to use IRC. (Sorry.
There’s none embedded in Internet Explorer and Netscape.) But that
doesn’t present a problem since there’s plenty of free/shareware IRC software
available at download sites like:
Note:
There are certain web locations
where you can ‘Chat’
directly through your Web Browser.
For example, the ‘Talk City’ website offers
a downloadable IRC mini-application,
that let’s you start chatting right away
--
through the TC Homepage.
However, the majority of IRC usage
takes place in
dedicated IRC programs.
When you’re
ready to ‘Chat’, then try these Turkish ‘IRC’ addresses:
irc.teklan.com.tr
[This server represents half of Tr-net (in Ankara).]
irc.dominet.com.tr
[This is the other half of Tr-Net (in Istanbul).]
irc.egenet.com.tr
[This is at Ege University in Izmir.]
If you connect
to these,
don't forget the time zone difference between
western Turkey (GMT+2) and wherever you happen to be located.
It wouldn't do
to drop by when everybody's in bed asleep!
BTW, at
Microsoft’s ‘IRC’ server (chat.msn.com) you can find Turkish ‘chatters’ if you
search for 'channels' containing the letters ‘tr’.
A note about ‘Chat
Etiquette’
You may
join a ‘chat’ group, but you don’t have to speak up immediately. You may just
sit quietly on the sidelines, ‘listening’ – until you get ‘the feel’ for how to
join the conversation in an appropriate manner. And beware…If the Chatroom
moderator doesn’t like your attitude, he/she can kick you out of the room –
without warning!
Instant
Messengers
Once you
establish one or more regular Turkish pen pals, you may want to do away with IRC – and
replace it with something designed specifically for one-to-one real-time
communications. That’s where an Instant Messenger may come in handy…
Instant
Messengers are chat applications used for direct exchange of real-time
messages
between people over the Internet -- without the need to meet on an IRC
server or in a 'chat' room.
And, besides
the ‘instant messenger’ applications that are imbedded in the latest versions of Internet
Explorer and Netscape, there are other dedicated Instant Messenger
programs -- available for free at download sites like:
OK now…
Go forth...
and find yourself a Turkish Pen Pal!
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