The Teacher

The teacher, Bilge Özel

I have enjoyed teaching Turkish for many years. I gained my first Turkish teaching experience at language schools in Hamburg as well as at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, where, in addition to Turkish, I also taught German and French. I have a master's degree from the University of Hamburg (in English and French Studies) and studied Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania. At the University of Hamburg, I also worked on a German-Turkish language project for several years.
I grew up bilingually (Turkish and German) in Turkey and am fluent in Turkish, German, English, and French and also speak some Spanish.
In my teaching I strive to make the language learning experience as special as possible for my students and I thorougly enjoy our wonderful exchanges during this time!

Bilge Özel

Below are some comments from my students:

When my company decided to set up a production facility in Turkey to meet the demands of this higly dynamic and prospering economy, I was chosen to be the boy for communication. But how? My knowledge of Turkish was limited to what I had come across in Berlin and other German cities. To be honest: it was practically not more than Döner Kebab. The task was to learn the basis of Turkish grammar and vocabulary within a tight schedule of 2 weeks. And we succeeded. Learning is all about the communication between teacher and student: together they define what to do, when to pause, when to stay with an issue and when to proceed to the next. Bilge accommodated her didactics perfectly to my linguistic background (e.g. experience with Arabic), to my personal needs and to my way of familiarize with new linguistic systems.
What I specifically appreciated was her ability to draw analogies on French, German, English and Arabic. It helps a lot if you see a new grammatical phenomenon in the mirrow of a familiar language. And Bilge masters them all! Her background is bothTurkish and European/ American which was quite helpful for understanding linguistic and cultural patterns in Turkey.
So, I strongly recommend the language courses with Bilge. It gave me a thorough understanding of Turkish and the quality of my conversations with the people progressed daily from very silly to silly and then, ultimately, to not silly. And Marmaris and İçmeler is great, too.
Stefan Halbach, Germany

During the 2 weeks beginners course the lessons started by the basic greetings vocabulary and expressions. From day to day my knowledge increased and I felt more and more confident on my basic Turkish. The lessons covered a large number of aspects being the grammar and the vocabulary the most important. The teaching method was adequate and flexible enough to go thru my wishes or doubts, being helped by homework. The material is easy to use and to understand.
Helder Bernardo, Portugal/Netherlands

Having spent my working life in classrooms myself I knew immediately „there's a professional at work“ when I came across Bilge Hanım's website. And not only that. I met a charming warmhearted woman overflowing with enthusiasm for teaching her mother-tongue – well, father-tongue in her case. She was able to switch effortlessly between the individual needs of both an old man's whose interest in Turkish is purely academical and a young woman´s who is eager to communicate with her Turkish boyfriend and particularly his family. We both felt very much at easy while we were initiated - over endless cups of tea - into the niceties of the admittedly intriguing Turkish vocabulary and grammar. The course follows by no means a strict line – although there is one - but adjusts to whatever the students feel important to express themselves. It was amazing what we could say at the end of the two weeks. Thank you very much, Bilge. See you next year for a follow-up.
Robert Link, Germany