LingoflyWhat do you do for work? in Turkish
Talking about work at a birthday party in Turkish. 7 phrases that the conversation is made of: «Merhaba! Sen ne iş yapıyorsun?» — Hi! What do you do for work?; «Yazılımcıyım, küçük bir ofiste çalışıyorum.» — I'm a programmer, I work in a small office. Every line can be played right on the page.
How the whole thing sounds
The situation: talking about work at a birthday party. First the whole conversation, then each line on its own, with a translation.
Lines one by one
| Turkish | Translation |
|---|---|
| Merhaba! Sen ne iş yapıyorsun? | Hi! What do you do for work? |
| Yazılımcıyım, küçük bir ofiste çalışıyorum. | I'm a programmer, I work in a small office. |
| Her gün ofise gidiyor musun? | Do you go to the office every day? |
| Hayır, iki gün uzaktan çalışıyorum. | No, I work remotely two days. |
| İyiymiş. Patronun nasıl biri? | Not bad. What's your boss like? |
| Çok iyi. Gelecek ay iki hafta izin alıyorum. | Very good. Next month I'm taking two weeks off. |
| Nereye gidiyorsun? Deniz mi, dağ mı? | Where will you go? The sea or the mountains? |
How to prepare for a conversation like this
Memorizing the lines is not enough: the other person will say their own thing, not what is written. What helps more is catching the key words by ear and keeping three rescue phrases ready: “I don't understand”, “repeat, please”, “slower”.
And one more thing phrasebooks do not mention: awkwardness gets in the way more than not knowing the words.
- Fear of making mistakes gets in the way of learning a language, and noticeably so. The link turns up study after study, and together those studies cover almost twenty thousand people.checked many timesTeimouri, Goetze & Plonsky, 2019, Studies in Second Language Acquisition 41(2) · 19,933 participants from 23 countries; correlation with results r = −0.36.
- That fear can be dealt with — the methods have been tested and they work.checked many timesXiong et al., 2024, Journal of Language and Social Psychology · 37 studies, anxiety reduced by −0.61. Of the seven conditions examined, only age turned out to matter.
Frequently asked
How do you start a conversation in Turkish in this situation?
“Merhaba! Sen ne iş yapıyorsun?” — Hi! What do you do for work? The first line in such a conversation is almost always the same, and that is the one worth learning: the other person will carry it from there.
What if you did not understand the reply?
Say “I don't understand” and “repeat, please” — both are in the rescue set. Admitting your language is still shaky almost always makes the other person more patient.
Should you memorize the dialogue?
No. It is more useful to catch the key words by ear: the other person will say their own thing, and a memorized line will not always fit their reply.