Nasreddin Hodja Research Articles

Literary Irony at the Intersection of Three Rhetorical Proofs: The Case of 'The Wise Follies of Nasr Eddin Hodja'

Literary Irony at the Intersection of Three Rhetorical Proofs: The Case of 'The Wise Follies of Nasr Eddin Hodja'

Structural and semantic features of Turkish language cultures (based on the material of the cartoon “Nasreddin Hodja: The Time Traveler”)

Structural and semantic features of Turkish language cultures (based on the material of the cartoon “Nasreddin Hodja: The Time Traveler”)

NASREDDİN HODJA'S JOKES ABOUT WOMEN

With the scope of this study, Nasrettin Hodja's jokes on women were selected to understand women with Nasrettin Hodja. Nasrettin Hodja's jokes, one of the universal faces of Turkish culture, are important in terms of literature and the sociology of women. In particular, the social and intellectual foundations of the national and universal dimension of the suggestions that create a perception of women within the framework of the universal dimension of the jokes identified with the Turkish people and intersecting with the realities of humanity should be understood. The social function of Nasrettin Hodja jokes holding the hand of time, the role of social control and culture transmitter, the perception of women that can affect our reflexes with the approach formed by the belief, emotion, thought, and perspective on which it is based should be understood. The translation was intended to contribute to Nasrettin Hodja's international recognition from a certain perspective with a woman's understanding and approach. Out of 371 Nasreddin Hodja jokes, 70 of them related in some way to women were translated from Turkish to English. Alpay Kabacalı’s book All Aspects of Nasreddin Hodja's Life, Personality and Jokes was preferred in the translation. Having the ability to represent the quality of humor of Nasreddin Hodja was taken as a criterion in the preference. The work is theoretical. A literature review was conducted. A quantitive, descriptive method was applied. Keywords: Nasrettin Hodja, joke, woman

Generation of Character Designs Based on Pre-Islamic Beliefs of Turks

Turkish communities had lived under the belief system of Turkic mythology, known as Tengriism, in a significant part of their history. It is noteworthy that Turkic mythology elements, which have taken such a place in the cultural life of the Turks, are not sufficiently used as visual design tools. Considering the significance of preserving cultural heritage, Turkic mythology is rarely shown in animations, video games, or movies. The primary gods, goddesses, and supernatural creatures of Turkic mythology are not directly depicted, despite the existence of some animations relating to Turkic cultures such as Keloğlan, Nasreddin Hodja, and Dede Korkut. The main concern of this article is that the elements of Turkic mythology are unable to find enough depiction. Therefore some dominant creatures belonging to Turkic mythology were transformed into character designs. As the method, two-dimensional computer-based modelling techniques were selected to compose character designs of selected Turkic mythology creatures.

Mythic Reflections in Two Anecdotes of Nasreddin Hodja Compiled from North Macedonian Turks: Resurrection from Bones

Türk kültür tarihinin ünü sınırları aşan efsanevi tipi Nasreddin Hoca, fıkraları vasıtasıyla günümüzde de yaşamakta ve hemen her konuya ve insan tipine yer veren fıkraları ile öğüt verme, yol gösterme ve taşı gediğine koyma işlevini yerine getirmektedir. Nitekim Nasreddin Hoca, halk adamı olarak eşsiz zekâsı hem güldüren hem düşündüren tarafı ile toplumdaki yanlışlık ve eksiklikleri eğlenceli bir dille hicveder. Hoca fıkralarının güldürücü, düşündürücü, eğitici, eğlendirici ve şaşırtıcı özellikleri çok yönlü bir mizah ürünü olmalarından kaynaklanır. Nasreddin Hoca, bir fıkra tipi olmasının yanında bir mutasavvıftır. Mitin; efsane, menkıbe, destan, masal gibi anlatılara geçen birçok özelliği Nasreddin Hoca gibi tasavvuf ehli üzerinden ona mal edilen fıkralar aracılığıyla yansıtılmaktadır. Bu fıkralar arasında efsane fıkraları şeklinde isimlendirilen grupta kemiklerden diriltme motifi üzerinde durulmaktadır. Eski inanış sistemlerinde canın bulunduğu yer, insan kanı; ruhun yeri ise kemik olarak düşünülmektedir. Kemik, başta dünyanın yaratılışında oynadığı simgesel rolün yanı sıra insanoğlunun yaratılışının da ana ögesidir. Kemik, eski çağlardan beri bazı halklar için insan ve hayvan vücudunun en devamlı unsuru olarak değerlendirildiği için ölümsüz olan ruhun da orada ikamet ettiği varsayılır. Bu bağlamda kemiklerden diriltme (intermezzo) inancı; Türkler, Moğollar gibi Altay kavimlerinin yanında başka kavimlerde de görülmekle birlikte daha çok Kuzey ve Orta Asya kökenli olduğu görüşü hâkimdir. Türk soylu halklar, kemik ve soy arasındaki bağdan hareketle soyun kemikten hâsıl olduğuna, canlının temelini teşkil ettiğine, hayatın devamlılığı ve geri dönüşün ancak kemikler sayesinde olabileceğine inanmaktadırlar. Bu inanışın yansıması olmak üzere mümkün olduğunca beden bütünlüğünün, özellikle iskelet ve kafatasının korunmasına ehemmiyet gösterilmiştir. Bu da ölülerin yeniden dirileceğine ve yaşamaya devam edeceğine dair inancın göstergesi olarak düşmana ait kemikleri ateşte yakarken atalarının mezarlarına ve dolayısıyla kemiklerine zarar gelmemesi için özenle koruyup gizlemiş-lerdir. Nesir diliyle ortaya konan kısa ve yoğun anlatı olarak ifade edilen fıkra, her ne kadar mit ve efsaneyle karşılaştırıldığında inanca dair bir anlatı değilse de özellikle tarihsel bir tipe bağlanan fıkraların gerçekliği mit ve efsane gibidir. Bu fıkralar, fıkra tasniflerinde efsane fıkraları diye isimlendirilen ayrı bir başlıkta ele alınmaktadır. Bu merkezde, Türklerin yoğun olarak yaşadığı Balkanlarda bulunan Kuzey Makedonya’dan Sevim Piliçkova tarafından derlenen Nasradin Hoca ve İtar Peyo adını taşıyan kitaptan rivayete dayanan Hoja’nın Bedovasi ve Nasreddin Hoca Öğretmen adlı iki fıkra tespit edilmiştir. Birbirinin varyantı niteliğinde olan iki Nasreddin Hoca fıkrasında gözlenen diriltme ve kemiklerden diriltme olgusu, başta din ve inanç sistemleri olmak üzere sözlü nesir anlatılar destan, efsane ve masalda ne şekilde yer aldığı, eskiliği vb. üzerinde durularak adı geçen fıkralar, mitle olan bağlantısı üzerinden değerlendirilecektir.

Preschool Children's Views on Nasreddin Hodja Jokes

Nasrettin Hoca, Anadolu kültürünün en önemli ismidir. Nasreddin Hoca hem bir mizah ustası hem de büyük bir düşünür ve bir halk bilgesidir. Nasreddin Hoca fıkralarında eğlendirirken eğitecek ve düşündürecek noktalar bulunmaktadır. Nasreddin Hoca fıkralarında her yaştan çocuğun kendi bilişsel seviyesine göre mizah içeren unsurlar bulabileceği düşünülmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı okul öncesi dönemdeki çocukların Nasreddin Hoca ve Nasreddin Hoca fıkralarına ilişkin görüşlerini belirlemektir. Temel nitel araştırma deseninde gerçekleştirilen araştırmanın çalışma grubunu, Antalya ilinde Millî Eğitim Bakanlığı’na bağlı bir anaokuluna devam eden 48-73 aylık 59 çocuk oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmanın verileri, araştırmacı tarafından hazırlanan “yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formu” aracılığı ile toplanılmıştır. Çalışma grubundaki çocuklarla bireysel olarak görüşülmüştür. Araştırmada “Ben Zaten İnecektim”, “Uykusu Kaçmış Da”, “Eşeğin Yönü” fıkraları ve bu fıkralara ilişkin üç adet resim ile bir adet Nasreddin Hoca resmi kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın verileri içerik analizi yöntemi ile analiz edilmiştir. Araştırmanın sonucunda çocukların çoğunun Nasreddin Hoca’yı tanıdığı, en çok çizgi film/televizyon aracılığıyla Nasreddin Hoca’yı tanıdığı tespit edilmiştir. Çocuklar Nasreddin Hoca’nın çizgi filmine, kişilik özelliklerine, fiziksel özelliklerine ve fıkralarına ilişkin açıklamalarda bulunmuşlardır. Çocukların tamamına yakının fıkranın ne demek olduğunu bilmediği ve anlatılan fıkraları daha önceden duymadığı görülmüştür. “Eşeğin Yönü” fıkrası çocukların en komik buldukları ve anlatımına en fazla güldükleri fıkra olmuştur. Çocukların tüm fıkralarda en fazla fıkradaki temel tutarsızlığı komik bulduğu görülmektedir. Çocukların çoğunun fıkralardaki nükteyi anlamadıkları görülürken en fazla “Uykusu Kaçmış Da” fıkrasındaki nükteyi anladıkları tespit edilmiştir. Çocukların bazılarının fıkraları komik bulduklarını ifade ettikleri halde gülmemeleri çalışmanın dikkat çekici bir bulgusudur. Hem çocukların Nasreddin Hoca’ya ilişkin bilgilerinin zenginleşmesi hem de çocukların mizah gelişimlerinin desteklenmesi açısından okul öncesi eğitim ortamlarında Nasreddin Hoca fıkralarına yer verilmesi önerilmektedir.

TRACES OF AHI-ORDER VALUES IN NASREDDIN HODJA ANECDOTES

13-15. centuries; It was a period when political, social, and economic turmoil and social conflicts were seen intensely in Anatolia. During this period, when the power struggles continued violently, the people of Anatolia retreated into their shells in despair and began to gather around the Turkmen dervishes. At this time when literary and cultural life was impoverished under the influence of foreign cultures, it was seen that Sufi movements and oral literature tradition had increased. The people, who could not know Arabic and Persian sources or could not access a limited number of Turkish works, tried to meet the need to read and listen to the folk literature goods that continued in their language and oral tradition, and the Seljuk society, which experienced a state of social collapse with what they learned from this, embraced the anecdotes of Nasreddin Hodja, which represented an important sage type of the period as a moral hub. In his anecdotes, there are solutions to every aspect of society that is flawed/disrupted. Articles about Nasreddin Hodja’s anocdotes were selected among many text publications by considering certain criteria. Here, rather than one of both the anecdotes belong to Nasreddin Hodja or not, more emphasis is placed on whether thet are told in the tradition of Nasreddin Hodja. This article is aimed to address the basic values of the Ethic organization from selected anecdotes of the teacher. Keywords: Ahi-Order, Nasreddin Hodja, Nasreddin Hodja Anecdote, 13-15th Centuries, Oral Culture, Principles of Ahi-Order.

Nasreddin Hodja Jokes in Late Chagatai Turkish

A great number of works have been created as instances of the joke/quip genre of oral tradition in almost all Turkish dialects with the character of Nasreddin Hodja, who is known not only in Western and Eastern Turkic languages but also all over the world. This study evaluates jokes included in the manuscript registered under No. 007 in the manuscript collection of the Chinghiz Aitmatov Institute of Language and Literature of the National Academy of Science of the Kyrgyz Republic, which is missing pages from the beginning and the end. Due to those missing pages, we do not know the date of publication. However, the language of the jokes belongs to Late Chagatai Turkish. In this study, we address the linguistic features of the Nasreddin Hodja jokes in the manuscript. The jokes contain certain sound changes because the language they were written in was experiencing a transition period. It can be said that the text was written during the transition period from Chagatai Turkish to Uzbek Turkish. An example from Uzbek Turkish has also been identified in relation to this situation (plurality 1st person imperative suffix -eylük/ -ylük). In addition, the affix +nI, which we encounter in recent Chagatai Turkish texts, is also found in the text. The conclusion of this work scrutinizes the linguistic material at hand.

TÜRK SİNEMASINDA KARA MİZAHIN SİNEMASAL SERÜVENİ: AZİZLER VE SENİ BULDUM YA FİLMLERİNDE DİJİTAL ÇAĞIN PSİKOPATOLOJİSİ

Öz: Komedi ve trajedi antik Yunan’dan beri en fazla işlenen iki tür olmuştur. Özellikle komedi türü her coğrafyada kendisine özgü biçim ve temalara bürünen en genel geçer tür olarak sanatın her formunda yerini almıştır. Antik Yunan’dan itibaren de hem trajik hem de komik olan unsurların biraradalığı sözkonusu olmuş ve trajikomik olarak nitelendirilmiştir. Modernizm ile birlikte trajikomik unsurlar; modern dünyanın saçmalığı, duyarsızlığı, hayatın anlamsızlığı, acı ve şiddetin olağan akışı ile mutlu son vaad etmeyen bir dünya kurgusunu içerir. Kendi coğrafyamızda ise trajikomiği türsel bir anlatı yöntemi ile ele alan yazın ve film anlatılarından kara mizah olarak bahsedilmiştir. Nasreddin hoca’dan Aziz Nesin’e kadar Türk mizahı aslında karamizah ekseninde günümüze kadar gelmiş ve en ilişkili alan olan sinemayı da etkilemiştir. Bu anlamda bu çalışma ile karamizah türünün Türk sinemasında hangi temel motifler üzerine inşa edildiği, kara mizahı ortaya çıkaran toplumsal koşulların neler olduğu noktası kavramsal ve tarihsel perspektiften irdelenmiştir. Modern dünyanın saçmalığı ve duyarsızlığı, hayatın anlamsızlığı üzerine kurulan kara mizah anlatılarının çağdaş örneklerinin merkezinde ise; sosyal medyanın esiri olmuş dijital öznelerle karşılaşılmıştır. Bu çalışmada pandemi sürecinde üretilmiş ve pandemi koşullarında dijital platformlarda izleyicisi ile buluşmuş Azizler ve Seni Buldum Ya filmleri üzerinden kara mizahın çağdaş Türk sinemasındaki yükselişi dijital teknolojilerin insanları dönüştürdüğü trajikomik süreç psikanalitik ve tür eleştirisi metodolojisi ile açıklanmaya çalışılmıştır.

From Biz Bıyıksızlar to Bayan Yanı: feminist caricature in Turkey from the 1980’s to the present

Mizah antik dönemden günümüze hikaye, fıkra, komedi, karikatür gibi sözlü, yazılı, performansa dayalı ve görsel-işitsel formlarla ortaya çıkan toplumsal- kültürel bir üründür. Bu özellikleri ile toplumsal muhalefetin de dili olma, güçlüye karşı zayıfın sesi olma işlevi üstlenir. Mizah ürünleri tarih boyunca egemen iktidarların söylem ve pratikleri karşısında tabi sınıflar açısından bir direniş ve güçlenme biçimi olagelmiştir. Toplumsal muhalefet bağlamında egemen söylemlere karşı alternatif söylemler kurmayı olanaklı kılmıştır. Türk toplumunun muhalefet geleneği içerisinde de Nasreddin hoca fıkraları, Karagöz oyunları kadar yakın tarihteki Marko Paşa, Gırgır, Leman gibi mizah dergileri ve karikatür de önemli bir rol oynar. Türkiye’de 1980 sonrası dönemde feminist hareketin de söyleminde bir ifade biçimi olarak ironi ve mizahın benimsendiği görülmektedir. Kampanyalar, protesto eylemleri ve en çok da hareketin dinamizmini sağlayan yayıncılık faaliyetlerinde hem popüler hem politik bir ifade biçimi olarak mizah unsurları ve karikatür önemli eleştirel bakış açılarını yansıtır. Bu çalışma Türkiye’de 1980’den günümüze karikatürist kadınlar tarafından ortaya konan feminist karikatürün izini sürmeyi hedeflemektedir. Bu çerçevede tarihsel-toplumsal gelişmeler ekseninde feminist karikatür çizerler, yayınlar ve eleştirel bakış açıları açısından betimlenmektedir. Çalışma sonucunda karikatürist kadınlar tarafından ortaya konan feminist eleştirel mizahın ataerkil toplumsal yapı ve bunun kadınlar üzerinde yarattığı baskıyı pek çok farklı açıdan ele aldığı; karikatürde kadın imgesinin dönüşümüne katkıda bulunduğu ve mizah aracılığıyla 1980’li yıllardan günümüze kapsayıcı ve çeşitlilik içeren bir söylem geliştirdiği görülmektedir.

ARTOPHORION IN AKŞEHİR NASREDDİN HOCA MUSEUM OF ARCHEOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY

The subject of the research is the artophorion exhibited in the Nasreddin Hodja Archeology and Ethnography Museum, registered at Selçuk Neighborhood, Ulucami Street No. 20 in Akşehir District of Konya. The bread and wine obtained from the eucharist, which is held on the last Thursday before Easter, are preserved in the Artophorions standing on the altar, one of the most important liturgical elements in the church. In this context, artophorions have a special importance. It was determined that the artophorion, whose architectural and general features were examined during the surveys carried out in 2019, has not been documented in any scientific study before. Within the scope of the study, photographs of the artophorion were taken, drawings were prepared and detailed descriptions were made. Artophorion; analyzed within the scope of material-technical, ornamentation, style and iconography features, and then evaluated comparatively with similar contemporary examples in Anatolia and outside Anatolia, especially in Konya. At the end of the study, a restoration proposal was presented by addressing the problems of preservation and exhibition of the artifact, which is exhibited in a glass panel in Akşehir Nasreddin Hodja Archeology and Ethnography Museum.

Joe Penhall’un Aşk ve Anlayış adlı oyununda modern hilebaz karakter

Contemporary English-Australian playwright and screenwriter Joe Penhall’s play Love and Understanding (2004) depicts the chaos of modern world and the disintegration of the two young doctors Neal and Rachel as lovers because of their busy works and miscommunication. This play also introduces us the lonely and depressive Richie who resembles ‘trickster’ with his manipulative, narcistic, self-seeking, tricky character. Trickster as a character in literature and culture is an archetypical figure who mostly appears in many different identities and disguises and adorns with amusing, mischievous and clever personality; moreover, trickster achieves to survive and to arrange all the affairs for his/her own hand. Many well-known personalities such as Dionysus, Pan, Prometheus and Nasreddin Hodja in mythology, literature or folk tales, and Jack Sparrow, The Joker or The Mask in movies can be cited as examples for trickster being cunning, cheater and rogue to some degree. As it will be analysed in this essay, in Penhall’s play, Richie can be read as the modern version of trickster with his decadent slyness, hedonism, shallowness and piteous loneliness.

Halide Edib’in Maske ve Ruh’taki Savaş Karşıtı Duruşu

In Masks or Souls written by a well-known woman novelist and feminist activist, Halide Edib Adıvar in 1945, the world problems and threats encountered are approached from the perspective of Nasreddin Hodja, one of the important figures of Turkish humor and philosophy in the thirteenth-century. Her being influenced by the philosophy of Nasreddin Hodja in Akşehir inspired her to write such a work in this style. The major people in the play are William Shakespeare and Nasreddin Hodja. Halide Edib develops a fantasy about sending these two personalities to the world after death, and events develop in this direction. Consisting of a prologue and four acts, Masks or Souls is a work in which fragmentary expression is preferred, which does not depend on time and space elements. Spaces can be classified as earth and the hereafter or earth and sky in general. Criticizing the top-down structure of the reforms and westernization process that took place immediately after the declaration of the Turkish Republic in 1923 throughout the play, Halide Edib closely experienced the material and spiritual two-way nature of people in the war environment as a person who personally experienced the destructive effects of wars on the shaping of the soul and body. During the voluntary exile period that she preferred during her maturity years, she saw the east and the west on her trips to America and India and made a comparison. She wanted to bring together the writers and personalities she was influenced by and reveal the true face of the human being hidden behind masks because the meanings of the concepts of “good” and “bad” are intertwined. The objective of this paper is to show how Masks or Souls epitomizes Halide Edib’s anti-war stance and pacifist nationalism as an example of anti-war literature.

NASRETTİN HOCA ZAMAN YOLCUSU: SÖZLÜ, YAZILI VE ELEKTRONİK KÜLTÜR METİNLERİ ARASINDA BİR ÇİZGİ DİZİ

Urbanization, born with the new production and consumption tools that emerged after the Industrial Revolution, has influenced the world over time. This process has developed simultaneously with transportation and communication technologies. Therefore, in the new cultural environment, communication tools have started to be effective in the cultural acquisition process of the individual rather than family, relatives and other social environment. Thus, the effect of traditional information transfer systems has decreased. In this process, television has become a media tool that has significant effects especially on children. Therefore, the structure and purpose of the cultural content watched on television has gained importance. In this context, the subject of the article is the cartoon series "Nasreddin Hoca Zaman Yolcusu" broadcast on TRT Cocuk, a thematic channel. The aim of the article is to examine the role of television in the process of updating the tradition through the selected sample. Within the scope of the study, thirty episodes of the cartoon series were watched from the beginning. These sections were analyzed with content analysis technique. In the cartoon series, Nasreddin Hodja anecdote type is confronted with today's issues and the audience is shown his humorous, philosophical, critical and instructive attitude. Each episode in the series is based on a separate case study. In the series, various topics such as transportation, urbanization, shopping and consumption culture, environmental problems, animal rights, and the effects of technology are discussed. The cartoon named “Nasreddin Hoca Zaman Yolcusu” is an example of updating a tradition produced based on the field of cultural indicators represented by Nasreddin Hodja anecdote type.

KONYA DA OTEL İŞLETMECİLİĞİNE İNOVATİF BİR YAKLAŞIM: NASREDDİN HOCA TEMALI BUTİK OTEL ÖNERİSİ

Nasreddin Hodja, world famous folk philosopher and joke hero, spent a significant part of his life in Aksehir district of Konya and died there. His grave in Aksehir was later converted into a tomb. Although there are many activities on Nasreddin Hodja in Konya, there is no place to add value to the city in terms of tourism in which this important figure is used as the theme. From this viewpoint; the aim of this study is to determine whether the visitors will prefer this hotel or not when a boutique hotel with Nasreddin Hodja theme, based on the understanding of innovative hotel management, is built in Konya. In order to achieve this aim, a literature review was conducted and a field research was made based on the information obtained. Semi-structured interview technique, one of the qualitative research method, was preferred as a method of data collection. Open-ended questions prepared by looking at research questions were included in the form. Within the scope of the research, interviews were made with visitors visiting Konya for touristic purposes and staying in four star hotels and boutique hotels around Mevlana Museum

A book written in the 19th century to teach Turkish to German speakers: Praktisches Handbuch der osmanisch-tuerkischen Sprache

This study aims to analyse the book Praktisches Handbuch der osmanisch-tuerkischen Sprache written by Adolf Wahrmund to teach Turkish to German speakers in terms of teaching Turkish as a foreign language. The first edition of the work was published in Giessen, Germany in 1869 by J. Ricker’sche Buchhandlung publishing house. The themes were created by analysing the data obtained from the study through content analysis. The work was examined under the theme headings, such as target audience, phonetics, grammar teaching, reading passages, speaking teaching, vocabulary teaching, exercises and cultural transfer. The themes first were defined and then they were exemplified and interpreted. The results of the study indicate that many skills (reading, speaking, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation) were included, cultural transfer (formulaic expressions, idioms, proverbs, Nasreddin Hodja jokes, etc.) was emphasised and authentic materials (newspaper articles, letters of agreement, stories, etc.) were used in teaching Turkish as a foreign language in the work.
 
 Keywords: Adolf Wahrmund, Praktisches Handbuch der osmanisch-tuerkischen Sprache, teaching Turkish as a foreign language, Turkish for Germans and German speakers.

Children's understanding of human–nature interaction after a folk storytelling session

The purpose of this study is to investigate how children express human–nature interactions after a folk storytelling session. In order to accomplish this task, a Turkish folk story was told to thirteen five-year-old Turkish preschool children. Subsequently, the children were asked to retell the story and semi-structured interviews related to the story were conducted with each of them. Findings revealed that folk stories like the Nasreddin Hodja story in this study could be a useful means for children to understand interconnections in nature and be respectful and feel empathy towards living things in nature. Teachers and educators should design more environmental storytelling activities for children.

The Value of Nasreddin Hodja Fikras in Terms of Turkish Teaching to Foreigners

European Council Modern Languages Department that aims developing a common foreign language program, a common standard in foreign language teaching, common criterions and a tool that based on this, has forged The Common European Framework. Also Turkey, in the year of 2000, because of the Socrates program, adopted a language teaching according to this framework. Language teaching is also cultural education, with this side, combining culture elements that Turkish depends with language teaching is quite important. An important part of Turkish also forms literary texts. In these literary texts Nasreddin Hodja holds an important place and one of the important source that must use in language education process. In this study, potential value of Nasreddin Hodja jokes was revealed by document analysis method. Place of Nasreddin Hodja in the field of teaching Turkish to foreigners was examined and according to language levels that determined in European Language Portfolio, Nasreddin Hodja jokes was offered.

Nasreddin Hodja Tales May Inspire Turkish Foreign Language Gifted and Talented Students to Speak Better English

Nasreddin Hodja Tales May Inspire Turkish Foreign Language Gifted and Talented Students to Speak Better English

Nasreddin Hodja tales may inspire Turkish foreign language gifted and talented students to speak better English

This study deals with a special methodology to meet the special needs of Turkish gifted and talented students (GTS) in terms of improving their English oral proficiency. Most GTS are known to have been born also “gifted in languages”. Their language awareness shows by their “communicative skills, creative flair and arguing and reasoning”. Their skill in using their native language reflect in their talents in foreign languages by their “strong desire to put language pieces together by themselves, by their creativity and imagination, picking up new words and structures very quickly, constantly asking questions and showing an intense interest in the cultural features of the new language they are learning.” So benefitting from these talents they could easily be oriented to fine-tune their pronunciation and intonation in acceptable norms of phonetics. Turkish GTS having greater ease in learning new skills than their peers and are not usually satisfied with the usual methods and curriculum which do not fit to their vision of perfection at their own pace. The official foreign language training they are offered lacks the method by which they can learn to speak clearly and effectively, which is a skill they need to acquire in order to communicate orally with the rest of the world. Therefore they must be trained in new approaches to bring their proficiency on that line up to higher standards. In order to compensate this vital gap, such GTS need to learn first a special technique called “IPA transcription reading” and practice on relevant materials. In this innovative approach, students first acquire an awareness of the individual sounds and speech rhythm of the target language, i.e. English and practice on them by reading aloud texts written in IPA codes accompanied by their sound recordings and have their performance monitored by their speech instructions until perfection is reached. As for the drilling material to be chosen humor has been found great advantage, as it makes learning easier. The best known Turkish philosopher Nasreddin Hodja’s satirical tales, traditionally a great source of inspiration for Turks, has been considered as a great source for such activities. By working hard on the transcriptions Hodja tales, students find not only to express themselves in English more clearly, understandably and fluently, their audience but also their conversation became wiser and more humourous. Because a sense of humor in conversation makes both speakers and listeners feel better as it smoothes out their interactions as a social lubricant. Those GTS grasping the correct norms of English pronunciation after much drilling on transcription are expected to speak English more efficiently and confidently than earlier and than their peers not undergone such training. The desired outcome will of course be achieved through constant practice and monitoring their performances