Gifts for Someone Learning Turkish: 9 Ideas for Adult Learners

Someone you know is learning Turkish. Maybe it is a partner who wants to talk to your family, a friend preparing for a trip, a grown child who grew up hearing Turkish at home and now wants to read and write it, or a classmate in an evening course. Whatever the reason, a good gift does not teach the language for them. It puts a short Turkish phrase in front of their eyes every day and gives them a small reason to say it out loud. This guide shares nine ideas for an adult who is learning Turkish. Each idea links to a Roots & Talks design that carries a real Turkish phrase, and it says what the product page tells you so you can choose with confidence.

Start with one phrase they will see every day

A phrase on a mug or a sticker is easy to remember because it is attached to a daily moment. Our designs use sayings Turkish families really say: Yemek yedin mi? ("Have you eaten?"), Çay koy, geliyorum ("Put the tea on, I'm coming"), Sana da ("to you too") and Nazar değmesin ("may the evil eye not touch you"). Choose the phrase that matches the person. For a learner who loves cooking, Yemek yedin mi? is a good first one. For a tea drinker, Çay koy, geliyorum fits the cup.

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For the fridge, the laptop and the desk

1. A magnet for the fridge. The Yemek Yedin Mi? die-cut magnet is made from flexible vinyl with a matte finish and a magnetic backing. It shows a gold speech bubble with Yemek yedin mi? and the handwritten line Bizde sevgi böyle konuşur, "this is how love speaks in our home". It is a small gift that sits where the learner passes ten times a day.

2. A sticker for a laptop or a water bottle. The Yemek Yedin Mi? kiss-cut sticker is a durable vinyl sticker that comes in three sizes. You can see more designs in the stickers collection.

3. A spiral notebook for new words. The Yemek Yedin Mi? spiral notebook has 118 ruled pages (59 sheets) and measures 6 × 8 in (15.2 × 20.3 cm). The product page describes it as a notebook for school notes, shopping lists and Turkish words, which is exactly how a learner uses one. Write the new word on the left and a sentence on the right. See other covers in notebooks and stationery.

For the tea break

4. A mug with a saying. The Çay Koy, Geliyorum 11 oz mug turns every tea break into a small lesson, because the phrase is on the cup. If your learner prefers something bigger, the 12 oz enamel mug carries the same design. All the options are in the mugs collection.

5. A ceramic ornament for a shelf or a window. The Sana Da ceramic ornament comes in circle, heart, star and snowflake shapes. Sana da is the answer you give when someone wishes you well, so it is one of the first phrases worth knowing. If you want the story behind it, read what sana da means and how to use it.

For writing back

6. A pack of greeting cards. A pack of ten cards, such as the Sana Da greeting cards, gives a learner a reason to write a few Turkish words by hand to a friend or a relative. A short line is enough. Envelopes are not included, so add a pack of envelopes of your own when you wrap the gift.

For listening and reading

Our digital stories are written for children, so the sentences are short and the pictures help. That can be a gentle place to start for an adult at the very beginning. They are digital downloads, so nothing is shipped.

7. A bilingual picture e-book. Hello, My Roots is a Turkish–English picture e-book for children ages 4 to 10. It has 12 short chapters, each with a picture, a short text in Turkish and English and four new words, plus a picture glossary of 48 Turkish words with a simple pronunciation guide.

8. A short audio picture book. Kelime Bavulu / The Word Suitcase is a short illustrated story for children ages 4 to 8 that you can read and listen to in either language. Ela fills a blue suitcase with words such as merhaba ("hello"), yağmur ("rain") and yıldız ("star"). Find more in the bilingual Turkish–English stories.

For the person who wants the sounds right

9. A gift for the first words. If your learner is a beginner, a short word list is easier than a grammar book. Read 15 Turkish words every kid should hear before age 8 together, and add the pronunciation notes to the new notebook. For sayings with a longer story, see what these Turkish sayings mean.

Four short lines for the card

Add one of these lines in Turkish to the card and ask the learner to read it out loud:

• Çay koy, geliyorum. Put the tea on, I'm coming.
• Yemek yedin mi? Have you eaten?
• Kolay gelsin. May it come easy, said to someone at work.
• Sana da. To you too.

If you are also shopping for a child's teacher, see our guide to gifts for your child's Turkish language teacher.

One more idea: a standing tea date

The gift that stays longest may be a regular cup of tea with someone who speaks Turkish. Pick a day, put the mug on the table and agree to use three Turkish words during the visit. The mug, the magnet or the notebook only gives you a reason to start. What the learner remembers is the first time a Turkish speaker answered back.