June 11, 2012

Turkish Olympiad

Ahmet Selim

The Turkish Language Olympiad continues to provide us with excitement, appreciation and joy. How can those foreign students learn such good Turkish in such a short time, and how can they sing songs and read poems so brilliantly?

I have been interested in the field of education for a long time, but I couldn’t come up with an explanation for what I saw at the Olympiad -- that was until I went backstage and witnessed the relationship between the students and their teachers. I was surprised to see that those teachers are not there solely to provide them with knowledge or help with their performances; they are more like parents or life coaches, aiming to improve their students in every field, including their manners, morality, mental well being, skills and life ideals. And the key word here is “dedication.”

Published on Sunday's Zaman, 10 June 2012
Original version [in Turkish] published on Zaman Daily, 10 June 2012