Metaphors that Foreigners Learning Turkish in Turkey Produced about Turkish Language Teachers, Turkish Language, T？MERs (Centers of Teaching Turkish) and Turkey

The aim of this study is to determine opinions of learners learning Turkish as a foreign language in Turkey about Turkish teachers, the center they learn Turkish at, Turkish and Turkey via metaphors. With this goal, it was asked 92 learners from B1, B2 and C1 levels who learn Turkish as a foreign language at three state university’s Turkish teaching center to make some metaphors about these subjects and to write their metaphors’ reasons. Phenomenologic method was utilized in the rasearch and obtained data were analyzed by content analysis. According to the results of the research, participant usually produced positive images about their Turkish teachers, Turkish, T？MER (Turkish Teaching Center) and Turkey. Turkish teachers were firstly perceived as friend, fellow, mother, angel etc. The participants likened Turkish to either their own languages or some other languages. Turkey was mostly perceived as paradise by the participants. Besides the most frequently produced images in terms of the learners’ Turkish level, genders, time they live in Turkey and their countries were presented