Why I Added a Little Tea Corner to My Website

When I was building Learn Turkish with Seda, several people suggested that I should put advertisements on the website. Others wondered why I was spending so much time preparing PDFs and giving them away when I could sell them as digital products. I also received some thoughtful suggestions about how to make the website financially sustainable in the long run.

I understood their reasoning. Websites cost money to run and creating educational materials takes time. These were sensible suggestions and I knew people were trying to help. Still, I kept coming back to one question: would I enjoy visiting my own website if I followed all that advice?

I spend quite a lot of time looking things up online. Sometimes I'm researching a historical subject or trying to understand something I've read. Other times I'm curious about something I've come across. And I can't tell you how often I find myself hunting for tiny X buttons, trying to close advertisements and pop-ups as though I'm escaping a particularly persistent salesperson. Before I've read a single paragraph, someone wants my email address. Halfway through an article, another box appears asking me to subscribe. Occasionally, I discover that I need to create an account just to finish reading.

I find the whole experience exhausting. I understand why websites need to generate income. When someone creates something valuable, I think it's reasonable for them to sell it. What bothers me is how often the act of looking for information has become an obstacle course of advertisements and registration forms. Sometimes I get the impression that the information I came for is almost an afterthought.

So when I was making my own website, I decided to keep that experience in mind. I wanted someone to be able to look up a Turkish grammar point, read an explanation, download a worksheet, and carry on studying. Perhaps they would come for a grammar lesson and end up reading about Turkish coffeehouses or an Ottoman tradition. I liked the idea of people wandering through the website according to their own curiosity, without constantly being interrupted or asked to pay before reading further.

Why I share what I know

I've been creating and sharing educational content for a long time now. I write about Turkish grammar, literature, history, and everyday culture. I make videos and prepare learning materials, often inspired by questions that come up during my lessons or conversations with people interested in Turkish.

Sometimes I write about something I know very well, and other times a question sends me off researching a subject I hadn't considered before. I might begin with a Turkish expression and find myself reading about Ottoman social customs two hours later. I enjoy following those connections and comparing sources. Once I've gathered enough information to make sense of a subject, I usually want to share it with other people.

My students have a lot to do with this. I've been teaching Turkish for more than ten years, and one of the things I enjoy most is meeting people from different countries who bring their own experiences and questions into our lessons. Their curiosity often makes me look at familiar things differently. A question about a word can become a grammar explanation, while a conversation about food or a particular custom might eventually turn into a blog post.

Over time, Learn Turkish with Seda has grown into a collection of free grammar lessons, cultural articles, videos, and other learning materials. I also write books and teach private lessons, which are part of how I earn my living. I've never seen a contradiction between charging for my professional work and making some of what I create freely available. I enjoy both and I want to continue doing both.

There is something satisfying about knowing that a person on the other side of the world might find an explanation they need and finally understand something that confused them. They can carry on studying and I may never know who they are.

That's fine with me.

A little more about free learning

There is a Turkish expression, Ne kadar ekmek, o kadar köfte. Literally, “as much bread, as much köfte.” The idea is familiar: you get what you pay for. It's a sensible way of describing many situations, and I certainly understand the relationship between work and compensation. I just don't particularly like the idea of applying that principle to every aspect of life.

I believe there should still be room for people to share things because they enjoy making them or because they think someone else might find their work useful. I have benefited enormously from people who have shared their knowledge freely, whether through articles, books available in public libraries, educational websites, or conversations with someone who knew more about a subject than I did.

Developing my Turkish learning app has made me think about these choices even more. What began as an idea for making my existing materials easier to use has grown into a much larger project. It now includes grammar lessons, exercises, flashcards, games, and plenty of other features. Every time I think I've finished something, I notice another detail that could be improved or another useful activity I could add. I suspect this is a familiar problem for anyone who enjoys making things.

I've decided that the app will be free. I want people to be able to open it and study Turkish without worrying about subscriptions or locked lessons. They should be able to complete as many exercises as they like without being asked to pay. I also want people to be able to use it without having to create an account.

Of course, all this takes time, and there are expenses involved in maintaining a website and developing learning materials. Researching a cultural article can take days, particularly when I find conflicting information and want to understand where it comes from. Even a short grammar explanation can require considerable work when I'm trying to make sure the examples are natural and accurate.

I know that making resources freely available creates its own challenges, especially as everything has to be maintained over time. Still, it's an approach I feel comfortable with, and I would like to see how far I can take it.

A different way of supporting something

I've been interested in voluntary support for a while. There are projects that make their work available to everyone while allowing people who appreciate it to contribute financially. Wikipedia is probably the most familiar example. Its organization and funding model are far more complex than anything I'm doing here, but I appreciate the underlying idea that access to information can remain open while financial support is voluntary.

I like the freedom this gives people. Someone who can afford to contribute may choose to do so, while someone who cannot is still welcome to use the resources. I also think there is something pleasant about supporting a project because you want it to continue. Perhaps you've learned something useful from it, or you appreciate the time someone has spent creating it. You might even support it because you like the idea of other people having access to the same resources.

So, after thinking about it for some time, I decided to create a small voluntary support page for Learn Turkish with Seda. I wanted it to be friendly and simple, with a little humor, because I really didn't want to turn this into another solemn announcement about funding and sustainability.

And since I'm Turkish, the answer was fairly obvious. Tea.

Buy Seda a Tea

In Türkiye, offering someone tea is one of the most ordinary gestures of hospitality.

When someone visits your home, you usually ask if they'd like some tea. A friend might stop by for a short conversation that turns into an hour, with the teapot making several appearances along the way. Even in shops and workplaces, offering tea can be a natural part of welcoming someone.

I like how familiar and uncomplicated this gesture is. A glass of tea is a small thing, but it can be a lovely way of showing appreciation or enjoying someone's company. So when I was trying to think of a name for my support page, Buy Seda a Tea seemed appropriate.

On the page, you can buy me bir bardak çay, a glass of tea, or bir demlik çay, a whole pot. There's also bir semaver, a samovar, for those who are feeling particularly generous, and an option to buy tea for the whole class, bütün sınıfa çay. I had quite a bit of fun designing the little watercolor illustrations for each option, although I probably spent more time choosing the teapots and their decorations than was strictly necessary. That's another thing about me: even a simple idea can become an excuse to make something.

The arrangement is straightforward. If you've enjoyed one of my articles or found a grammar explanation useful, you can buy me a symbolic glass of tea if you feel like it.

Any contributions will help me continue creating and maintaining the materials I share.

The free resources on my website will remain available to everyone, and the app will be free when it's released. You can continue reading the articles and using the grammar lessons whether you contribute or just come to learn. There are no special privileges attached to buying tea, and I have no plans to start counting how many glasses someone has bought before allowing them to read the next paragraph.

I intend to keep writing about the things that interest me, answering questions, researching curious bits of Turkish history, and finding new ways to make learning more enjoyable. I have far too many ideas waiting to be finished, and I suspect I'll continue adding to that collection faster than I can work through it.

If you've spent some time on my website, I hope you've found something interesting or useful here. Thank you for reading my articles and for the questions and thoughts you've shared with me. It's lovely to know that the things I spend my time creating are finding their way to people around the world. And if you'd like to leave a glass of tea on my table, I'll appreciate the gesture.

You can visit my little tea corner here: Buy Seda a Tea.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll make myself a glass of tea.

Seda