Beginning Kazakh

by: Ablahat Ibrahim, Ph.D.

Beginning Kazakh Cover
Beginning Kazakh will give you confidence communicating in Kazakh at an everyday level.  Learn to speak and understand Kazakh with native Kazakh speakers in a variety of cultural contexts. Watch video and learn about greetings, shopping, food, dining out, weather, education, literature, holiday traditions, and more.  With our specially designed video player for language learning you can pause the video at any point and scroll the transcription. Read annotations about culture and grammar. Click on almost any word or sentence to hear it spoken, along with translations.   This course can be used either by independent learners or by students in a traditional or self-instructional classroom setting, and is the equivalent of the material covered in a one-year college course.  

Classroom-Tested and Peer-Reviewed

Beginning Kazakh was developed and peer-reviewed by Kazakh language experts and used by college students as their first year textbook. It was originally published as part of the highly reviewed University of Arizona Critical Languages Series, and we have added many new mobile-friendly features.
The course contains 20 lessons, 10,000 audio clips, dozens of exercises, hundreds of annotations, and 25 videos performed by native speakers.

Just $9.99/month! (3 month minimum).

Multiple Choice, Fill in the blank, and Listening Dictation exercises are provided for each lesson. A searchable audio glossary with thousands of words and translations helps you find every occurrence of a word or part of a word in all of the lessons. Downloadable podcasts (MP3 files) of all Kazakh sentence recordings for all lessons. Record your own voice and compare it to a native speaker!  

Our interactive video player for language learning:

Try one of the sample lessons below with video, transcriptions, annotations, translations, and individual word and sentence audio recordings:

Table of Contents and Free Sample Lessons with Video

Introduction to the Kazakh Language and Alphabet
  1. Сәлеметсіз бе! (Hello!) Try a Listening Dictation
  2. Жұмыста (At work)
  3. Мектепте (At school)
  4. Пәтерде (At an apartment)
  5. Көшеде (On a street)
  6. Жол қатынасы туралы сөйлесу (Conversation about transportation)
  7. Поштаға бару (Going to a post office)
  8. Телефонмен сөйлесу (Talking on the phone)
  9. Қазақ досымның үйінде қонақта болу (Being a guest at my Kazakh friend’s home)
  10. Қазақ тағамдарын жасау туралы сөйлесу (Talking about how to make Kazakh dishes)
  11. Базардан заттар сатып алу (Buying things at a market)
  12. Ауа райы туралы сөйлесу (Talking about weather)
  13. Ресторанда тамақтану (Eating at a restaurant)
  14. Демалыс және көңіл көтеру туралы сөйлесу (Talking about rest and recreation)
  15. Саяхат жасау туралы сөйлесу (Talking about traveling)
  16. Емханада ауыру және емделу туралы сөйлесу (At the polyclinic, talking about illness and treatment)
  17. Спорт туралы сөйлесу (Talking about sports)
  18. Қазақ әдебиеті туралы сөйлесу (Talking about Kazakh literature)
  19. Кітап дүкенінде кітап сатып алу (Buying books at a bookstore)
  20. Қоштасу кеші (Farewell party)

About the Author

Ablahat Ibrahim received his Master’s degree in Central Asian Turkic Languages and Literature from Xinjiang University, Urumqi, China. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington, in the field of Turkic Studies. Dr. Ibrahim has lectured in Turkic linguistics and literature at Xinjiang University, and has taught Kazakh and Uzbek at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at the University of Washington. Research interests include comparative Turkic linguistics, ancient and contemporary written Central Asian Turkic literature, and oral literature of the Turkic peoples of Central Asia.

Other Kazakh Resources

Beginning Kazakh materials © 1995-2023 Arizona Board Of Regents on behalf of the University Of Arizona. Used under license.