That's interesting. To me (being a fairly basic Turkish speaker but nowhere near fluent) the difference between Kader and Kismet is that Kader is stuff that's m

That's interesting. To me (being a fairly basic Turkish speaker but nowhere near fluent) the difference between Kader and Kismet is that Kader is stuff that's meant to happen in a strictly secular sense (e.g. a man goes to jail because he committed a murder, this I would view as kader although perhaps incorrectly) whereas kismet is more spectacular, indeed by the will of god for those that believe in such things, such as bumping into a long lost lover on the other side of the world by chance, rekindling a relationship and getting back together - that to me is definitely kismet. I've yet to see a decent romantic story that features kader :) I think the pruning of Ottoman from modern Turkish is a double-edged sword. On the one hand it makes learning basic Turkish incredibly straightforward. It took me two weeks to get to a level of proficiency similar to that of a 7 or 8 year old with my mother in-law. It's almost deceptively easy, because when you start talking to Turks in the real world a lot of the Ottoman loan-terms never really disappeared. Also I've noticed while I can talk to my mother and father in-law, I have real trouble understanding my anane, who almost speaks an entirely different language. The other thing I've noticed (in Istanbul at least), is the anglicisation of Turkish. I remember when computers were 'knowledge desks' (Bilgisayarlar), not 'laptops' or 'pee-sees'. I've noticed this particularly with technology, but even just overhearing conversations in taksim cafes it seems that young Turks are more likely to use English words in general conversation.