Language and Culture Notes

Time

In Turkey, not unlike many other cultures that aren’t American, the concept of time is a little bit more fluid. This can lead to frustration but can also be freeing and a lot of fun. As an example, Saturday night I went to a birthday party for one of my Turkish colleagues. To go, we met at a central location (most came five to ten minutes AFTER the stated time, of course) and went to buy a present on the way to her apartment. So we walked leisurely around the neighborhood in search of a place to buy a useful present, which of course meant we were much later arriving than we intended to be. But, through that, I discovered all kinds of interesting shops and things near my own apartment. It was pretty amazing, and all due to the lack of feeling pressured by time.

Language

There are a few things I’ve noticed about the language that aren’t in the teaching books. Some are probably dialectal issues specific to Gaziantep, but others are just things you wouldn’t learn except by being here. So here are a few notes:

yok: the books say it means “there isn’t any,” which is true. But here in Antep, at least, it’s used to mean “no,” which is understandable, since the official word for “no” is kind of long: it’s “hayır.”

tamam: this is by far the most useful word in the whole if the Turkish language. It means “okay,” and you can use it for anything! Hurt your knee by falling off the curb in front of the market? Get up, dust yoursefl off, and tell the onlookers, “Tamam!” Talking on the phone, and want to let the person on the other end know that you’re listening? “Tamam, tamam.” And the list goes on...

Religion

Of course, everyone is Muslim here. But it’s interesting learning more about Islam, which I’ve only know the bare basics of before. But it’s also interesting to see the things that remain from, I assume, pre-Islamic times. There are a lot of references to genies in the culture, for example.

But the most interesting thing to me is the source of evil. The gift we ended up buying was a ring from a jewelry store. At the store, there were lots of items with Quranic verses, which, I was told, were prayers for protection from evil. This, combined with the ubiquity of the evil eye, pictures of which are hung everywhere to ward it away, made me think about the source of evil in Turkish culture.

From these examples, it seems that the source of evil is always external. This marks a huge difference from Christianity, where the source of evil is internal: it is the natural human inclination. Of course, Christians don’t always acknowledge this or live it out, either, but it is fundamental to the faith. And you can’t be a Christian without acknowledging your own evil heart.