Greeting Difference in Turkey

What is the difference with greetings in Turkey from the U.S.?

the first is with having to do with age or status it seems that every teacher in the university is called by professor by the students and not by their name. Here in the U.S. the students call their teachers by their last name and if there are teachers that seem to be close to the students then they would even call them by their first name.

The second fact with greetings is the way in which they greet. In Turkey the men touch each others cheek and the women give a kiss on each cheek and the same goes with the opposite sex greeting. In Turkey they are not afraid to be close to each other when speaking and are comfortable in that way. While in the U.S. you either shake hands or wave in the distance. In the U.S. it is always about having your space and the Americans are not comfortable with someone so close to them when speaking and would rather have a little conversations with people.

Bathroom Culture in Turkey

Now the one thing I was most afraid of when going to Turkey was having to use the bathrooms because I imagined that in some places we would have to go find a tree. Then when I got there I found a new form of bathroom. Now the first interesting fact about the bathroom is that it is actually called a W.C which stands for water closet. The other inserting fact is that most places have just one bathroom for boys and girls.

The new toilet I discovered is called a squat toilet which is a whole in the ground. and in the bathrooms where they more than one stall they have 2 of those squat toilets and then one sit toilet. So whenever we saw the option of a sit toilet then we wouldn't mind waiting in a long line for that one stall. This was the time that I started to appreciate the toilets we have back home even though by the end of the trip I had become a pro at the squat toilets.

Sports in Turkey

Among all the sports in Turkey the most competitive and exciting sport is soccer. For me I am a huge fan of soccer, I love to watch it, and play it, so I knew that I had to learn about soccer in Turkey. Turkey has qualified three times for the World Cup finals in 1950, 1954, and 2002, although they withdrew from the 1950 event. Turkey has also qualified three times for the UEFA European Championship in 196, 2000, and 2008. They have reached semi-finals of three major tournaments: the 2002 World Cup, the 2003 Confederations Cup, and Euro 2008. In Turkey there are also soccer leagues in Turkey and the two big ones that are known are called Fenerbahce and Galatasaray. Also within the famous Real Madrid team, my favorite team, they have players that are Turkish. 

The most famous is Mesut Ozil who is part Turkish but was raised in Germany and plays as attacking midfielder.

Hamit Altintop is also a German born Turkish player who plays either defender or midfielder.

And lastly, Nuri Şahin is a also a German born Turkish player who plays as a midfielder 

The economy in Turkey

During our stay in Cankiri we had the chance to sit down with a teacher from the college and speak to us about the economy in Turkey. When driving from city to city in Turkey you notice that there is construction everywhere you turn. They are building malls, homes, business buildings that would create more jobs for the people.While we were in Cankiri we got to see the construction of the new campus that was being built for the university and to my surprise it was actually the biggest campus I had ever seen.

 In the lecture we saw an increase in jobs having to do with service, but they still had an amount of people doing jobs with agriculture which is important to Turkey. Also in walking through the streets, if you compared the number of homeless people outside in Turkey to the number in the United States it is definitely smaller to the U.S. There was just a few people outside asking for money and this is a sign that Turkey is at a Economic development. We learned the difference between Economic growth and economic increase which was that economic development refers to social and technological progress, while economic growth 
implies only an increase in quantitative output and it may or may not involve development.

Even though Turkey's GDP is not as good as the U.S. it is at a point where they could get better and maybe even one day become at the level of the U.S.

Music in Turkey

The Music in Turkey is very different to the music you here in the U.S. While I was on a bus ride from Istanbul to Cankiri we had the chance to watch T.V. On the ride there I watched this music channel which was kind of like MTV but that they played music videos all day long. Most of the music either ballads with rock music and then pop music with techno. One artist I particularly liked watching was this one girl name Bengu who was a pop singer. Her voice was husky but the beats to the songs were fun to listen. In turkey it is always about the drums and rhythm. Her looks reminded me of Katy Perry but her voice and gaze was like Fergie of the Black eyed Peas.

When we were in Cankiri we were invited to the Graduation celebration of the college students so me and the other students thought they would be playing American music, but instead they played traditional Turkish music all night with a live band and everything. Only once did they play a dance song but it was Turkish of course. We asked some of them if they knew american artists and they did but they still liked their music better, and who wouldn't? The traditional music is danced with a mixture of Greek and Spanish dancing which was fun.

Politics in Turkey

         Before you learn the politics you must know that Turkey is a parliamentary representative 

democracy.  Since its foundation as a republic in 1923, Turkey has developed a secularism. 

The President of the Republic is the head of state and is elected for a five year term by direct 

elections. The Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers 

which make up the government, while the legislative power is vested in the unicameral 

parliament, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The judiciary  is independent of the 

executive and the legislature, and the Constitutional Court is charged with ruling on the 

conformity of laws and decrees with the constitution.

 The prime minister is elected by the parliament through a vote of confidence in the government 

and is most often the head of the party  having the most seats in parliament. The current prime 

minister is the former mayor of İstanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the 

leader of a popular and largest political party in Turkey called the AKP. The AKP portrays itself 

as a pro-Western party in the Turkish political spectrum that advocates a conservative social 

agenda and a liberal market economy that includes Turkish membership in the European 

Union.

Someone very important that started this republic in Turkey was Mustafa Kemal Pasha, or 

Ataturk. He was a military commander who had distinguished himself during the Battle of 

Gallipoli, the Turkish War of Independence  was waged with the aim of revoking the terms of 

the Treaty of Sèvres. 

During our trip we had a chance to go into the Musuem of Ataturk where 

there were images and writings about this own war. There was a memorial where people would 

leave flowers on his grave. This man was a hero the Turkish people and there was pictures of 

him all over Turkey even tattooed on guys arms. On our flight from Antalya to Istanbul we saw 

this man who tattooed this huge image of Ataturk on his arm. This man was like the George 

Washington or Martin Luther King of Turkey.

Fashion in Turkey

The Turkish Fashion is varies just like in the U.S but I noticed the trends in which they dress and style themselves.

The First thing I noticed was the beautiful handmade, flower printed head scarfs some of the women wore. A lot of the head scarfs had the Tulip which is the flower of Turkey. While the others had other flowers and designs that are rare to find in the U.S. The scarves would wrap around the neck and over the head and were mostly worn by elderly women and some younger women. I myself bought two head scarfs in the Grand Bazar that head a lace flower design and it came in a coral color and navy blue.

Another trend i noticed was something that is very popular in the U.S which is the colored skinny jeans that all the girls wear. The colors I saw was like a rainbow with normal colors and even to the pastel colors. The only difference is that since most of the girls in Turkey are Muslim some of them still wear the jeans during the summer while the U.S wear the colored denim shorts.
Along with the skinny jeans there were tons of people wearing Harem pants and if you don't know what Harem pants are then just think of MC Hammer's pants. These were being sold everywhere and so every tourist had a pair and even I bought myself a pair. These are by far the most comfortable and light pants you could ever wear so I recommend every women to buy a pair.

Now for the Men there was not much a difference with the guys dressing in the U.S. to the Turks but there was a trend for older men which were these little carry on bags. The first time I saw it was with our first tour guide and then later all the older men we met had their own little handbag to place all their things. The handbag was always black and leather and it almost looked like a camera bag to hold your camera. I was thinking to buy one for my dad but I knew he would never use it, but for the Turkish men it was definitely useful though.

College life in Turkey

How is the College life different or the same to the U.S??

In Turkey we visited two colleges that were in Cankiri and Cappadocia and they were called Cankiri University and Neveshir University. We had the chance to Vice Directors, Deans, teachers and the Rectur, or Director of the college. At this time it was our summer vacation so there was just students in our college taking summer classes. For Turkey the students were about to go on vacation also but there students taking Summer school. Why Summer school you ask? well in Turkey we learned that students that do not pass a course have the chance to make it up in summer school and they also have a chance to take the Final exam more than one time. Now in the U.S colleges they just only give us one chance to either pass or fail and there  is no such thing as Summer School in college.

Another difference between the U.S and Turkish colleges is Turkey has just two years for graduation while U.S. have a choice of 2 years for an Associates Degree or 4 years to gain a Bachelors Degree. Most students in the U.S achieve a Bachelors Degree to try and get the best available job. In a lecture we had at the English Learning center in Cankiri we learned that the Turkish people have this anxious feeling to go out and find a job right after college with their degree, but for the U.S it is a little scary thinking about the future because less and less jobs are being available and some with even the highest degrees are unemployed because they can not find one. While in Turkey they are still developing so many business and jobs that there is room for everyone to be employed and make a living.

Religion in Turkey

The main religion that is practiced in Turkey is Islam, but there are just a few people that are Christians or in other religions. The interesting fact about Turkey though is that it is a secular state which means there is no official  state religion. This provides the Turks with religious freedom, but everyone stays in the belief of Islam.

The U.S. is similar where they have the freedom to choose our religion or even not have a belief. The difference between Turkey and the U.S is the U.S. having varieties of religions and churches. There are even some churches that can be found in the U.S. because they are new.

With the Muslims in Turkey there seemed to be a difference also between them and the Muslims in the U.S. With me on my trip we had two other students from the States that were Muslim and were also surprised to see the culture difference in religion in Turkey. We saw many people that drank alcohol and girls dressed in clothing that didn't completely cover themselves or seem appropriate. In the U.S there are strict rules and in the Koran it says that drinking alcohol is prohibited. We asked a student from Cankiri University to why they drink even though the Koran says not to and he says that people do it there thinking it is not a bad sin like the others so they drink anyway knowing the consequence it might have on them. With the clothes it did seem hard to cover yourself completely with this scorching heat Turkey have, but it was another rule they must keep. In my belief I do believe it is wrong to drink and not follow what your religion says, but I also belief that people have the right to have their own agency and make their own decisions.

Traveling to Turkey

For two weeks I have had the chance to travel to a country not well known  in certain countries. The Country of Turkey shares its history with both Europeans and Arabs. This country lives with the historic sites that make this country so well known especially to the Islam religion

The places I had the chance to visit were Istanbul, Ankara, Cankiri, Cappadocia, Konya, and Antalya. Throughout the two weeks I learned different aspects of the Turkish culture and made up some differences it has to the United States.