My Love For America

My love for the Turkish culture and food began when I was choosing classes for my first high school experience. When the only languages offered were Spanish and Turkish I absent mindedly wrote down Turkish and hit submit without a second thought. Entering my first day of high school, I soon realized how grateful and happy I was that I had chosen Turkish. Not only was my teacher, Mr. Kilcak amazing, he knew how to get everyone's attention through a fun and exciting environment. Although we had textbooks to master the language we rarely used them. The books were his guide for what to teach next. I must say that I owe everything to Mr. Kilcak, and I cannot stress enough what an amazing teacher he is. Not only did he teach the language through games and

Kilcak in one week than I have ever deemed possible. The joy of knowing a language that isn’t commonly taught in the United States was evident when I would blurt out numbers or simple introducing sentences in Turkish. I watched, as people’s awed faces would pat my back and say, “Keep up the good work”, And “That’s so cool!”. This ultimately fueled my quest even more to master the language. What seemed then, like complicated words that I had memorized proved to be just common conversation starters in the Turkish language as the weeks turned into months. During this time I would always look forward to Turkish class and my newly found friends there. I would constantly go to the turkish cultural center that Mr. Kilcak invited us to, and stuff myself on doner, tabbouleh, baklava, kaymakli kayisi, Turkish chai tea, and of course coffee. Mr. Kilcak not only taught us the language but also the culture. Some days it felt more like a history class then a Turkish one. I learned the myths behind Galata Tower, I learned about the bathhouses, and the life of a sultan, also the traditional clothing, and more often than not in the background of all of this, was Mr. Kilcak’s favorite tunes from