Traveling to a different country takes a lot of preparations. From knowing what to bring to figuring out what attractions you wanna see, to understanding their language and learning their culture. Each country has a its very own lifestyle that you need to adjust to. I traveled to Istanbul, Turkey with my family from July 27th until August 1st during summer break. It took approximately 10 hours by plane from Toronto. We decided to travel there because it would be a fun and educational experience. As my family and I landed, I embrace this new language that I started to hear; turkish and once in awhile, Arabic. As Turkish being their main language, it was quite hard to understand my surroundings. While Arabic is their second, I managed to …show more content…
During my last few days in Turkey, I started to notice the names they used to address people that they do and don’t know. It is very similar to English and many other languages. When my family and I went to a restaurant, the waiter would address my dad by adding the word ‘bey’ after his first name. Bey means ‘sir’, and in the English language, the terms ‘sir’ and ‘ma 'am’ are used when addressing someone with a higher status. Same goes for ‘Miss’, which is hanim in Turkish. In the travel guide that I read, it says to address a professional by his occupational title only whether it is a guy or a girl. For example, for a male doctor or lawyer, the proper terminology would be to only say Doktor or Avukat but if it were a lady, the word Bayan (Female) would be added before the occupation. For example, Bayan Doktor or Bayan Avukat. In conclusion, my stay in Istanbul was a very new and informative experience. From the way Turks speak to the way the eat to the way they live, it was a good to learn a different culture. I felt very welcome and enriched with new information. I would definitely go to Turkey again but to a different city to see new attractions. Turkey is a very different country that has many different customs that I’m not use to so being aware of this helped me adjust the way I see things when I was there. I would love to learn Turkish and hope to understand their culture