Hello All!
I have been having such a busy and wonderful time that I have neglected my blog, my apologies. From the language to the culture, experiencing Turkey and understanding is coming along wonderfully. In Germany our class spoke a lot about "Kultural verstandnis oder misverstandnis," meaning, "Cultural understanding or misunderstanding." The longer I am able to experience Turkey inside the home of Turkish people, interacting with Turkish people, and altogether, experiencing the culture from an inside view, the more I realize the amount of "Kultural misverstandnis" that not only I had about Turkey, but, I believe others have as well. Speaking in general terms: certain Turkish words. Many times, when looking up the meaning of a Turkish word, my friends or I will find a very generic, non-descriptive word as an English translation. And, in many cases, this "English Translation" is not only insufficient, but also wrong. This can lead to a great deal of miscommunication and understanding. What is one to do if there are no adaquate translations? "Erlebnis" is a perfect German word meaning "Lived experience." I have often left Google translate or my Turkish dictionary and instead am taught words based on experience and examples. In Turkish, there are very specific words for specific occasions, for particular emphasis or to un-emphasis.
How about another cultural observation that is often misunderstood: the relationship between men and women. A few evenings ago, I was able to have a "girls" night-accompanied by the ever-so-helpful Google Translate. We talked, of course, about men and the difference between Turkish relationships and those of American relationships. Walking around Turkey, one can see an exceedingly larger amount of couples walking hand in hand, with their arms around one another. It seemed like very rarely were there single couples. In the same, there were usually groups of people, men with other men, or women with other women, three or more walking to and from destinations. The Turkish men are very sweet to the women in a way that can be considered, old fashioned courtship courtesy-opening all the doors, allowing the women to go first, pulling out chairs, and being very attentive to the woman's needs. They are also exceptionally affectionate, in public and in private, more than most in America. Public PDA, public displays of affection, are not at all uncommon. The women said that this is because God meant for man and woman to be together. A couple is two people that are one, and the men hold very firmly and proudly to this fact. When they are holding hands, they are holding hands with their other half. They will treat their other half the way that they want to be treated (aka, the golden rule). I then asked, how is that feeling retaliated because in many cases, I had not seen women be as affectionate towards their men. I was told that the woman take pride in serving their significant other and it is their way of showing their love and appreciation. Cooking, cleaning, washing, these are all things that the women found perfectly acceptable ways of retaliating the love that they are shown everyday.
A little before the "girls night," I was able to talk with a student of Turkish classical music at the Istanbul Conservatory. She was very excited to hear that a foreigner had an interest in Turkish classical music, and was slightly surprised to hear that there may be a correlation between Turkish music and Western classical music. The topic for that evening was how one sings Turkish classical music or in Turkish, "Türk Müziği" and what Turk Muzigi entails. There are 88 different forms of Turk Muzigi. Thank goodness, during Mozart's time, there were only 15 in use. Each form has specific characteristic traits, melismas, forms, etc. In short, different sounds to them. Every form requires the singer to use throat voice and use their larynx to control the melismatic passage (fast with lots of notes). The melismatic passages are unlike those in Western classical music in that they contain komas, or notes in-between our normal notes of the scale. "Zum Beispiel" or in English, For Example:
The Note "A"= 440 Hz
imagine the next note, "Bb"= 450 Hz
Our Western scale would only have A to Bb, nothing in between. However, Turkish music has 9 notes, 9 komas, between A and Bb
A=440,
1st komma= 441.1111 Hz
2nd komma= 442.2222 Hz
3rd komma= 443.3333 Hz
etc.
These are theoretical numbers, but they give a good idea of how fine the tuning is not only for the trained musician but also for the instruments with which the singer sings. It takes years of practice and training to be able to sing/play all 9 kommas.
Here is a beautiful example by one of the most famous Turkish classical music artists, Zeki Muren
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgbRbBVQc64
Hopefully, the next few days will not be as busy, and I can find more time to write. Until then, have a beautiful day!
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