Turk*Lish

So between my wild hand gestures and awkward imitations of the actions I am generally trying to portray, my Turkish isn't all that bad. I generally am able to get my point across. Although, it is the constant source of both joy and sincere frustration in my life. Many things I would like to communicate politely come out extremely direct. When speaking to colleagues, the rector of the University or just my nut guy (the person I by nuts from every week), I am sure that I sound like a child. Alas, I am speaking. But my vocabulary probably reaches a 4th grade level. Below are some examples that highlight this daily situation:

I need the bathroom. (Instead of, may you point me in the direction of the bathroom, please?)

I want a soda. (Instead of, Can I please order a soda?)

Why are you here? (Instead of, Oh! I'm so surprised to see you! What brings you here?)

I don't like it. (Instead of, It's not really my thing.)

And for all you linguistic junkies, who like myself, have a serious fascination with the way language shapes perception and provides insight into cultural nuances, here are some fun little Turkish examples that I liked. Enjoy. 

brother= kardeş ---- kar=the womb and des=sharing

...so a brother is one who shares the womb

comrade=yoldaş ----- yol=way and das= sharing 

....so a comrade is one shares the same way, or path 

to be born=doğmak  ---- In Turkish, to be born is, in translation, "I borned." In Turkish, the one is who is the babt is active. As in, I am birthing my way out of the womb. I am the one doing all the action. The mother is the passive participant. There is a whole different verb for the part the mother does (the pushing part). Another example where two different concepts show two slightly different perspectives of the same situation.

I honestly believe that languages hold the key to healing the worlds misconceptions and simultaneously opening the door to eventual understanding. The Eskimo's for example have dozens of words for snow. When we look outside during winter, we see, only snow. One word. Snow. Maybe slush. Another example? English, unlike many other languages, only has one word for love. You love your brother and you love your dog and you love your lover. But in so many other languages, there are different concepts engrained into the language describing, and ultimately defining for you, different kinds of love. Imagine being able to claim you are in a relationship with someone, instead of "seeing them" or "dating them" or "just having..ya know... a thing." The way we express ourselves spills over into our actions, our perceptions, and even more recently, to an alarmingly quick rate, to other cultures. Other cultures see ours through our movies, or television and our magazines. Imagine what they see. English is quickly becoming the lingua-franca of the world, and everyone is expressing themselves in English. But we've got ourselves a hodge-podge language, stealing from Germanic, French, Greek and Latin words, not to mention countless others. Remembering that other perspectives exist is critical in this ever-changing, blog-updating, twitter refreshing kind of world.

For a mind-blowing read, check out this article on "Does Language Influence Culture?". When all these things go unnoticed,  undiscovered, and overlooked, that is the very point where cultural and linguistic misconceptions are birthed. It is the crux of both the problem and the solution.