Monday, December 16, 2013

Cultural Reporter Blog

           


 For my Cultural Reporter Project I chose to research Turkish culture. I chose to do this for two reasons. One, my friend Erdem is originally from Turkey. And two, Turkish culture is the gateway between the east and the western world, how can that not be interesting? Turkish culture has been many years in the making and is still evolving today. In this blog I intend to discuss Turkish culture through the lens of both intercultural communication as well as a personal perspective. I will look at Turkish culture in terms of Identities and History. Once I have done this I will compare Turkey to the United States, simply for better illustration of the differences between the two.

My friend Erdem Akalin

            For my project I interviewed four Turkish people associated with the university; two males, two females, two undergraduates, one graduate student, and one professor. The first person I interviewed was Erdem Akalin; Erdem is from Bursa in western Turkey and is a sophomore foreign exchange student. The second person I interviewed was Ceren Kaplan, she is also a sophomore undergraduate student and is from Ankara, the capital of Turkey. The third person I interviewed was Doruk Ozturk, Doruk is an graduate student majoring in Hydrogeology and is also from Ankara. The final interview I did was with Demet Batur, and professor in the College of Business at UNL. Each of these interviews allowed me to gain a slightly different perspective on the culture I was studying.
            The first topic brought up by everyone I interviewed was the history of Turkey as a nation. Turkey was founded as a republic out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire in the post-World War 1 era. The Turks had lost a large amount of land to neighboring countries following the first World War but, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, now known as Ataturk, they were able to reclaim much of this land and start rebuilding their nation. This reclamation of land is a point of pride for almost all Turks. Doruk Ozturk summed it up best in his interview saying, “Of course I am influenced by our history, it is a part of who I am.”
            How could anyone discuss Turkish history without discussing the man who almost individually brought Turkey into the modern world as a nation and got them onto a level playing field with the rest of the world powers? Ataturk was one of the first leaders in the modern world to grant rights to both women and minorities. He put rules, regulations, and policies in place to prevent Islamist extremism. He was also single-handedly changed the language and style of Turkish life; practically inventing the Turkish language on his own. Although some of Ataturk’s policies are now becoming outdated and are being replaced, it is hard to deny that he had a major impact on a nation that was developing when he took over as Prime Minister. He was truly one of the great visionaries of the 20th century.
            Partly because of its geographical positioning but also because of its historical background, Turkish culture is the product of cultural mixing. You see, Turkey is a very complex nation, its location allows for easy access and trade with the European nations to the west, giving it a modern feel to it. But at the same time it has great partnerships with its neighbors to the east in the Middle East and Asia. This bond with the Middle East has established strong religious identities among a large portion of the Turkish population. However, unlike some nations in that region, if you ask a Turkish person how they would identify themselves, Muslim would not be one of the first things to come up. Overall, Turks love conversation, family, and the comforts of home life. This is not just some coincidence, this is a culture shaped by influences from the east and west, Europe and Asia.
            From the four interviews I performed I recorded six identities that Turkish people most strongly identify as major contributing factors to their individual identity as well as their overall cultural identities. The most commonly mentioned identity was National identity. Turks are a proud people who know their history by heart and are proud to tell you about all of the great things about Turkey; national identity is what links all Turks together. The second most mentioned identity was Religious identity. Seeing as how a vast majority of Turks are Muslim it is only fitting that this be high up on the list. Turkish people take pride in their religion, and although it is the focal point of many arguments over the government, it is still something that goes hand in hand with this unique culture. The third most mentioned topic was Familial identity. Familial bonds in Turkey run deep; it is not unnatural to see a Turkish person living at home well into their 20s. The fourth most mentioned topic was that of Gender identity. Gender identity is always going to be either very influential or very restrictive in a predominantly Muslim country. Luckily Turkey is a more modern Islamic state and the consequences of being male or female are not too extreme either way. The only real influences are gender expectations; men are expected to work, whereas women are expected to stay home and take care of babies.
Number five on the list is Age identity. Age Identity is an important aspect of Turkish culture; even more so nowadays as Turkey has experienced a population boom recently, increasing its number of youths by a great amount. Young people are expected to respect their elders and leave the bulk of conversation to them. However, with more and more young people in today’s Turkey it will be interesting to see if that expectation stays. Last on the list is Class identity. In Turkey, as it is everywhere, if you have money, you can do anything. In other words, in Turkey the rich hold power and dictate the direction of the country. And in 21st century Turkey, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
            Turkey may not be a place where stereotypes are held about other Turks, but there are gender roles which men and women are expected to occupy. In Turkey women are expected to cook, men garden, and kids don’t work until they graduate from college. Women have weekly tea time in which they invite over their neighbors and gossip. Men have something called Kiraanthane, which involves men gathering in back rooms to drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, play backgammon, and gamble on sports, like soccer. Women go shopping, case in point, Ankara, a city of 5 million people, has 10 malls. Men go to soccer matches, where the result their team gets on a weekly basis determines whether or not there will be riots that weekend. To combat this clubs like Fenerbahce in Istanbul have started banning men from matches entirely.
President Erdogan
            Government divides opinion like nothing else in Turkey. Current President Erdogan and his wife are extremely religious and have set about to chip away at Ataturk’s policies little by little. Everyone I talked to had something negative to say about the Turkish government. Erdem said, “The government tries to cover up state issues through implementation of religious policies.” Ceren said, “they feed poor people so they will vote for them,” and that “Erdogan is like a dictator.” Doruk was rather blunt with his statement, saying “The current government is extreme, no one likes the government.” However, the most philosophical statement came from Professor Batur, she said “The economy is going well along with other things, we will see if they can find a balance, in general people are happy.” By balance she meant that if the government can strike the right balance between religious policy implementation and standard government procedures, they will be successful.
            The next aspect of Turkish culture we discussed was the education system. Many Turkish students come to America because a degree from the States is very marketable. However, in order to get here, Turkish students must go through a rigorous curriculum of secondary school. Parents push their children to become doctors and engineers. For this reason, much emphasis is placed on the equivalent of the ACT in Turkey. If you can do well on this exam, you can become what you want. But you better be 100% sure that that is what you want to do, because once you select your major there is no switching. It is interesting to note that in Turkey college education is viewed as supplementary to high school education.
            In all of my interviews I asked the participants to compare Turkey to the United States and vice versa. Erdem flat out told me that the US is stereotyped as fat and uneducated in Turkey and other portions of the world. He also said that Turkey is good but some aspects and social stigmas can often be overbearing. Also, he noted that the food is good in both places. Doruk said that in the US people do not care for one another and that everything is very organized and regulated; whereas in Turkey it is the opposite. Demet had the most interesting view in my opinion. She said that there is more work discipline in the US than in Turkey, that there is less ethnic diversity in Turkey because everyone is ethnically Turk there. Demet also said that in the US people are more political and that people are often more protective of their private lives, which, as she said, “is more natural with so many different cultural backgrounds.” She also went on to say that you are going to change your level of openness depending on who you are talking to. One of the other participants, Erdem, disagreed with this statement, saying “Race does not matter to me; I will be open with anyone.” I believe this is a truly admirable quality in a person and I think that is the mindset of a majority of young Turks nowadays.
            The next topic I discussed with the participants was Popular Culture, be it American pop culture they consumed or any Turkish pop culture, every participant had something to say about it. Erdem said he would watch American television shows like Fringe, CSI: New York, Heroes, Lost\, and Ellen DeGeneres, and listen to American rap music like Lil Wayne to help him learn English. Through consuming popular culture Erdem grew to perceive Americans as crazy people who knew how to party and had lots of blonde women. Ceren did not really indulge in American pop culture because she did not learn the English language until very late into her teen years, but she did mention that she would watch Turkish soap operas about the Ottoman Empire and listen to Turkish hip-hop music. Demet was slightly older than the rest of the participants and did not have the same experience consuming pop culture as the rest of the participants. When she was growing up there was only on television channel and it was state run. So a majority of her experiences with American culture came from the fast food chains American companies had brought to Turkey, like McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and KFC, she said that these restaurants had a better reputation in Turkey than they did in the States, not only were they healthier but they were fancier as well.
The last thing I discussed with all participants was the U-Curve theory and each of their individual experiences with it. Erdem said that he was excited to experience the American dream upon arriving here after consuming so much pop culture, but he faced a rude awakening upon arriving in the small town of Franklin, Nebraska. He lived on a farm and took part in doing farm work with his host family. This was disappointing and depressing for Erdem because he came from a family in which both of his parents were doctors in Turkey and the idea of what youth should and shouldn’t do is different from Turkey to Franklin, Nebraska. Eventually Erdem was able to cheer up once he was able to start playing basketball (it is important to note that Erdem is 6’7”). It was not the same for Doruk and Ceren though, both of them said they experienced little to no adaptation period upon arriving in the states. When I asked why they both said it was because they came from one of the more westernized parts of Turkey. Once again Demet gave some of the best insight into this topic out of all four participants. She talked about how she moved here in 2001 and was excited for new things and new opportunities, but after a while she realized that nothing was perfect. She, like many other international students and migrants, missed home, family, friends, and in this case, Turkish food. She told me how much she had to learn in such a short time. Think about this; we have 10-15 years to learn everything about our culture, cues, manners, etiquette, etc, but migrants must learn all that in the span of a year. There was so much adaptation and learning, and some adjusted better than others. But there were others that for whatever reason missed more what they lost than what they gained, and decided to go home. Obviously transitioning from one culture to another is hard, but if you can make it over the hump, or in this case the U, then you might just find happiness in a place you never thought you would.
           Turkish culture is like a body of water in which ocean and fresh water meet. There is diverse life and unique surroundings. It is the best of the west mixed with the best of the east. It is interesting, exotic, and unique; a true gem in a part of the world where beauty is often overshadowed by violence and bureaucracy. Turkey is home to some of the most interesting people in the world. My friend Erdem told me that I am welcome to come there and visit him any time I want. I might just have to go experience Turkish culture first hand someday.

Works Cited
            Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Intercultural Communication in Context. (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

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