A couple weeks ago, we were headed by taxi to one of our yabancı (foreign) friends’ home for dinner. Scott struck up his normal conversation.
S: Where are you from? When did you move to Istanbul? (Most taxi drivers come from the rural areas of Turkey.) How many hours do you work in a day?
And then he received the usual questions in return.
TD: When did you move to Istanbul? What is your job?
I follow the conversation from the back seat, and I occasionally contribute.
TD: Where are you from? New York? Miami?
S: Minnesota. Do you know where that is? It’s in the north central United States. It’s close to Chicago. (As a side note, it seems like all Turks know where Chicago is, or at least have heard of it. On the other hand, more than you would expect say, “oh, Minnesota Timberwolves” after he says where we’re from. There are lots of NBA fans here.)
TD: Is this your wife? (I had the advantage of seeing the taxi driver direct his eyes towards me in the back seat, but apparently Scott missed this.)
S: No, my wife is from the state of Iowa.
Cue hysterical laughter from the back seat! Scott thought the taxi driver asked if I was from the same place.
A: Yes, yes I’m his wife. (Combined with more laughter from the back seat.)
So, even though Scott’s Turkish is way better than mine, it doesn’t shelter him from the occasional misunderstanding.
2 comments:
Two all star NBA players have been in the US, from Turkey, for almost 10 years - Peja Stojakovic and Hedo Turkoglu. I'm sure they're quite proud of that.
I guess he didn't want to claim you at that moment ;-) Learning a different language is quite the challenge I am sure!
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