Greece and Turkey have been fighting against each other for many years. Greece was captured and ruled by the Ottoman Empire and in 1821 they started a war for their indpendence. After four hundred years of slavery the Greeks managed to become free after defeating the Ottomans. But still this was not the only conflict between the Greeks and the Turks. Some events are the Greco-Turkish war in 1897, the Balkan Wars in 1912, the First World War in 1914 and the Greco-Turkish war in 1919.

Even though the Greeks and the Turks had many conflicts with each other they did manage to live in harmony for many years. In Cyprus Greeks and Turks lived together and they were called Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots. They managed to live in harmony for years but on the 20th of July 1974 this relationship changed and they hated each other. On this day the Turks invaded Cyprus and captured half of it. They captured the North side and now it is called Northern Cyprus because it is ruled by Turks.

The reason why the relationship between Greeks and Turks was ruined because of this invasion is because Greeks are similar to Cypriots and in the past these two countries wanted to unite and become one. After the independence of Cyprus, Greece was always by their side and also the other way around. This is why Greece picked to help out the Cypriots instead of the Turks and this is why this relationship between them changed forever after 1974.

Back then this conflict caused many problems but now things are getting much better and for years politicians try to find a solution and arrange a treaty between Cyprus and Turkey. Many things have changed since then, like the borders for Cypriots were open to visit their old homes that were captured and observe them and other things they have not seen since that day. A treaty has still not been found but it is something that will be going on for years. The reason is because in order for Turkey to become a member of the E.U. they will have to arrange a treaty which Greeks and Cypriots would be satisfied with. Hopefully in the future there will be peace among Cypriots, Greeks and Turks.

http://www.business-with-turkey.com/tourist-guide/turkey_football.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_hooliganism

Alibabaninbirciftligivar....wav

Great voices. These two guys are really talented!!

Last Thursday at my student advisor meeting we learned some grammar and how to conjucate simple verbs and phrases in Turkish, like kick the ball, to run, to attack, to come and other basic things. I learn how to conjucate pretty fast once i knew the ending of each verb, like how it ends if it is me, you, them etc. We are still focusing on the subject that I am most interested in, soccer. I keep on learning new words that are about soccer like caoch, goalkeeper, nets and also phrases.

On Thursday we also did the artifact I posted about all the main fruits. We learned some fruits in former classes but I learned all of them on Thursday and decided to post it as an artifact by writing below the english word and the translation in Turkish.

In the end of our session I showed the video I want to show as an other artifact. It is a video about Ronaldo the Brazilian soccer player, where Eric Cantona the famous French player is describing him and I am going to cut his voice and translate the phrases he says in Turkish.

Turkey's famous product that represents its culture is coffee. It is totally different than American coffee in many ways. First of all Turks do not drink coffee in a plastic cup or standing up. Drinking coffee in Turkey is a way to have a conversation with someone, an enjoyable time of sitting and chatting. They even have a saying that when you invite someone for coffee, that you will remember that bonding time you had with him while drinking your coffee for forty years. In America you just go in a Starbucks or a Costa cafe for five minutes pick up your coffee and then you just go wherever you have to go either at work, home or anywhere else. Turkish coffee is normally prepared using a narrow-topped small boiling pot called an kanaka, a teaspoon and a heating apparatus. The ingredients are finely ground coffee, sometimes cardamo, cold water and maybe sugar. It is served in a demitasse. Some modern cups do have handles; traditional cups did not, and coffee was drunk either by handling the cup with the fingertips or, more often, by placing the cup in a zarf, a metal container with a handle.Turks drink their coffee in a round ceramic little cup. Their coffee is not made with a machine like American coffee but it is prepared by boiling finely powdered roast coffee beans in a pot.

In Turkey coffee is very important and it is a way of meeting new people and get to know them. It is very similar to my country Cyprus, the cups are quite similar and the way we make coffee. We also like to sit and chat while we drink our coffee. In Greece coffee was called Turkish coffee due to the Greco-Turkish relationship but the named changed after the Turkish invasion in Cyprus.

Is Turkey a individualistic country or a collectivistic? No culture or country is exclusively individualistic or collectivistic. Turkey though until now was more of a collectivistic country. Their family is very important to them and they always think about the people who are close to them. For example if someone is going to make a decision for himself he would first think about his family and then his own concern. In Turkey health comes first, second comes family and third your own pleasure. As a country they are very proud of their ethnicity and they always move forward as a group.

The cecular policies of Ataturk, however took away from the collective Turkish identity. His policy was that there should be no religion which changed the Turkish identity forever. People were united with their belief in Islam but now they began to separate.This period was followed by a period of economic expansion, industrialization of business and other individualistic ideals. Turkey is well known for its business and Turks in general are very good business people. Turkey is rapidly changing from being a collectivistic country to a individualistic one due to their expansion and their development.

Today I met with my learning partner Albar and our topic was one of my two main goals. We learned about soccer. We both together came up with words that are part of the game for example referee, uniform, ball and other words I should know so I could understand during a game on TV or a sports article.

We came up with a lot of words and he also translated for me some phrases I could use like for example the referee showed him a yellow card. Good thing I already learned the colors. Many words are similar to english words but most of them are written differently. They just sound the same and they ofcourse have the same meaning as english.

In the last 10 minutes of our meeting we watched a video on YouTube of Galatasaray and another turkish team. The commentator was speaking Turkish and he was speaking really fast but I did get some of the words we talked about earlier like goal, shoot and yellow card. Galatasaray was in front by 1-0 but in extra time the other team tied the game. The commentator said that Galatasaray was struggling for the top in the beginning of the game and I guess this draw was really not a good result for them.

Next time we said to continue and watch more videos because it is a good way to learn the phrases and try to keep up even though they speak really fast.

A: Hello. How are you?

B: Im doing good, thank you. How about you?

A: Im doing good. What is your name?

B: My name is Stella. How about yours?

A: My name is Andreas. Nice to meet you.

B: Nice to meet you too.

A: Where are you from?

B: I am American. How about you?

A: I am Cypriot. How old are you?

B: I am twenty years old. How about you?

A: I am twenty too.

A: Something happened, i have to go.

So far I have learned that many words that we use in my country are Turkish. Some of these words though are used for a different meaning. I have learned so far 10-15 words and I have also learned main expressions like greetings, formal and informal.

Turkish is in some ways an easy language and in some other ways quite difficult. pronouncing words is not that difficult once you learn the alphabet, because you say them as you read them. I have learned many words about food, family, colors, numbers and how to introduce myself. I need to try and memorise these expressions better though and try to know them by heart. When i read these expressions though i do understand what they mean in english.

We had to take a few tests so we could understand in which ways we as ourselves could learn better. We took three tests from different sites.

The first test I took was at a site called mypersonality.info. In this test my results showed that i am a bodily learner. I got a percentage of 70 which was much higher than my second best results that were visual and intrapersonal.

The second test was at a site called learning-styles-online. In this test my results showed that I am more of a social learner and I would actually agree with that. I like socializing in general. My second best type of learning is physical which I also agree because I like being physicaly active.

The third and final test was at a site called ldrc.ca. In this test my results showed that I am more of a interpersonal learner. The second result was that I am again a bodily learner so it seems that might be correct.

The questions of these sites were quite similar I would say. I hope in the end these tests will help out and successfully learn the Turkish language.