Upon my introduction to Turkish, the first major cultural item that I was exposed to was tea culture. Specifically, black tea proves to be the overwhelmingly popular choice for tea consumption in Turkish culture ("Culture of Çay (tea), a symbol of identity, hospitality and social interaction" 2024). Surrounding the basic enjoyment of tea drinking, a larger and well-ingrained culture of "hospitality" and social interaction underlines tea drinking in Turkey (Ibid 2024). From personal experience, I understand the importance of offering tea as a gesture of warmth and welcoming when someone enters my home. In conjunction with the sociality of tea drinking, Turkish possesses a unique verb tense meant for shared conversation: the reported past tense ("Reported Past Tense (miş-past): Explanation and Examples [STEP-BY-STEP]" 2022). In this tense, an uncertainty about an event is indicated through altering the ending of the verb from the standard past tense to -m[i,ı,u,ü]ş (Ibid 2022). For example, if I were to say that he went to the store, I would say "O mağazaya gitti." However, if I did not see the event and only heard through another person that he went to the store, I would instead say "O mağazaya gitmiş." This can be expanded into more complex sentences, such as "Dersime gitmedim ama profesörümüz bize çok zor bir sınavı vermiş. Doğru mu?"This sentence translates to "I did not go to my class, but I heard that our professor gave us a very hard exam. Is this true?" In the context of tea interactions in Turkish cultures, people are able to communicate a moderate knowledge of a general event simply through utilizing a different verb conjugation than simple or progressive past tense. As such, I believe that the reported past tense and social interactions around tea conversations are tightly intertwined, and I will work heavily to gain a better understanding of this tense to actively participate in conversation with Turkish speakers when socializing.

Sources:

Fluentinturkish.com. "Reported Past Tense (miş-past): Explanation and Examples [STEP-BY-STEP]." FluentinTurkish.com. Last modified 2022. https://fluentinturkish.com/grammar/mis-past-reported-past-tense.

UNESCO. "Culture of Çay (tea), a symbol of identity, hospitality and social interaction." UNCESCO: Intangible Cultural Heritage. Last modified 2024. https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/culture-of-cay-tea-a-symbol-of-identit...(tea)%2C,intangible%20heritage%20%2D%20Culture%20Sector%20%2D%20UNESCO.