105: Learning Journal 4

[Dalila Softic]

I thought the presentations today were very good. I especially enjoyed the ones on Turkish culture since it is not my target language, I felt like I learned a lot. Also, since a lot of my family is from the Balkans, I was shocked by how similar my traditional culture is to Turkish culture. This makes sense since the Ottoman empire ruled over Bosnia and other Balkan nations for hundreds of years. It's interesting to see how remnants of the culture still remain today. For example, as a child, whenever I went to Bosnia my grandmother would "read my coffee." We also create the same type of coffee, with the same process, and we even call the pots by the same name (ibrek). Bosnia is a muslim majority nation so many of the holiday traditions discussed in classes are the same in Bosnia.