SDLC 110 Turkish- Culture Post #1

[Noraya Razzaque]

As I hit the hard part of the learning curve for my Arabic studies, I started thinking about picking up another language to rekindle my love of learning languages. I was heavily leaning towards French up until I went to Istanbul for my spring break trip while I was studying abroad in Jordan. I was thinking about French for a number of reasons- I have an interest in the North African region and so it paired well with my Arabic studies. I have also been putting French off for years now. With my decision to spend a fifth year at UR, I was looking at places to study abroad again. Morocco was at the top of the list, but my decision became heavily swayed after falling in love with Istanbul. After much deliberation, I decided I wanted to go study abroad in Ankara. I wanted to be in a place where traveling is a lor more feasible than in a place such as Jordan or Morocco. Turkey has an amazing dynamic of Islamic and western culture mixing and it's an aspect that I am deeply curious about learning more about. This is where my desire to start learning Turkish from stemmed! Although I will be taking language classes at Bilkent University (assuming I get accepted into the program), I want to get a head start on learning more about Turkish culture, history, and especially the language.