Negotiation

 Dear Reader,

You might have noticed that I haven’t posted for over two weeks. Well, reader, although I love Istanbul and the great opportunity I have, it has been a frustrating two weeks. Therefore, I decided to blog after my anxieties ease. After two and a half weeks experiencing Athens and Istanbul, the small annoyances and miscommunication began to affect my mood substantially. There were a number of practical errors that bothered me: only I couldn’t access my meal plan money, I briefly thought my phone didn’t work, and my Turkish class is really difficult. Yet, even those issues reflected my status as an American in another country.

I also started to feel not only annoyed, but also disconnected from everyone else. I am learning Turkish at a rapid rate, but I know there is no way I’ll really be able to connect with any of the locals here until I work on my Turkish for, at the very least, six months. Luckily, I am going to be abroad for a longer amount of time, but that doesn’t alleviate the current problem very much. I always feel foolish when I resort to asking locals if they speak English. I know that I am not being presumptuous, but it definitely looks like I am. I can see it in they way people respond to me whenever I do that.

There are other difficulties that I have as well: contending with the traffic, taxi drives, false friends, knowing when to bargain and not knowing the layout of the city. Ultimately, I know these are problems that can only be experienced by somebody with enough resources to actually travel, but what allows me to recognize these issues as somewhat temporary is knowledge of culture shock.

A couple of you might have already started nodding your heads: “Ah... the young lad is going through culture shock”. But since most of you probably aren’t Irish psychologists, I’ll elaborate. According to Macionis and Gerber, culture shock is the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new country, or to a move between social environments. It’s something all of you have experienced, be it moving to a new neighborhood or being a freshman in high school. Technically speaking, it happens to all of us very frequently. Yet, I insist that culture shock in another country is unlike anything I’ve experienced before.

Luckily, I knew about culture shock ahead of time, thanks to DePauw’s off-campus study office. They explained that there are four phases: honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment and biculturalism. I definitely know that I have been through the honeymoon phase already, though sometimes I still experience the euphoria of being in Istanbul. Yet, this euphoria does not have the same presence as it did when I first got here (see earlier posts). Like most honeymoon periods, it eventually ends.

As far as I can tell, there are many ways in which people can respond to culture shock. One can stereotype, learn more about the culture, study the language, socialize with locals and / or with other foreigners, isolate oneself, drink to oblivion, or find a new hobby. There are many ways of coping, but not all of them make culture shock any easier. I’ll leave it for you to decide which options help, and when they do. One of my goals is mastering biculturalism. At the moment, I suppose it is attainable, but it does not mean total assimilation.

A friend of mine, M, explained to me very well that there are some differences that one cannot reach. Last night, I took a taxi from Taksim with him. In the ride, I tried to converse with the driver in Turkish, as I usually do, but this guy gave me the cold shoulder. It was not as if he didn’t spoke Turkish; he understood M’s Turkish very well. Several hours later, I brought it up in a conversation with M. He looked at me and said, “You want to know the difference?” He gestured to me to hold out my arm against his. My tanned, but white arm starkly contrasted with his darker skin, which had “Redskin” (in Turkish) tattooed. It really comes down to that.

Thus, dear reader, there are differences we cannot overcome. We cannot change other peoples’ attitudes and assumptions, nor can we completely understand their backgrounds. This does not just apply to the few Turkish people that demonstrate resentment towards Western tourists; racial constructions are nearly universal.Yet, we should do more to understand one another, especially those with very different identities. In doing so, you might be able to  understand what reasons people have for acting a certain way. By virtue of recognition, you'll probably learn more about how your own background affects your own behavior.

I know I will be doing both, as my privilege to have the great opportunity of doing so obligates me to the task.

Saygılarımla
 


I took a few photos this week when I visited Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar.

The place was covered with visitors! Even more so than Aya Sofia

A very small, but elegant mosque.

Another beautiful view of the straits from the palace.

It was nice to get some shade in the palace gardens.

Exiting the palace through the imperial gate.

Entering the Grand Bazaar.

The Grand Bazaar is one of the oldest, but one of the liveliest shopping areas of Istanbul

I'll have that one.

Complimentary tea, as to emphasize that many cultural encounters are pleasant.