Turkey

One thing that I absolutely loved to do when I was serving in Turkey when it comes to culture, it would be asking people about where they're from, their hometowns, and especially what's famous in their hometowns. Because something I saw about Turkey that was interesting is that every single town or region in Turkey had just something that they were famous about, something that they were known for. And by the time I got to the point where I knew every hometown and I knew what each one was famous for because I'd asked so much, it would be really impressive to Turks. When I would talk to them, I would ask them, hey, where are you from? They'd say, oh, I'm from Amasya. And then they'd be like, and then I'd say, oh, Amasya, you know, you have apples from there. And they're like, whoa, you know that? Or, you know, I'm from, I'm from Kurşehir. And I'm like, oh, you have Jedis and Pekmez over there. And they'd be like, whoa, how do you know this? This foreigner knows our country really well. It's a really good way to show them that you're, you enjoy their culture, you enjoy their country, and you know where they're from.

One culture tip about Turkey that is also like a fun place to visit are the Turkish bath houses or hamams. One of the culture tips regarding that though is you are fully nude when you do it so it can be a little bit unnerving when you go especially because it's such a cultural thing that they don't think much of it and the people there have no problem just letting it all out. However, it is a lot of fun and a great experience. So in Turkey it is very much a cultural thing to drink tea after dinner and sometimes before and so if you go to any almost any restaurant especially near the Blue Mosque in that main square you will be given tea especially chai tea right after eating and at least in my opinion chai tea is very bitter. If you don't want to drink it mention at the beginning that you don't need it but they will most likely bring it to you anyway and they will bring it along with the check and you don't get charged for it because it's just a cultural thing. It's very interesting.

In Turkey, there's a few ways of saying no, you could say hire or yok or deal, depending on what it is. But there's also another way of doing it. Some people do this. And they're not blowing kisses at you or anything like that. And that's just a way of saying no. And some people do that. And then they just raise their head a little bit and raise and raise their eyes a bit as well their eyebrows. And that's just a different way of saying no. One other culture thing to keep in mind is that it's impolite to show the bottom of your foot. So sometimes when you sit cross legged, like something like this, they don't like seeing the bottom of your foot because it's kind of a dirty place on your body. And they just don't like seeing that. So just be mindful of that. And also doing the on point emoji doing that little hand sign. That's offensive to them as well. So yeah, don't do that.