As I sit in my Istanbul apartment on this crisp, sunny winter morning, wrapped in a floral Balkan blanket by the living room window, a sense of coziness pervades my apartment. Outside, doves coo from the window sills, and warm light filters through the sheer curtains, casting a soft glow on the sofa. I’m feeling inspired, so here’s a delightful taste of Turkish neighborhood culture.
Sleepy Istanbullus haven’t yet woken up; I have a few hours of serenity before the bustling streets come to life. Soon the hawkers will arrive, selling vegetables from their flat-bed trucks. “Potatoes, potatoes, 1 kilo 15 Lira,” they announce; local residents lean out of their windows, lower their baskets and shout how much they want.
A few streets down, the tramway horn makes faint whistle noises as it comes to its stop. The sound of the occasional vehicle traveling at a questionable speed down the narrow, car-lined streets never fails to make my heart skip a beat.
It’s too early for the neighborhood kids to play ball in the narrow concrete spaces between the concrete buildings, where their voices reverberate with incredible volume. Oh, how I love my mornings.
Soon, I'll make my way to the local fruit market up the hill, where familiar faces greet me regardless of the hour. I always bring a few extra Lira, knowing that prices fluctuate daily. Amidst the cool air and sunlight, I select my vegetables from the neatly organized piles of produce, stopping by the bakery for fresh bread that burns my icy fingertips as I break off pieces to snack on. Returning home with arms full of bags, I reflect on how different my life is now. These moments of normalcy were once foreign to me, yet now they are my everyday reality. In fact, they have become so normal that I often forget how strange they used to be to me.
Living in Turkiye was an adjustment to put it lightly which is why I have turned this into a series to encapsulate my life and experience in Istanbul as a Westerner. Without further adieu, here are a handful of culture shocks I experienced when I first arrived in Turkiye.
Working Conditions
Minimum wage in Turkey has increased to $550 per month from $300 in 2020, but the cost of living has surged by over 300% during the same period.
They work 12 hours per day 6-7 days per week.
Despite this, $1000 per month is a good salary.
Even if there are laws, workers' rights and working conditions are not mandated outside of government jobs and corporate companies, and overtime is not recognized.
Employers have the authority to determine work hours without providing workers with breaks or overtime compensation.
Employers can offer minimum wage regardless of an employee's qualifications or experience. For instance, my husband, a qualified nurse fluent in four languages, was offered $300 per month for working 6 days a week in the ICU during a job interview at a private hospital. (They then had the audacity to ask if he spoke English and Spanish).
Employers often justify offering low wages as a means to “see how you perform,” leading people in Turkey to often stay at the same job forever because they won’t be offered the same salary somewhere else. You might say “the cost of living is lower,” which is true, but the quality of life is also significantly lower. Being poor in the West is not the same as being poor in Turkey.
Technology is a luxury
Technology in Turkey is considerably more expensive compared to Western countries, with even basic appliances like microwaves considered luxury items. In my four years in Turkey, I’ve seen a microwave once and I have never come across a dryer. In our home, we hang our laundry to dry outside like everyone else. If you wash something, you need to wait about a day or 2 until it’s ready to be worn again. Our kitchen appliances include an oven, a fridge, and a washing machine. Air fryers, coffee makers, microwaves, Keurigs, and garbage disposals are all luxuries.
Apple products have become commonplace for Westerners, but in Turkey, iPhones are status symbols. Unlike my experience of having a computer in my home since I was a child, I am the only person I know who owns a computer in Turkey. In the West, you do not have to be rich to have technology and many items that are luxury in Turkey are the basic standard for Americans. If you think about it, it seems that most American homes, especially if they have sons, have a PlayStation or an Xbox regardless of their income. In Turkey, if you have a PlayStation in your home, it means you are absolutely loaded and average people will marvel at your wealth.
You may say things like “Oh, it's the simple life,” and think it's wonderful. It’s not. It’s a million little inconveniences that add up and make life tremendously more difficult. It’s one thing to choose not to use technology, it’s another when you can’t afford standard conveniences.
Owning Vehicles
Cars, everyone has them in the US and many of us get our first cars as teenagers. If you are fortunate enough to have parents that do okay, they can buy you your first car. If your family is low-income like mine was, you can work a minimum-wage job and afford your vehicle. I spent my adolescence in rural Kentucky where even the dirt poor kids with meth-addicted parents worked at the local Sonic to pay for their car. In contrast, cars, even piles of junk, are extremely expensive in Turkey and are another symbol of affluence. Most people save for 10+ years to buy a single standard vehicle for their family of 6 and there is no such thing as more than one car per family unless you are rolling in dough. People are often shocked to learn that I am able to drive and that I owned my own vehicle in my former life. Nevertheless, most people have to rely on public transport, which I can write an article in itself about.
Cultural Views of Smiling & Being Too Nice
In the States, particularly in the South, being friendly is equated with smiling, speaking in a cheerful tone, and making polite conversation. However, in Turkey excessive friendliness will likely be seen as a sign of low intelligence and it's a surefire way for people to take advantage of you. Unlike in the US, Turkish culture doesn’t require one to smile to display happiness. No one will ever tell you to smile here, which is something that often happens to me in the southern United States.
Cultural Expectations Around Complaints
In the American service industry, we admire those who wait patiently and do not complain. We think they are nice people and more humble than their counterparts who voice their concerns. In Turkiye, however, you have to be very confrontational and assertive about service quality, otherwise they think they can get away with it. If they do a bad job and you don’t say anything, they think you are of low intelligence and take advantage.
Struggles With Being Assertive
It continues to be a challenge for me to say something when I wait over an hour for my appointment or when the nail artist does a crappy job. I feel like a bad person for complaining, but in Turkey, they don’t see your silence as kindness. You have to assert yourself and if you are too friendly when you complain, they won’t help you either. In order to get anything done correctly, you have to get upset.
Social Interactions with strangers
You don’t ask strangers how they are doing. In the West, what is the first thing you say after hello? You probably ask “How are you?” We ask the gas station attendant, the cashier, the drive through worker, and, for many, to whatever random person we make eye contact with. To Turks, as well as to many other cultures, asking a stranger how they are doing is extremely strange. Asking someone how they are doing implies that you know them and Turks usually keep a guard up around new people. Don’t take this to mean that they aren’t friendly, quite the opposite.
Turkish Culture around Guests and Hospitality
Each Turkish home operates on the same system. It was incredible to me that, no matter which Turkish home you visited, the same sequence of events occurred and things were done in exactly the same way.
If you ever visit a Turkish home, make sure you are very hungry - nearly starving. You enter and they take your coat and bring water. You sit in the living room; the youngest person of the home sets a small table in front of you and brings you a beautifully presented assortment of snacks on their finest plates along with tea. Everyone sits upright while the older people lead the conversation, particularly in the beginning. They insist that you drink more tea and you should eat as much as possible because it makes them very happy. (If I’m not hungry, I make sure they see me eat something just to make them happy).
If you have dinner with them, it’s the same sequence of events except tea is served after dinner and they will fill your plate to the brim repeatedly if you aren’t very adamant that you don’t want more. Sometimes you have to cover your plate with your hands otherwise you’ll need the fire department to get you out of the door. After tea, fruit comes. It’s not a sliced apple or a little cup of oranges. They bring bowls of various fruits for each person piled with 3 or 4 tangerines, bananas, apples, whatever they have in their kitchen. I remember being surprised that Turks will actually eat multiple tangerines, or multiple apples. I had never seen someone eat so much fruit at one time.
In any case, it's like clockwork. Food is served in the same way, tea is served in the same way, fruit is served in the same way, and it all happens in the same sequence at the perfectly timed moment. I remember wondering how they knew when to bring out these things and serve them because no one asks. They do not ask if you want something, they bring it to you and offer you everything they have in their kitchen.
You have to pressure people
This is the hardest thing for me to do even to this day and I don’t think I will ever grow accustomed to doing it. Turkish people are very polite and no does not mean no. They will often decline out of politeness so you have to ask 4 times to make sure that they really don’t want something. I have so many funny stories where I asked someone if they wanted something, they said “no” and I just said “Okay,” to which they were shocked. In addition, if you really don’t want something, you should say “no” in a very firm tone that would offend anyone from the West. We typically say “Oh, no thank you” and smile to show appreciation. To a Turk, it means you are too shy to say yes. I have gotten used to giving them a firm “no,” but I struggle to ask them more than twice. So, I tell them “Listen, you have two chances because I won’t ask again.”
Units of Measurement
They do not use standard units of measurement for recipes. Of course, they use the metric system, but they don’t use measuring cups. Instead, every home in Turkey has the exact same water glass and tea glass. It's a standard size and recipes say “Add half a water glass of milk” or “Add a tea glass of oil.” I found this so strange in the beginning and I also found it strange that every living, breathing Turk has the same glasses in their kitchen.
Conclusion
The list of culture shocks is truly endless and I could write a book about it which is why I’ve decided to turn this into a series. What I have mentioned so far is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cultural differences. Turkiye has an unbelievably rich culture that I can begin to describe as thick and permeating.
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