if someone asks me if i have learned any turkish so far, i can answer 'çok as', what means very little and i think it's not written correctly. but i'm trying. after five months turkish words are turning from unrecognizable 'ššččakmakyorumtum' to those heard every day that i memorized, those i hear often and still cannot remember and to the rest that i will learn in future. not speaking language of the country you live has both, funny and annoying side, of course. language has its rhythm and melody accompanyed with some gestures we don't use. for example, saying no, seems like sending a kiss. and sometimes i learn a word i cannot translate in slovene. one of them sounds something like gönül. it means piece of your heart feeling love.
situation turns form being amusing to a nightmare, when one tries to deal with bureaucratic things. last week i finally decided to do something about the expensive bill i pay for my phone that doesn't make sense with the little use of it. i went to the only shop for which i know one of the employees speaks english. it's on the middle of the istiklal street that two million people walk each day, what means it was crowded inside. everyone impatiently wanted to get something, including me. employees squeezed among us tried to help (and sell!). if one doesn't pay attention, he misses his chance to ask and person behind takes his position in imaginary queue. my only hope, english speaking guy was talking on the phone and at the same time tried to copy some documents. from time to time he checked some data on the computer and in between discussed lunch possibilities with his colleagues. he hold down the phone for a second but my 'pardon' remained unanswered because he disappeared behind the staff door. 'how can i help you?' 'yes! well..' and i tried to explain as simple as possible. 'it's too expensive. i'd like to have cheaper texts and calls to..' it didn't work. he took my phone, entered a number and turned to the next one. a woman on the other side answered..in turkish! i left the office solving nothing. after tea i found another operator without loud gangnam style music in front of the entrance and less people inside. using google translate we communicated perfectly! they told me to bring my user data from the first one. woman understood my confused facial expression and wrote me what should i say on little piece of paper. i felt like being a child again, sent to the local shop with similar piece of paper saying bread, milk, five eggs..that i offered to the shop assistant. it worked back then and it worked this time too! i got what i 'asked' and proudly returned back.
and if someone is having same problems, here is the content of the magic paper..
JEZIK
na vprašanje, koliko sem se naučila jezika, znam odvrniti 'çok as' , kar pomeni 'zelo malo' (in mislim da se ne napiše tako). ni enostavno, besede, ki so bile sprva gmota ššččakmakrumtum, zdaj ločim na tistih nekaj, ki jih poznam, tiste, ki sem jih nekoč že slišala in tiste, ki jih bom nekoč poznala. seveda ima to svojo zabavno in nevšečno stran. jezik ima svoj ritem, melodijo in geste, ena izmed njih je znak za ne, ki včasih izgleda kot da ti želijo čez zrak poslati lupčka. in včasih izvem za besedo, za katero v slovenščini nimamo prevoda! gönül, naprimer. gönül je tisti del srca, kjer čutiš ljubezen. in verjetno se spet tako samo sliši in ne napiše.
druga stvar pa je urejanje birokratskih zadev. nazadnje sem se odločila ukrepati glede vsote denarja, ki ga namenim za telefon za niti ne spet toliko pogovorov. odpravila sem se v edino poslovalnico, v kateri eden izmed zaposlenih govori angleško. glede na to, da se nahaja sredi ulice, po kateri se vsak dan sprehodi dva milijona ljudi, se je znotraj gnetlo živčnih ljudi, ki so vsi po vrsti vključno z mano nekaj hoteli. vmes so skakali zaposleni in poskušali na videz vsem ustreči. če nisi bil pozoren, se je vsake toliko kdo urinil v že tako ali tako namišljeno vrsto. moj edini angleško govoreči up je imel toliko dela, da je hkrati govoril po telefonu in istočasno kopiral neke papirje, vmes preverjal podatke na računalniku in se s sodelavcem zmenil, kaj bosta naročila za kosilo! ko je za trenutek odložil telefon in sem vzkliknila 'pardon!' je izginil v prostor za zaposlene. po razvlečenih minutah se je spet prikazal. 'how can i help you?' 'yes!' zajamem dih in razložim po najbolj bistvenih delcih. da je predrago. da bi rada ugodno klicala in pošiljala smse v vsa omrež..' očitno preveč komplicirano, vzame moj telefon, vtipka številko centra za uporabnike, mi vrne telefon, in se obrne k naslednjemu. zvoni zvoni, in končno se nekdo oglasi. v turščini!!! odvihram ven, rešila nisem ničesar. spijem čaj in petdeset metrov naprej najdem drugega ponudnika, kjer ne preriva toliko ljudi in pred vrati ni zvočnikov z gangnam style melodijo. po začetni turščini hitro preklopim na angleščino in na povabilo stopim za prodajni pult ter preko google translate razložim, da bi rada zamenjala operaterja. tukaj gre lažje. naslednji korak je, da od prvega dobim podatke o uporabniku. hm? prodajalka z mojega obraza razbere, da sama težko, zato mi napiše listek, takšen, s katerim sem, ko sem bila majhna, šla v trgovino in je na njem pisalo kruh, mleko, pet jajc.. z listkom se vrnem v prejšnjo poslovalnico in z njim stopim do prve zaposlene, malo čudno me pogleda, ampak kot pred leti, dobim, kar piše, in ponosna se vrnem nazaj.
