Job Discussion Forums

Golightly · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:38 pm Post subject:

It's precisely the same problems my wife and I had. First, the name for our son: she was suggesting stuff like Berk and Ege, which I had to point out might leave him open to a lot of schoolground teasing. Then there was whether to move back to the UK or not. Istanbul really is no place for kids. In the end, we had our minds made up by the '99 quake, and we moved to the UK. It has been very tough, and I'm still up to my neck in debt, but finally we've got a nice house in a very green area and I'm making my way up the EFL/ESOL ladder - climbing out of the industry and into the profession.

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

calsimsek · Joined: 15 Jul 2004 Posts: 775 Location: Ist Turkey

Love you'a dmb, but I think your on thin ice with kid stuff.

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Baba Alex · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 2411

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

I agree with babasiz alex

31 · Joined: 21 Jan 2005 Posts: 1797

I am not sure what came over me with the lists of complaints. It just snowballed. But I feel I am right when I complained about them taking away your beer glass when there is still a little beer left in it.

Baba Alex · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 2411

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

ask for a drink while you look at the menu.

Baba Alex · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 2411

31 · Joined: 21 Jan 2005 Posts: 1797

''So called problem'' for Baba Alex or someone to solve.

It is Friday night you have been invited out with some Turkish friends/students. You meet in a posh(ish) bar where the drinks are spendy and they have ethnic kinds of stuff hanging on the walls. You would rather sit and watch Casualty or Holby City with 6 bottles of Efes but they have insisted.

You all are seated upstairs in the posh bar and everyone takes at least 15 minutes to order. You can`t help thinking that you could have downed 1 beer and be on your next by now. The drinks come and horror upon horror the beers are in xing tiny glasses, not filled up to the top and with an outrageous head-barely a third of a pint. The Turks SIP their drinks but you are xed. 4 gulps and it would be gone but what can you do? Sip and be miserable or gulp and shock everyone when you order more-it is rude and everyone will think you are a hopeless p MOD EDIT head.

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Indeed this is a problem i guess the thing to do is not go to those poshish bars.However i do not follow my own advice and end up them quite often. what is even more annoying is the service in these places. I have in mind Leyla on Akarsu sok. in Cihangir. It must be the worst service in Istanbul. You wait god knows how long for your order and when it does come it is quite often wrong. do they care. Nope. their attitude is we are cool hip and trendy and people will keep coming. Where is the worst service in Istanbul from your experience.

31 · Joined: 21 Jan 2005 Posts: 1797

My first thought was registering my youngest, a few days after he was born at the kaymakamlik (the nufus mudurlugu is located there). It was an indescribable experience that took the best part of a day.

Another is the notary. I just can`t understand and have never been able to understand why after paying a lot of money and the assistant copying, stamping and doing all your paperwork -you are shown into the notary`s office and there is no welcome, no hello and you are made to wait as if you are doing them a favour. It is pure theatre and with a flourish he and it is always he signs and out you go. Why is it like that when you are a customer?

But you are right-snotty bars are snotty bars. It seems to me that locals who go there go because of the name and wanting to be seen. They are willing to forgive the prices and the service-they are secondary but in normal place they wouldn`t accept it.

Oh-Yapi Kredi too.

justme · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 1944 Location: Istanbul

We don't even have kids yet, and my husband and I are already arguing about names. Names that sound good in Turkish sound bad in English, or vice versa. Also, a lot of Turkish names can be really hard for my family to pronounce, especially my mom, who I hold as the model of Most Frustrating Student Ever In the History Of Mankind. She can't hold a foreign word in her head for more than 30 seconds.

Girls' names are a bigger problem-- so many nice girls' names in Turkish sound really awful in English, like anything with 'g�l'. Or, they just sound heavy, burdensome or like a fat girls' name (Bet�l, Tuğba, Selma...)-- they're just not nice to an English speaker who's not used to them. Also, for most the names I like, my husband rejects them as too religious (Esma, Havva, Azize), too political (Devrim), too *beep*.ty (Leyla, Canan), or just bad and silly (Lale, Ezgi, Ece). I guess this is the reason why so many foreigners I know have a girl named Deniz. So far, Hediye and Zekiye are the only ones we've agreed on.

So do any of you have daughters? What are they called? Any other good-sounding, good-meaning names you've heard of?

Also, is it true there's a law they must have Turkish names?