Job Discussion Forums

[ak_tesl]

My first week in Turkey and I love ıt . . . ıncludıng the 6:00 am wake-up call-to-prayers from minarets.

Someone recently posted a questıon on buyıng ın Turkey. My experience so far is that some items for sale have a quoted price (supermarkets, restaurants) and others don�t (bazaars, street vendors, tourist shops). The second type calls for bargaining. The items without a quoted price fall into two categories: those sold by weight (nuts, cheese, olives) and the single unit ones. To purchase weighted items, I just provide the cash amount I wish to buy (say 1 TkL). To offset any loss to weigh rigging (a world-wide trick), I taste a sample before the purchase and samples of related items after the purchase (yummy). When purchasing whole units, I find out (by asking elsewhere) their market value (so as to have a bargaining power). Case in point: I needed an umbrella and was told that they cost between 7 TkL and 12 TkL. A street vendor offered me a cheap kind for 15 TkL. I opened one, gave him a look, and counter-offered 5 TkL! The price was immediately reduced to 12 TkL. �Too much�, I replied, �5 TkL!�. I handed back the opened umbrella and started to walk away. The price was immediately reduced to 8 TkL. �6 TkL�, I re-re-re-offered, but 8 TkL was the bottom line. I offered him a 10 TkL bill (an old trick: he had no change). He ended up accepting 7 TkL plus spare change (50 cents). He wasn�t very happy, I wasn�t either (feelings of guilt), but my wallet was.

[dmb]

there is a guy outside the taksim metro who sells umbrellas for 5YTL.

[Otterman Ollie]

Can do better than that ,only last week beat the local down from5 to 3.5 ytl saw the same one in another stall for 3 I was gutted .

[dmb]

darn you ollie, I was feeling smug for a little while

[molly farquharson]

i think there needs to be a balance between the triumph of bargaining and the realization that most of these guys make a pittance. if something is cheap, i don't bother to bargain, but other things I do. I am getting pretty good at it, something i have learned to do here I wish I had learned it before!

[scot47]

'the craziness of it all (even the 6:00 am wake-up call-to-prayers from the minarets).'

Now that displays REAL cultural sensitivity. We do not do this in the USA so it is crazy !

Call to prayer had been a feature of societies in this part of the world for a long time. I do not think you should describe it as craziness !

[Golightly]

although this may seem a bit off-topic, I'd like to post this link here:
Reading University APILL project
It's a link to Reading University's APILL independent learning project. Great for students, but there is a must-listen lecture about culture shock. while it's aimed at students coming to the UK, it does make some pertinent points about the whole process which anyone going to a new country could benefit from. It's good to see the OP is enchanted by everything at the moment: it's when everything starts to seem cruddy that you need other strategies, otherwise you end up going all 31.

[Otterman Ollie]

Yeah it has been quite of late ,perhaps its the hols or the fact that certain types are not posting any more ,does feel a bit tame though . Hopefully that might change soon.

[whynotme]

[scot47]

31 ?

Hic Lupus in Fabula

Speak of the Devil and he is sure to appear.

Maybe the administrators put a stake through his heart and buried him at a crossroads ? Here's hoping !

[calsimsek]

Entrailicus

[Otterman Ollie]

So how does the discount cards work in places like Migros then ?

[Ebenezer]

So... Ak_tesl, you will be working as a victim, er... I mean, an a teacher, for wihich language school? Believe me, there's a lot more "crazyness" coming a long... the call for prayer at 6 a.m. is just the beginning of a long, long year... if you last that long... some of us do, though... welcome to Turkey!

[dmb]

[coffeespoonman]