Job Discussion Forums

gelin · Joined: 09 Mar 2003 Posts: 144 Location: Istanbul, Turkey

Has anyone read this book? What did you think? It's about someone's experiences at a school in Ankara.

yaramaz · Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 5:46 am Post subject:

I read it last year. It was...okay. Felt a bit like an extended high school essay about a guy's Year Abroad. Some of his observations were valid and insightful, but lot reminded me of things that I wrote in emails home during my first year that I now cringe over when I see how naive/wrong I was in my interpretations of things.

gelin · Joined: 09 Mar 2003 Posts: 144 Location: Istanbul, Turkey

It was written after he looked at all his emails home. I'm curious to hear what you thought was wrong in the book. Naive I can see.

yaramaz · Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 11:59 am Post subject:

Not so much wrong as in incorrect...but as in rather incomplete and simplistic. I havent read it since last year so I can't cite any examples, I just remember thinking it at the time.

gelin · Joined: 09 Mar 2003 Posts: 144 Location: Istanbul, Turkey

I think someone who has lived in Turkey for a while, as you probably have, would find it so, but it's a good introduction to someone who's thinking about teaching in Turkey for a year or two. I know that most everyone can identify with the book in some way or other.

yaramaz · Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 12:42 pm Post subject:

True. I agree with you there- it is a pretty decent intro.

FGT · Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 762 Location: Turkey

Changing the subject a little, but sticking to books - i just read Livaneli's "Bliss" (English title), otherwise known as "Mutluluk", and loved it. Has anyone else read it? I've not (yet) read anything else by him, are his other books as good?

My students tell me it was made in to a film, has anyone seen it? Is it available on DVD? Did Livaneli do the music?

tvik · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 371 Location: here

i read bits of the yogert man book and agreed with yaramaz. i would consider it a good book for toilet reading but not sustaining enough for long distance bus reading

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

tvik:

gelin · Joined: 09 Mar 2003 Posts: 144 Location: Istanbul, Turkey

I've lived in both Ankara and Istanbul. Ankara is much easier. Istanbul is more charming, of course, but it also has more crime and a lot more villagers. I guess it depends on what you're looking for in a city as to which one you like more.

yaramaz · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 5:49 pm Post subject:

I *heart* villagers.

Them's my favourite peeps. Seriously.

gelin · Joined: 09 Mar 2003 Posts: 144 Location: Istanbul, Turkey

I've been in many a village, and have known many a villager. Many are more honest than the city-folk -- until they catch on to the "city-life", that is. Then they are worse than the city-folk. Does this make any sense? I don't know how else to describe it. Yaramaz, didn't you teach in Kayseri?

yaramaz · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 6:36 pm Post subject:

Yep, two years there, with a lot of time out in the villages visiting friends and their families. I have a huge soft spot for villagers based on experience, and get really annoyed by Bagdat/Nisantasi twits who go on and bleddy on about the wonders of modernity/westernness/etc, as if being that fake modern tat passes for...modern here was any sort of improvement on humanity.

I was never ripped off or told off or treated badly in any way in Kayseri (which is home to the stereotypes of penny pinching, sell your mother to the hurdaci religious nutbars). I'm currently living in a super-villagey part of Istanbul, in a part of Beyoglu that my affluent/modern Turkish friends flinch at when I mention it, and I feel very safe and very happy. My neighbours are all from Bingol and are a pretty tight community, with lots of grandmas and kids out in the narrow streets till quite late. If I come home late and alone, and if someone follows me, there is always someone out who will take the stalker aside to check if I know him or want him around. I never had that protection in Erenkoy or Harbiye and so did have a few slightly scary moments.