Turkish Phrases Blog

Turkish Mantı by d u g y u

My family and I had our first visit to a Turkish home this weekend.  It was a very special occasion for us and I was eager to try one of the Turkish phrases I learned.

Our neighbors had invited us to have dinner with them and we had a lovely time.  They served us lentil soup, “manti,” which is kind of like tortellini, stuffed peppers, a parsley, dill, lemon and lettuce salad and a coffee flavored moist cake that sounds like “terramisou” for dessert.

After we were served the delicious food I said, “Elleriniz sağlık,” (el-ehr-een-eez saah-lick) which literally means, “health to your hands!”  It is a way of saying, “Thank you for the food!”  Our gracious hostess replied, “Afiyet olsun!” (Bon appetit!).

Another way to say thanks after a meal is, “Sofranıza bereket,” which means, “Thank you for your hospiality.”  It literally means, “May your table be blessed (or overflowing).”

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“Please don’t burn the hair out of my ears with a flaming cotton ball!” is one of those Turkish phrases you should learn if you are a guy who needs to visit the barber in Turkey–that is, unless you enjoy having your ears smell like burnt hair.  I’m not making this up.

Barbers in various parts of the world come up with very creative ways to serve their customers.  I’ve had neck and scalp massages before without being asked.  But when it comes to ear hair (and yes guys, as you get older the hair does get thicker in your ears) I never had this experience until recently.

I visited the barber and was enjoying a very professional (and badly needed) haircut when the barber went to his table and picked up what looked like a metal skewer with cotton on the end.  He messed with it a bit to get it ready as I curiously and innocently looked on.  Then he dipped the cotton ball in some kind of flammable liquid and barked at his apprentice to get matches.

**Please Do NOT Try This At Home**

When he lit it, the cotton ball had a six-inch flame coming off of it and he brought it over to me.  By then I was getting nervous, but I figured, “Hey, this guy is a professional.  I’ll let him do his job.”  Sure enough, the barber skillfully singed all the hair out of my ears without turning me into a toasted marshmallow!  He did a kind of burn-wack-burn-wack move where he expertly slapped my ear to put out the burning hair before it burned down to my skin.  I was amazed.

So if you need to visit a barber in Turkey and don’t want the flaming cotton ball treatment, I’m told a simple, “istemiyorum” (iss-tay-mee-yor-um) will suffice.  It means, “I don’t want it.”

If you really want to say the whole phrase say, “Lütfen, kulak tüylerimi yanan pamukla yakmayın!” (Loot-fan, koo-lock tooy-lar-eem-i yon-on pom-ook-la yock-my-in).

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