Turkish Phrases Blog

I’m looking for fresh ginger root in the pazar.  A Turkish pazar is basically a bazaar; near our house it’s a farmers market, usually with an incredible array of mouth-watering fresh fruits and veggies.  And there is often one within walking distance, which is nice.  I often have an interesting cultural experience there too.

I find a kind of knobby root which sure looks like ginger root.  but it doesn’t really have that tingly ginger smell to it.  I ask the the seller what it is and he says, “sldfiusdf.”  I ask him again and he says, “yaframler.”  OK, I’m not getting it, so I move on.

yerelması

ginger root

Another guy has a bunch of spices and things.  I find what I’m pretty sure is dried ginger root in a plastic bag and I hold it up.
“Bu ne?” I ask.
He says, “fjskislsd.”
I ask again and he points to the words marked on the bag: “zencefil.”
“Is zencefil used in cooking?” At this he raises his eyebrows in the Turkish way that means, “No!”
“What’s it used in?”  At this he rattles something off about herbal remedies and such.  I didn’t catch all the details, but I know he is being pretty emphatic that “zencefil” is not used in cooking.  Then I spy a bag with what looks like ground ginger in it, and it also says, “zencefil” in red marker.  I pick it up and smell it.  This is definitely ginger.  “You don’t put this in food?” I ask.
“No.”
“Well, we do.”
“What kind of food?” he asks incredulously.
“Chinese food.”
At this he starts asking where I’m from.  Turns out he is a Kurd from Urfa (Şanlıurfa).  He whips out his phone and shows me pictures of some kind of place commemorating the prophet Abraham, because evidently Urfa is the place know as Harran in the Bible–where Abraham was from.
So after a nice chat with my new Kurdish friend I go off again to ask about the knobby root I saw.  “Is this fresh ginger root?” (Bu taze zencefil mi?) I ask the first guy, picking up and sniffing one of these roots.
“Nooo.  This is yerelması.  You have to go to a baharatçı to find taze zencefil,” he replies.  (Yerelması literally means “earth apple” and is sometimes called “Jerusalem artichoke.”)

I go back home without fresh ginger root (taze zencefil) but with a new friend and some more experience with Turkish language and culture.

Technorati Tags: learning turkish, useful turkish phrases

Let’s focus on a few especially useful Turkish phrases.  These are words and phrases I hear all the time in Turkey.

1.  Çok yaşa (Choke-ya-sha)  It literally means, “Live long” and is the same as German “Gesundheit” or English “Bless you,” said after someone sneezes.  The response is Sen de gör (sehn-deh-gour) meaning, “and you too.”

2.  Bakar mısınız (ba-kar mi-si-niz)  This means, “Excuse me!”  Use it to get the attention of a waiter.

3.  Geçmiş olsun! (gech-mish ohl-sun)  Said to someone who is ill.  It means “Get well soon!”

4.  Buyurun (booy-uroon)  Shopkeepers and sellers at the pazar (market) will always say this to you when you walk up to them.  It basically means, “At your service,” or “Can I help you?”

5.  Efendim (ehf-ehn-dim)  This is how a phone is answered–”Hello!”  It is used to respond to someone politely, like saying “pardon?”  Efendim also means “sir/madam.”  In this way it is tacked on the end of a sentence like, “blah blah blah, efendim.”

Technorati Tags: turkish phrases, useful turkish phrases

Looking for more audio resources for learning Turkish Phrases?  There are four podcasts available for free download on iTunes from Sinan Akdeniz. (You can download iTunes software for free.)  Just do a search for “Turkish Language with Sinan.”

The podcasts include:

1. Restaurants
2. Direction, Time and Dates
3. Airports and Hotels
4. First Words

These podcasts are geared for the beginner.  The last podcast was posted a couple years ago, so we will see if more appear!

Technorati Tags: Audio, learning turkish, turkish phrases, useful turkish phrases

This has to be one of the most useful Turkish phrases I’ve memorized: Musait bir yerda (moo sigh it bir yar da).  When you are on a dolmush (dolmuş) minibus it means, “Stop somewhere convenient, please.”

Once I tried to tell a dolmuş driver I wanted to get off before a certain supermarket.  Of course, I only knew the name of the supermarket, so he didn’t understand what I was saying.  When we came to where I wanted to get off he would not stop because we weren’t at the supermarket yet!  I learned to say Musait bir yerde right after that.

Technorati Tags: turkish phrases, turkish speak, useful turkish phrases