Turkish Culture is Direct

Turkish Culture is up front and direct

After a month of being in Turkey, I have noticed one thing about Turkish culture: it is bitingly direct.

This works both for and against a traveler, for if a Turk feels like being polite to you, they will help you through any difficulty; if they feel like being rude, you will know it.

If you are on a city bus and do not know exactly where your stop is, all you have to do is ask one person and the entire bus will try to help you. If you are lost or looking for something in the streets, almost any passerby is at your disposal to help set you on the right track.

But if, for some reason, a Turkish person decides that they do not like you, they tend to not go out of their way to cover this feeling up.

I try not to write about cultures in generalizing terms, as blanket statements tend to fall short of fully encompassing the diversity of reality, but my experience alone has lead me to identifying certain behavioral patterns in many Turkish people that I have crossed paths with.

If there were not cultural patterns that could be mentally bookmarked and used as guides, then their would not be such academic disciplines as cultural anthropology and sociology.

This far in, I appreciate the directness of Turkish culture.

Turkish Culture is up front and direct