By A.J. Griffiths-Jones

Taking a morning stroll along Akbuk harbour has been a great way for me to get to grips with appropriate Turkish greetings and when to use them, and also to pick up a few new sentences along the way.

It’s amazing how many people will try to help you improve your language skills if you show the willingness to learn. I have a very pragmatic approach to language-learning and, rather than sitting in a classroom, I like to get to grips with Turkish by talking to locals and practising over and over, as I find that having an image to relate to helps me remember a word far better than reading it in a textbook.

As well as the spoken word, there are the physical gestures that are particular to certain countries too which, for a Brit that tends to avoid physical contact when saying ‘hello’, can be slightly daunting.

When we first came to Turkiye, almost twenty years ago now, my husband and I were living in China, so the uppermost language in my mind was Mandarin.

In fact, having lived in Shanghai for a decade, I do still occasionally accidentally speak to people in Chinese, especially when I’m translating numbers in my head.

With many words being short and flat in tone, it wasn’t too difficult to navigate everyday necessities in the local dialect, although some expressions did have me puzzled to begin with, such as the greeting ‘Ni chi li ma?’. Literally meaning ‘have you eaten’ this was a common way of saying hello to a friend or colleague, as great importance is given to having enough food in China, something which no doubt evolved after the Cultural Revolution. Turkish, however, is a different kettle of fish altogether.

Just like in English, ‘gunaydin’ (good morning) and ‘tunaydin’ (good afternoon) are used every day when you greet someone, but then the very different phrase of ‘iyi aksamlar’ (good evening) can also be used to bid farewell.

Closer friends might use ‘selam’, a common way of saying hello. A usual response would be ‘iyilik, senden?’ (Good, and you?) although if you’re not in a good mood the rather poetic ‘Ayni tas ayni hamam’ can be used. This comes from the fact that in a Turkish hammam people mix hot and cold water in a marble basin and scoop it out with a bowl to pour over themselves. The English equivalent would be ‘Same as always.’

With so many different nationalities living in and around Didim it’s really interesting to hear how people from the same country greet one another.

For example, I have always used ‘Bonjour’ (good day) or ‘Bon Soir’ (good evening) in French, but recently picked up on the word ‘coucou’. This example of onomatopoeia is said to come from the sound a cuckoo bird makes and can be used for a more personal greeting with friends.

In Russian ‘Dobry den’ is common and polite and can be used up until the end of the working day. However, in Russia there are actually eleven time zones, so when it’s morning in Kaliningrad, people living in Kamchatka are sitting down to their evening meal.

For this reason, an extra greeting in Russian was invented. The word ‘sutki’ denotes one twenty-four-hour period and from this we get the greeting ‘Dobrogo vremeni sutok) which literally translates as ‘Good around-the-clock!’

Finally, don’t be at all surprised if someone greets you here in Turkiye with kisses on both cheeks. It’s both a greeting and farewell and can also be used to congratulate someone or as a sign of friendship.

You will also see men touching their heads together while shaking hands. If in doubt, take the lead from Turkish friends and don’t be afraid to ask which kind of greeting is appropriate for the person you’re speaking to. Practice makes perfect and being able to say ‘hello’ is a good start in any language.