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15

Jul 15, 2013 By Tags:, ,

İngilizce Türkiye’de: SALT Galata

SALT-GALATA-ISTANBUL

Welcome to the third post in our İngilizce Türkiye’de series. In our second post, we introduced a great Agean mezze restaurant called Eleos. In our third post we will highlight SALT Galata, a wonderful cultural institution in the heart of Istanbul.

In our İngilizce Türkiye’de series we highlight establishments across Turkey that offer great service. SALT Galata is the second installment of the not for profit SALT. The other two locations are SALT Beyoğlu (also in Istanbul) and SALT Ulus (in Ankara). SALT Galata is a wonderful multipurpose venue, with a museum, art gallery, archive, cafe and restaurant! For any resident of Istanbul or visitor, it is a great place to spend an afternoon or evening. For the most part, SALT Galata is much less visited than the nearby Beyoğlu location.

SALT Galata opened November 22, 2011. Originally designed by Alexander Vallaury as the 19th century Imperial Ottoman Bank headquarters. SALT Galata is comprised of four main elements:

  • The Ottoman bank museum (wonderful display of financial records and archives set in the vault / basement of the original bank)
  • SALT Research, which offers access to print and digital resources, exhibitions and a conference hall
  • Ca’d’oro cafe, a lovely cafe which serves light snacks and has a strong internet connection and large tables for all day projects
  • Ca’d’oro restaurant, a more upscale restaurant serving lunch and dinner on a terrace overlooking the Golden Horn

In honor of SALT Galata and its Ottoman bank roots, here are some words related to art and exhibitions!

Sanat… art

Sergi… exhibition

Gösterim… presentation or screening

Konuşma… speech, public lecture

Atölye… (artist) studio

SALT-GALATA-ISTANBUL

As always, if you know of any restaurants or attractions in Turkey that have a strong command of the English language, please recommend them to us for our İngilizce Türkiye’de series!

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24

Jun 24, 2013 By Tags:, ,

İngilizce Türkiye’de: Van Kahvaltı Evi

van-kahvalti-evi-İngilizce-Türkiye'de

In our İngilizce Türkiye’de series we highlight establishments across Turkey that offer great service as well as great command of the English language.

We think the series is a good way to discover great restaurants, destinations, attractions and services, as well as highlighting establishments in Turkey where English speakers can get service in the global language.

On a recent morning walk in Cihangir, myself and my co-founder found ourselves very hungry. Both of us are big fans of an Aegean breakfast. As we walked towards Taksim we noticed a Kahvaltı Evi that was packed at 9 am on a Thursday. We decided to check it out.

Van Kahvaltı Evi is not an Aegean kahvaltı but hails from the eastern parts of the country. The Kurdish regions of Turkey take their kahvaltı very seriously. There are many similarities to an Aegean Kahvaltı with some key differences including Van cheeses, tangy cacık (thick yogurt spread) and murtuğa, a heavy wheat flour porridge. Of course, you will find the typical tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and white cheese of an Aegean kahvaltı. The food at Van Kahvaltı Evi is generous in portion, very fresh and reasonably priced.

What we were most impressed with is the service. Both of our waiters, and the man who brought us our bill spoke a great level of English. Additionally, both had commanded some of the finer elements in translation of Turkish service to English.

One of the more difficult aspects to learning English is wordy question forms:

While in Turkish it’s quite acceptable to simply use a single noun in isolation, such as ‘bread?’, ‘tea?’, ‘bill?’ for example, it usually grates on the ears of a native English speakers as it can border on rudeness.

English, requires a more expansive question. Not too hard to learn but at a minimum service staff are better off using:

  • Would you like anything else?
  • Would you like more tea / bread…
  • Can I get you anything else?

It’s a small thing but these couple of phrases make such a difference to the quality of service.

Whether you are a foreigner visiting Turkey or a Turkish resident, we hope that you will check out Van Kahvaltı Evi for a great breakfast and great service in English (if required). Details:

Address: Defterdar Yokuşu No: 52.A, Cihangir
Telephone: 212-293-6437

As always, if you know of any establishments that should be commended for their İngilizce Türkiye’de, please let us know.

 

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20

Jun 20, 2013 By Tags:, ,

İngilizce Türkiye’de series

Introducing our new blog series: İngilizce Türkiye’de

service-establishments-turkey

service-establishments-turkey

TurksLearnEnglish.com is excited to announce the launch of our series: İngilizce Türkiye’de. In this series we will highlight great venues across Turkey, such as restaurants, galleries, tourist attractions and entertainment facilities.

We will focus on establishments where the Turkish staff has a strong command of the English language. Our inspiration for this series is both to highlight great establishments for residents and visitors to Turkey, and also praise establishments with a strong command of the English language. We will also use this series to highlight language lessons related to the service industry. For a Turkish native speaker to adapt to a service culture in English, there can often be challenges. Much of the time, literal translations from Turkish into English don’t work well.

There are several elements of Turkish service language that should not be literally translated into English when providing service. For example:

‘Başka istediğiniz var mı’ should translate to:

  • Is there anything else?
  • Do you need anything else?
  • Would you like anything else?

Likewise, the often used ‘isim?’ when requesting someone’s name in Turkish needs to be a much longer to sound polite in English:

  • Can I have your name?
  • Can I take your name?

Unfortunately, the very short question ‘Name?’ used by Turkish Starbucks staff is not polite English.

And for staff who look up from the counter and see a chance to use English, where you would normally use ‘buyurun’, why not try:

  • Hi, can I help you?

We hope that you will enjoy our İngilizce Türkiye’de series. If you know of any establishments across Turkey that should be highlighted for their great command of the English language as well as providing a great service, please let us know! Whether it be a restaurant, an entertainment venue, guide or tourist attraction we would be happy to hear from you!

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