Q & A

On the intro survey I use on the first day of class, the last item asks students to write a question they want me to answer about myself. Here are the questions and my answers from my students this semester:

• How can you teach us?

I have been teaching English for 15 years, so I have a wide variety of methods and strategies to help you learn English as well as possible. I understand that students have different learning styles and different strengths and weakness, all of which I need to be aware of in my teaching.

• How do you see your relationship with students?

I want to have a respectful, friendly, and happy relationship with students. Because I am responsible for presenting the content of the course, organizing the class, and grading student progress, it cannot be a true friend relationship. All the same, we should work together for student success.

• Do you think our English will improve a lot in one year?

Yes, it can—a lot depends on the effort and motivation of the individual student!

• Do you like your job and your students?

Yes, I love teaching and enjoy working with you all very much.

• Are you happy at Koç University?

Yes, I am very happy for the opportunity to work at Koç.

• What makes you angry in class or outside?

I work very hard to avoid getting angry in class, but it is upsetting when students refuse to take responsibility for their own learning. Outside of the classroom, I get angry with the violence and hate in the world.

• Why do you prefer us to call you by your first name?

Good question! I do not have an doctorate degree, so I cannot be called “Professor.” Some teachers want to emphasize the social distance between themselves and their students, so they prefer a title like Mr. or Ms. I prefer to lessen that social distance in a way to help new university students feel they have entered the adult world.

• Why did you choose Turkey to work?

A loooooooong time ago, when I was an undergraduate, one of my first roommates was a young woman from Turkey. Later, my husband and I visited Turkey, and now, my husband is conducting research on Turkish history for his doctorate degree.

• Why are you working at Koç University?

I applied to work at Koç University because it has an excellent reputation as an English medium university and it has a strong English preparation program.

• How old are you?

I graduated from high school in 1989. Do the math J

• Where are you from?

I was born in Mount Pleasant, Michigan in the United States.

• Do you miss your family or is your family in Turkey?

I do miss my family. I hope that my sister and her husband will come visit in January though!

• From which university did you graduate?

My B.A. is in Studio Art / Art History from Oberlin College in Ohio, and my M.A. is in Applied Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

• What is your favorite color?

I especially like mixes of blue and green.

• What are your hobbies?

I like to read, draw, knit, see movies, and play word games.

• Do you have a child?

No, I have a husband and a cat.

• Do you speak French?

Oui, je parle un peu de français. Mais ça fait longtemps que j’ai l’habitude de utiliser français.

• Is your main language English?

Yes. I have studied French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Turkish.

• Do you like to live in Istanbul? Are you happy in Turkey?

I feel very lucky to have the chance to live in Istanbul. It is one of my favorite cities in the world. In general, I am happy living in Turkey. Of course, it can be very confusing and frustrating when you are learning a new language and culture, right?

• How many years have you been here?

I have visited Turkey a few times in the summer. This time, I have been here for one full year.

• Where do you want to work in the future? What is your dream?

After Koç University, I would like to work with immigrant and refugee populations in the United States.

First Impressions on a New Semester

I learned what my classes would be on Friday, where the classrooms were on Sunday, and got the official rosters late Monday afternoon. It turns out that you don't really need to know what you're teaching or who exactly is supposed to be in your classroom in order to have a great first day! The students were friendly, patient, cooperative, and even participated. I know it's far too early to predict, but that was an impressive start....

Evening Walk

I took a walk with a friend down a road I didn't even know existed, and behold--a lake! From this vantage you can see the mosque that is right in front of our apartment building. As you can see, it was a lovely, late summer evening.

Settling in (again)

This is my current cozy spot, with a cool breeze from the window behind me.

Posters from the Istanbul Modern Art Museum

One knitting project done, more to come!

After two weeks back, it is finally feeling normal to be here again. The first week was soooooo quiet--Alex was doing research in London and most of my friends were still on vacation. I read four books and did a lot of knitting. My next project is a möbius shawl for myself. The cast-on process is so involved that there is a 10 minute video to explain how! Wish me luck...

In the past week, I went back to work, but it was a merciful transition. There were entrance tests to administer and some test marking to do, but otherwise it was eating, drinking tea, and chatting with new and old coworkers. Next week will be much the same! Maybe on Thursday or Friday, I will learn my teaching schedule (for the semester that begins on Monday, Sep 15). Once the semester begins, I will definitely be busy. I expect to teach at least 20 hours per week with about 20 to 25 students on the roster (not all of them will show up). That will be a shock!

How I Met a (Novice) Spy

Leaving London, on the last leg of my trip back to Turkey, I met a newly hatched, not quite ready for prime time CIA agent (purely my supposition, of course). He was one of the last people on the plane, and he sat next to me. At first he was quite chatty, and I decided to be social for once and asked if he was on his way to Istanbul or travelling on. He said he was staying in Istanbul, and in response to my other questions, said it would be his first time there, and that he planned to stay for two years--hanging out! (Rich kid's vacay?) So then I asked if he had already learned about the residence permit process, which has gotten much trickier in the last few months. He said, no, but his "friends in the consulate would help." Then he ended the conversation by putting on a neck pillow and eye shades and falling asleep (snoring, I might add) for the rest of the flight. Fine, whatever, dude. But I realized something, from the neck down, he looked normal in a "I- wear-punk-rock-t-shirts-but-don't-know-the-music" kind of way. From the neck up, he looked like a young, conservative, religious Turkish man. In the customs area of the Istanbul airport, I saw him breeze through the diplomatic staff line, and the pieces finally came together. Aha! This one doesn't quite have his cover story down yet, and probably is too excited not to talk at all about his first job. I can only hope that he doesn't cause too much damage to the rest of us in his part of the CIA machinations.

Balat

Balat is a neighborhood on the European side of Istanbul where there used to be large Jewish and Greek communities. The old buildings are slowly collapsing and/or being gentrified. A couple synagogues and orthodox churches are still there as well as a Greek primary school for boys. 

The Greek School

Saint Mary of the Mongols

Tunnel in Saint Mary of the Mongols

Cat!

The Ecumenical Patriarchate

24 Hours in Bursa

This weekend, I made a quick trip to Bursa with my friends Mary and Lauren. Mary is leaving Turkey soon, and she wanted to get souvenirs from the silk markets in Bursa. When we left Sarıyer in the afternoon, the skies were dark and grey, and the wind was picking up. We were taking the metro all the way to the end of the line to get to the ferry boat port. When we got to the escalator to the street, it was pouring, and in the three minutes from the metro exit to the street, we were completely soaked. At least it wasn't a cold rain. We took a tiny cab ride to the port (it would have been a 10 minute walk), and arrived with all of the other soggy passengers for the ferry.

Three Hour Tour

There are two boat options: the car ferry and the "sea bus." The sea bus only takes foot passengers while the car ferry takes both. We had thought it might be less hassle to take the sea bus, but we didn't count on it being a much smaller boat that would get buffeted about in the choppy waves. When we got to the Bursa port (about 1.5 hours later), they could not dock safely for nearly 20 minutes. The boat kept rocking and smashing into the wall of the dock. All the impatient passengers were crowded by the stairs, lurching with the boat. We sat, and waited. Just before they let passengers off the boat, these two very young men in pilot?? uniforms exited the front "personnel only" section of the boat. They looked about 14 years old and were blushing pretty deeply. Oh my. Even though passengers could get off the boat, it was still moving unpredictably, and it was a real relief to get back on land!
After we checked into the hotel, Mary and Lauren's first order of business was to buy new shoes--theirs were too soaked. We got that done around 7:30pm, and we started walking around the area looking for a place to eat. Of course, it's Ramazan, and if it hadn't been so close to sunset (8:48pm), we would have found a place relatively easily. There were attractive restaurants all around, but they were set up for the iftar meal. We finally figured out that we would have to wait until sunset, too. By chance, we found a welcoming, small restaurant, with a table for three on the patio. The other lucky part was the iftar menu wasn't meat heavy. We sat and waited for another 15 minutes, others have been waiting since sunrise by the way, for the canon to sound the end of fasting.
On Saturday morning, the souvenir shopping extravaganza began! Bursa has countless intertwined covered markets, passages, and hans. Each han is a remnant of the Silk Road, where caravans would stop to rest and to sell their goods.

We arrived around 10am, and most shops were just opening up. At the first place, Lauren bought a scarf and when she put the money on the counter, the shopkeeper grabbed it and threw it on the floor. What? Later, at the next shop, Lauren asked the shopkeeper about this and he told us that it was an old tradition to throw the money from the first sale of the day on the floor, just a superstitious gesture, not a comment on Lauren's payment!

Here are a few details from my photos: 

Lunch time!

One major item on Mary's agenda was to eat Iskender kebap one last time. Neither Lauren nor I were interested in this, so we had our lunch at the Arkabahçe Cafe (pictured above). We sat with Mary, though, while she enjoyed her meat-fest of a meal:

Lamb, tomato sauce, bread, yogurt, hot pepper; all drenched in browned butter... mercy!

After our late lunch(es), we had a little more time for shopping; then it was time to collect our bags from the hotel, and make the trek back to the ferry port to return to Istanbul. The trip back was much smoother because the only option was the car ferry, not the sea bus. We had seats close to the front windows, so I was able to get a few shots of the approach to Istanbul.

Welcome back!