Skip to main content

Turkish Lesson: Köpek


I passed this place on my way home from the train station today. I pass it every day. 

It's quite common to see owners here playing with a Köpek.

It's not the only place I see a Köpek or two. Most are strays I see lying languidly throughout the day. In the evening they clean up the streets and make their rounds of alleyways. My landlord says they keep him up at night, but I haven't heard any barking...yet.

Köpek. Your newest Turkish word!

Postscript: i spotted this sign on my hike Saturday. I took several shortcuts, but never when I saw this sign. 

Var means "have or has" in English. 
Labels:

Comments

  1. JennyAugust 14, 2022 at 7:08 AM

    What kind of dogs are you seeing there? Mixed breeds or are certain breeds more common?

    ReplyDelete
  2. JDAugust 15, 2022 at 6:30 AM

    Really mixed. Mostly big, furry mutts. They aren't very photogenic. I also see Turks walking dogs on leashes. This dog park is a sign that dogs are a popular pet, but I'd say the strays outnumber the owned.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sunday at the İzmir Archeological Museum

After church today, I resolved to beat the heat and go to a museum. My target: the İzmir Archeological Museum , just south of the bazaar in the Konak district. My friend, Jen, had told me about a slogan she had seen: "Turkey, it's the world's largest museum." It's true. At any given place where I might stand, especially at an important harbor like Izmir, I may have seven millenia of history at my feet! I quickly learned, upon entering the gallery that ancient history is a pretty broad topic to examine. When we think of Ancient Rome, we think of a specific civilization that endured for 500 years. Ancient Greece casts our minds to Socrates and Alexander. But Ancient Turkey? There is really no one thing.  I don't want to go into much detail here. I have years of living in and exploring this fascinating country ahead of me. So I have plenty of time to figure it out for myself. I'll just write that before the Greek civilizations, known as Ionians and Aeolians, ...
3 comments
Read more

Book Review: My Father's House / The Idle Years

A few weeks ago I went through my monthly book binge. The school secretary, a Turk named Ipek, had asked me if I was teaching any Turkish writers in my literature classes. I have spent the years since my first visit to Turkey reading Turkish writers, most notably Nobel laureate, Orhan Pamuk. But I remain ignorant of the breadth of Turkish literature.  Ipek set me aright. She wrote down ten authors I needed to check out. I immediately went home, hoping to find them translated into English. It took some work--so did finding English titles in a Turkish bookstore. Finally someone mentioned a store with English books on Konak Pier, and I went the next Sunday to check it out. The English titles they had were mostly classics--Frankenstein, Kafka, stuff like that. I found two books by Turkish writers: a history of the Ottomans and Orhan Kemal's My Father's House . Kemal had been one of the writers on Ipek's list. The book begins as a novel--another man telling his story to the writ...
Post a Comment
Read more