5 Common English Words That Translate Into Colorful Turkish Curses
Languages are funny in how innocuous words in one, can often be quite offensive in others. And when it comes to colorful curses that are hilariously inappropriate and borderline reprehensible (you draw your borders and I’ll draw mine) Turkish is full of them. So much so that English speakers can walk right into them without even realizing it. Here are some common colorful terms to know so you can avoid calling your hotel reception a vagina or telling market vendors you love eating bastards – or not, depending on your circumstances.
1. Straight Translations to Look Out For: ‘Hıyar’ (Pronounced: Hou-yar) – Cucumber
Let’s start out with this word which means cucumber, and you might see it labeled in grocery stores or open-air markets that way. Though calling someone a hıyar is equivalent to calling them a moron or stupid prick. Remember that next time you’re yelling for cucumbers to a vendor and consider the more agreeable word “salatalık”.
2. ‘Ayı’ (Pronounced: Ay-ou) – Bear
This word can go either way but mostly it goes to mean someone is an ogre or large, graceless, mentally-impaired idiot. Or something like that, Turkish curse words are like Legos, you can put them together in infinitely insolent combinations.
Phonetics F-U: You Say Tomato And I Say, What Did You Say About My Mom?
Translating words incorrectly is just fracking fun but so sleazy smooth when both sound pretty much the same in each language. Yes, while these words might, say, describe your health in English, they could be announcing you’re ready for intercourse in Turkish.
3. Sick (Turkish: Sik) – Translation: Rhymes With Duck
The ever popular F-word is also a single syllable in Turkish though in classrooms in Turkey, “sick” is usually translated into “ill”. You can imagine keeping a group of students from snickering as the teacher reads, “Timmy is going to the doctor today because he is f–k and coughing.”
4. Um (Turkish: Am) – Translation: Rhymes With Runt
If I haven’t offended you by this point let me tell you to not, um, like, um, use “um” as a filler word in Turkey. Most Turks won’t bat an eye at it because they understand the context you might, runt, be, runt, using it…but it’s secretly amusing nonetheless. Now you can use, um, while pretending not to know what it means.
5. Peach – (Turkish: Piç) – Translation: Bastard
Piç isn’t quite the same pronunciation in English and sounds more like saying the word “peach” quickly (or “pitch”). Be careful not to mix languages if that’s what you’re shopping for in Istanbul though or you might end up with a kilo of bastards at the grocery store, rather than the juicy peaches you were referring to.
Bonus: Rounding Out Some Other Coincidences
In English you don’t want to be “pushed” and in Turkish you don’t want to be one (pronounced the same, “puşt”.) There are a variety of translations on that one (don’t you just love how languages evolve) but we can settle with a male sex-toy for other men. Also, I hate to break it to rapper 50 Cent but being a pimp – or “pezevenk” – in Turkish isn’t nearly as glamorous as it is in English slang. When taken seriously calling someone a pezevenk could get you punched but among friends it’s likely to get you a chuckle.
I hope you’ve had a ball with these translations that might not go over so well and I’d love to hear what colorful terms you’ve come across in your travels or have in your native language. (The Turkish word for “ball” doesn’t always translate well either, but I digress.) Language is all about context and when you’re learning the fundamentals before your next trip, these 3 language social networks can help you discover any…unintended meanings.
[selected photos by: inflatable Chicago Bears by Chicago Man and man blowing nose by Svenstorm]
Discovering The Art And Heart Of Porto: The Best City To Visit In 2011
Back in March, through 4 weeks of voting, you picked Porto, Portugal as the best city to visit in 2011. Last month I made good on a promise to explore the city before the end of the year. What I found as a guest of Visit Portugal was a city that captivated me with its artistic nature. From the gigantic battle of design and ego that was waged over Porto’s two most famous bridges to Harry Potter’s birthplace, what’s uniform in Porto is an attention to unique.
The best way to show you Porto is to look at what the city has inspired, slowly working your way back to Portugal’s second largest city.
A Tale Of Two Cities
Somewhere around 300 BC, the Romans conquered the settlement of Cale – named after Greek for “beautiful” or Latin for “warm”; either way renaming it Portus Cale. Say that 5 times fast and you can see how the name Portugal likely came about. Porto is now known as a city of bridges, one of two in Europe to have 6; all of which cross the Douro River. The other city in Europe with 6 bridges is Vila Nova de Gaia (Gaia for short) – and it happens to sit across the Douro. Yes, Porto is right next to Gaia, taking up the limelight and making up two of the 12 cities in the Porto Metropolitan Area.
For travelers, the differences aren’t obvious and if you didn’t know better, would be convinced you haven’t left town, even after walking across Luis I Bridge.
Sound And Sight In A Little Big Fight
One of the most obvious displays of deliberate creativity in Porto is the Casa da Musica (House Of Music). The Casa da Musica is at its core a music hall; but it’s surrounded by individual rooms focused on different aspects of sound, art exhibitions, band practices, reading rooms, and things that vaguely have something to do with the giant concert hall in its core.
The Casa da Musica is free to enter, deliberately to signify that money isn’t a part of the creative process. (Although it helps to have wealthy investors.) The building itself was designed by the Dutchman Rem Koolhaas who wanted it to look like meteor crashing into the pavement. Cost and physics prevented him from making the exterior more elaborate and he almost had a fit when told his bar overlooking the concert hall required support beams. That, and the fact that the porous floor needed to be covered by glass because women in heels found it nearly impossible to walk across – and men below were enjoying more than a view of the concert hall.
Smaller battles were waged however in the VIP room, which is decorated with thousands of hand painted tiles, representing scenes from other museums across Portugal. Not one to be told what to do, the artist slipped in his signature hidden in grass, quickly noticed by museum’s staff. It would take another 7 years and an 8-year old to find the other mark of the artist – a tile that’s 90 degrees in the wrong direction in surprisingly plain sight.
- I picked up these and many other stories on a tour of the building. 3 Euro and interesting enough that I didn’t notice it was an hour long; I would highly recommend it.
You’ll get a preview of those tiles, known as “azulejo” and all over the city or if you arrive by train to the Sao Bento station. There are over 20,000 hand painted tiles throughout the station painted by Jorge Colaco in the early 1900s.
Where Harry Potter Was Born
The Livraria Lello is over a hundred years old and consistently voted as one of the world’s most beautiful bookstores. What makes it enchanting these days for thousands of tourists is it might be where Harry Potter was conceived. Not literally (you’ll have to ask his parents for that information) but it’s widely rumored to be where J.K. Rowling first came up with the series’s overall concept.
Rowling has never actually discussed details about her inspiration but was teaching English in Porto when her marriage to a Portuguese man failed in 1993. Prior, in 1990 the idea of a boy attending wizard-school came to her and the depression that followed her divorce fueled many of the darker tones of the Potter series (including the dementors). Rowling completed the first Harry Potter manuscript in 1995; spending two years of her free time in Livraria Lello.
Controversial – especially for Potter fanatics who know about Edinburgh’s The Elephant House – so you let your imagination decide (*cough* Hogwarts).
- By the way, the Livraria Lello is still a private shop and photos (you can see mine here) haven’t been allowed for the past 6 months since the owner found it difficult to maintain business with the influx of curious tourists. I was given special access thanks to ATTTurismo so don’t think I broke any rules. This time.
The Blood Of The Heart Is Made Of Port Wine
Although I’m very familiar with wine in a bottle (and glass), it was kind of Porto Calem to teach me where their ideas for every blend come from and the work that goes into turning grapes into goodness. A 20 minute tour of their cellars ends with tastes of their selections. 4 or 5 glasses and I’m out the door, my thirst quenched; followed by a francesinha to kill any lingering hunger.
Though despite this taste, there’s more much more of Porto to be found. Some of it you can see, others you taste, but I think the reason so many of you voted it the best city to visit is for everything that’s much less tangible.
Optimistic, Forgotten, And Burdened: The Plight Of 3 Unrecognized States Around The World
There are over 40 unrecognized states around the world, all in various states of progression towards self-determination. It’s not a direct path in the least and one with no obvious final destination. These 3 unrecognized states are all somewhere along this path, lost primarily due to the political and economic isolation they face jut outside of their de facto borders.
Kurdish Autonomous Region – Iraq
The nation of Iraq has essentially split into three loosely related regions, delicately coordinated by a central government in Baghdad since the 2003 Iraq War. And while the disenfranchised Sunnis and stagnant southern Shiites work reluctantly together, the stable Kurdish north has taken a drastically more positive turn. That’s one of the reasons Kurds told me enthusiastically how much they love George W. Bush; Kurdish rights were consistently suppressed and abused during Saddam Hussein’s rule, often to horrific extremes.
These days the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) flies their own flag (concurrently with the Iraqi one) all over the lands they control which sit behind a well defined and armed border. For many violent years in the rest of the country after the US invasion, both the Americans and Iraqi government were happy to turn a blind eye to the increasingly autonomous and assertive Kurdish north.
This growing autonomy and the ambiguity of the term “Kurdistan” however illustrates its complex position in the region. Kurdistan can refer to either the area of the existing borders but is also often used to describe the region where Kurds form a significant minority or majority in the Middle East. That area happens to overlap with neighboring Turkey, Iran, and Syria; giving them an uneasy feeling about a potential uprising in those countries. (One view two terrorist organizations are currently spilling blood over.)
Nerves are one thing and if you’re not confused yet about the relationship the KRG has with it’s neighbors, consider this. Turkey is northern Iraq’s biggest economic partner, exchanging over 6 billion dollars in 2010. That’s an increase of 50% from 2008. And while the fate of Kurdistan is in question the optimism of its people is not. Kurds in northern Iraq are extremely optimistic about their chances to finally be the controllers of their destiny. They’ve got a very long way to go than the next unrecognized state below but I could almost feel the hope floating on the streets of Sulaymaniyah. The Kurds have been waiting for this chance for decades since the British drew arbitrary borders around Iraq in 1920 and are nurturing the opportunity in front of them.
Turkish Republic Of Northern Cyprus – Cyprus
When the Turkish military arrived in northern Cyprus to prevent a Greece-backed coup d’tat in 1974, Turkish Cypriots fled north and the Greeks south, as violence erupted between the two communities who had been living on the island for centuries. 9 years later, while tensions remained high, the Turkish north declared itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). That state is officially not recognized by any government in the world except Turkey (although there have been rumblings from Russia and others).
Jump ahead more than 25 years in the future from 1983 and you would think the TRNC would be in much better shape than the less organized and recognized KRG in northern Iraq. But it’s not. The European Union currently sees Cyprus – the entire island – controlled by the Greek south, as the legitimate country whose north is occupied by Turkey.
Economic isolation has been detrimental to the TRNC, who can only trade with Turkey; meanwhile their southern counterparts have since joined the EU. A crucial vote to reunify Cyprus went to referendum in 2004 with the Turkish north voting yes to the deal, while the Greeks in the south voted against it. Since then, the TRNC has been stuck.
Most unrecognized states around the world want some form of normalization but the citizens of the TRNC actually rejected it only to be rejected themselves. The Turkish Cypriots fear a lose of their culture as more Turks (from Turkey) move to the island – and many Turks don’t appreciate 400 million of their annual tax dollars being spent to keep the TRNC afloat.
Although today formal recognition by anyone isn’t on the horizon, there are soft spots. You can find North Cyprus flight and vacation billboards in the London Tube, Italian cruise ships regularly dock in Girne, and until recently, ferries went back and forth once a week from Syria. The TRNC may have to embrace its independence or completely give it up in order to move in some direction other than neutral.
Freetown Christiania – Copenhagen, Denmark
Christiania is an unusual unrecognized state in the world because of its size and the fact that it has been allowed to exist in the first place. Basically a neighborhood in east Copenhagen, Christiania was created when a group of squatters took over what was the site of a former military base in 1971. Generally, unrecognized states have enough guns behind them to deter being reabsorbed into their larger states, but Denmark has dealt with Christiania differently. Although Christiania is not completely independent, much if its control was transferred from the local government to the nearly 900 residents in 1989.
Christiania was based on very idealistic democratic principals and while a look inside reveals it has strayed somewhat from them, decisions in the community are still made by unanimous vote. Yet, it is the freedom of Christiania that threatens its existence today. Organized crime has taken advantage of the community’s very liberal drug laws and raids by the police have the Danish government thinking twice about Freetown Christiania.
Christiania is independent to an extent, but cannot exist without the supplies, electricity, nor police protection of the big brother that surrounds it. So, while the community may be able to police itself, it hasn’t been able to control the invasive external elements that have moved in to take advantage of its semi-independence.
Recognition Isn’t Utopia
Often the struggle for independence is one that sees self-determination as the end goal. Really though, it’s only the beginning. In fact, the push toward recognition helps to unite the nation that doesn’t exist. Afterwards ambitions, hopes, and ideals take different paths – the teenage years of a country if you will. As we’ve seen in Egypt’s recent revolution, the hard part begins after birth. The KRG, TRNC, and Freetown Christiania are now going through various stages of a difficult process in which they are forced to hold one trait, patience, in common for the unforeseeable future.
How To Learn To Speak Tourist Before Your Next Vacation
When traveling to other countries where they speak a language you don’t, fluency isn’t typically required to get around. Yet the first few lessons of a language course may turn out not to be as useful as you would have hoped either. A specific dialect is more relevant for your vacations: the language of tourist.
Travelers use language for very specialized functions where you can focus your educational efforts – with the right technology – to become functionally more fluent than learning language in linear fashion. You’ll not only be able to get around words, but streets better as a result.
Don’t Start At Step #1
The advice to “pick up a language” when going on vacation is a bit misleading since you’re only ever learning parts of it at a time. You’re not going to “pick it up” like a box from the ground to the back of a truck – you’ve got to start thinking that there is no truck. The true masters of language acquisition – children – aren’t concerned about some hypothetical perfection of communication, they just want to get their ideas across. Once you accept that, you’re well on your way to learning tourist.
Focus On Greetings, Transportation, And The Five Three Double-Yous
Hello and goodbye are language essentials; though “what is your name” might not be the logical next step for a traveler. You’ll want to pin down directional words and those specifically referring to the most common methods of transportation you’ll be using. Car, bus, train can seems simple enough until you’re in the middle of Oman and nobody knows what you’re talking about.
- Of course, languages aren’t purely spoken and you can pick up a general idea of what gestures to expect the free site Travel Etiquette. Combine that with the nifty site Fasten Seat Belts to learn how to count to 10 with one hand in Chinese or figure out the Turkish mini-bus (dolmus) system.
Much like bulking up your muscles, work your brain cells in pairs. These are 4 word combinations to begin your tourist tongue eduction in because our minds work better with groups. Double words and double, well the “W” triplets of what, when, where. Who and why are optional if you really what to boil it down.
Where To Learn The Words That Are Coming Out Of Their Mouths
There are so many good, free online language resources it almost makes it difficult to find the right one for you. I’ve covered my favorite free online language courses in the past and later updated it to include these free language social networks. Practicing with a partner online can help reduce your anxiety about speaking that language before your next trip and also help you pick up 3 things that turn you from a stumbling tourist into a confused local.
Learn To Curse, Pick Up Filler Words, And Talk With A Lisp If You Have To
Let’s face it – the dirty curse words of any language are often the most memorable and fun to learn. Also, they tend to be coupled with body parts, family members, and animals which come in handy too. You Swear is an ad-heavy site that’s good for it’s digital worth in filthy language to balance out the nice greetings you’ve already picked up.
Filler words like “um” in English, “yaw” in Swedish, and “eh” in Italian are technically called disfluancies. Those words which seem useless to us adults actually help children learn their mother tongues. That’s because a disfluancy (aka. filler word) indicates the word to follow is one we are less familiar with. Research from the University of Rochester shows that children tend to take special notice of the words that come after fillers. The fillers highlight what’s unknown and worth learning – and since we’re thinking like children – can do the same for us.
On the flip side, you can use this Wikipedia list of filler words in various languages to put natural stops when speaking in a foreign tongue. You’ll sound more fluent while searching for the next term you’re looking for. Also, while there’s no solid research on it yet – filler words may subconsciously highlight words you need to pay attention to and recall in the future.
- Most Spaniards speak Spanish with a variation of a lisp (substituting a “th” sound for a “s”). In Bulgaria people nod backwards and in the United States south, people tend to use “ya’ll” for “you-all”. Paying a little extra notice to those local deviations and adding them to your own speech make you sound more natural – and may endear you even more to locals. People appreciate you how much effort you put into learning their language, when you take the time to also include their local version it goes that much further.
Use The Universal Translator In Your Pocket
While there are many smart phone translation apps, the future is a Star Trek Universal Translator – the first version of which is Vocre for the iPhone. It’s not perfect by any means – limited to to around 10 languages and requiring an Internet connection to work. (Plus it’s noticeable lack of an Android version.) Still, if the stars align for you, Vocre might be a good addition to your iPhone.Upcoming improvements and competitors mean we’re only seeing the beginning of dynamic translators to come.
- Aside from practicing your speaking skills with your online buddies (see above) you can check your pronunciation with Free Pronunciation Checker for Android or Forvo for iPhone.
Also, you can try switching you Facebook account over to the language you’ll be visiting for a few minutes each day. Learning words by associations (you might not have noticed it say “Home”, “Photos”, and “Friends” all up there but you’ll likely recognize them in another language without even thinking about it.
Don’t Be Afraid To Use What You Know
When using the language or tourist – or just when traveling in general – it’s understood that you’re foreign. Get over it – much like a little kid doesn’t care she’s not getting it quite right and just wants her damn cookie – your objective is to get to the train station or find out how much that camel ride costs. The first step of language is the most important for communication – if you don’t take it, you’re not traveling quite as far as you could be.
[top photo of men talking by: dobrych, F*CK license plate by batigolix, word decree shirt photo by RLHyde]
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