Hello again.

Hi and welcome back. In the previous episode in global village, we were talking to Deniz about some must have experiences when you are in Istanbul. And he mentioned taking the ferry and also trying out hammam which is the Turkish bath. And in today's episode, we are gonna start from there.

To be honest, this is a little bit similar to some of the very traditional old, like Chinese bath houses.

It's older men when they go they...

Exactly.

Ok good, good.Another thing that I have noticed because I'm really a cat person, I love all cats. And I've noticed there are so many cats in Istanbul, so many of them.

That's right.Actually Istanbul is called cat heaven.It's not that we have so many cats which we do, but it's that people love them and take care of them.That's really what's so different about Istanbul.

I'll just give you an example, go to any meat shop in a butcher.If a cat comes in "meow" and begging for food, a cat will get its food always, 100%, always.I don't know what's about Turkish people that will love cats so much, but we do.We, I personally have a cat.I have many friends who have multiple cats.Yeah, we love cats.There are actually documentaries online about Istanbul and its cats. I'd suggest you watch, it's called Kedi which is Turkish for cat, K-E-D-I.

Ok, I'll definitely try to find it.

That's quite cute.

So apart from feeding cats, taking care of cats, apart from these older men going to bath houses or playing mahjong, playing your equivalent of mahjong.What else, what other popular pastimes are there in Turkey？You see something unique for example in China, uniquely we go to Karaoke, that's an East Asian thing.Do you have something unique that you would do with your friends or family for fun？

The first thing that comes to mind is football, soccer, it's huge in Turkey. Turkish people are really passionate about football.And every week whenever their team plays during the week, they will go to bars or stadiums and fill them up and watch it and support their team. It's really huge in Turkey.

Also we like playing Backgammon.I don't know if you have heard of this game, it has towers against and stuff and it's played dice. Then we have the usual spending time with family which is not specifically Turkish.

Turkish people also like going to like parks or beaches and barbequing, they allow barbequing outside. And then we have bars or clubs or pubs perhaps people will go to, or shopping malls or what have.

You mentioned shopping mall that is the next one I'm going to ask you because we've talked about food, we talked about pastime, we talked about the general attitude. Now comes to shopping. And I think for a lot of people when they travel to different countries, one of the major things that they do is to shop, and Istanbul is famous for its bazaars.

Yeah, first of all bazaar just means markets, right？

That's right, just means market, open air market.

And as a Chinese I often think of myself as relatively good at haggling, negotiating price.But when I went to the grand bazaar in Istanbul, I felt completely confused and lost.I didn't even know how to start it.It was quite an experience.It was a kind of an intimidating experience.So do you have any tips as a local for a first time visitor to bazaars?

Ok, so I have many tips.

First of all, just learn some basic Turkish words when you visit the bazaar.If you say those Turkish words, you really...the shop owner or the seller whatever, and they'll treat you better.So just learn a basic Turkish word or phrase whatever, always haggle, but try to haggle even if you're not good at it and never settle down for the first price they say. Always always haggle.

But how much of a markup do they have？Because you don't even know how to start.Say this thing they say it's a hundred.How much do you need to go for？

This is what you will do.Typically more than one shop will have whatever you are looking for.

Let's say you're looking for beads.There will be at least 10 bead shops around that area.So what you will do is you go to the first shop and you'll haggle, I know you said it's a hundred, start with 20, 30, 40, whatever. Whenever you feel the resistance, try to leave the shop.If they call you back, okay, you see that price is reasonable for them. You can go lower than that.You found your limit that way.

This is quite similar to what we do in China, but would people, would these shop owners, would they feel insulted？Would they feel offended if they say a hundred and you go 20？Is that too low？

20 maybe is, but don't be mistaken.They're also doing the same thing.Yeah. Last time I went to a bazaar, I was looking for some sort of leather handmade craft or something. The guy started with 80 I bought it for 50. It's better to go lower sometimes, you have nothing to lose.

So show no mercy.

Exactly, there are, like I said, other shops that sell the same thing, it would be best if your Turish friend with you that knows the bazaar or actually knows the product that you want that would be best.

But just even if he doesn't know, he or she doesn't know anything, just take them with you, also take your time.This is actually the most important tip I can give you. Take your time, set aside a day and during that day from morning to the evening go to the bazaar, haggle, haggle and it doesn't hurt to have like an idea of what you want. If you know what you want specifically, that would be best.

But even if you have an idea what you want, it's nice.Yeah.These will be my like top tips.

Sounds like a seasoned, really experienced haggler.

I think to end our talk today, I do want to ask you having lived in Beijing for 10 years being away from home, like what do you miss the most？I mean obviously apart from your family and friends, is there anything about Istanbul itself that you ...

Food, absolutely.The food is the clear answer.

Can you cook yourself？

I can but not that great, I don't have a lot of practice. I do know some recipes, but some of the like ingredients I just can't find in Beijing even if I would like to cook.

I have a very busy life in Beijing so I can't be cooking every night. But the food is a clear answer. Other than that, because Beijing is a landlocked city, the thing I miss the second most is the sea. Actually being near the sea, like jogging near the sea, taking the ferry or having a meal next to the sea, having drinks or tea whatever just being involved to sea, I miss the second most.

All right, to truly end our talk, we had an amazing conversation.We've learned so much about Turkey about Istanbul, and I just want to say that our audience probably they would want to learn a little bit of Turkish just to get a feel.But instead of learning the boring things like hello, thank you, goodbye.I was going to ask you, is there any specific Turkish word or words that is really difficult to translate into other languages？

Actually, from our talk we can see that food is an integral part of Turkish culture.

Yeah.

So we have like very specific only Turkish things that we have here that other countries don't have.So we have a set of phrases that we say after we eat or while we are eating.So the first one is called "Elinize sağlık!" I will repeat. "Elinize sağlık!"

"Elinize sağlık!", which means?

So this means "health to your hands".

The literal translation would be "health to your hands".

So how is that related to food？

Yeah, what this means is I wish your hands stay healthy so they can cook for me again the delicious food like this. This basically means the food you made is so delicious that I want you to keep your hands safe and healthy.

So you can cook for me again.So am I to understand that if I get invited to a Turkish for example by a Turkish friend to his or her home and they cooked a big meal afterwards, I can to say this to say this is delicious.

You can say during (the meal) too, you don't have to say after. Just eat a bite, take a bite and just say "Elinize sağlık!"or they'd be smitten, they'd be amazed.

So this is kind of like yummy, delicious.

Yeah, but very specifically Turkish way to say it.

And the response to this is "Afiyet olsun!", which we can think of it like "Bon appétit".French has actually something close to this. But what this means is let the food you have, you eat be delicious. That's reply for "Elinize sağlık!"

Okay, let the food to eat be delicious, sounds wonderful.

Thank you so much, Deniz for the coming to the studio and really we've learned so much, maybe in the future we'll invite you again, then we can delve deeper into Turkish culture.

Sure, would be my pleasure.Okay.

Thank you.And if you have anything to share with us, if you have been to Turkey yourself, leave us a in a comment section, we will see you next time.Bye.

Thank you, bye bye.

更多英语资讯，获取节目完整文本，请关注微信公众号：璐璐的英文小酒馆。每天大量英语干货更新！