A Turkish Dialect.

Traveling in Turkey has been a breeze. Living and serving in Azerbaijan has given me the language skills to get around and be decently understood by many Turkish people. There are, of course, some things that don’t cross over, but a lot of what I need has worked out well enough.

Azerbaijani is actually quite idiomatic and that type of language doesn’t cross over. When I don’t understand something, I say so in Azeri, but end up saying (literally translated) ‘it falls off my head’. Also, on top of that, while in Azerbaijan, I’ve picked up some random Russian, which obviously doesn’t work out for me here. Aside from that, my pronunciation sounds a bit funny here because some sounds are different. I'm convinced I sound like a redneck.

What I’ve discovered, though, is that when I speak Azeri to people here, they’re a bit shocked I’m speaking anything resembling Turkish and are happy to be a little more patient to get through a conversation. I’ve had some lovely chats throughout Turkey and have gotten more free tea and other random little presents because of it.

Thanks, Azerbaijan.