When the first tourists came to Alanya in early 70s, nobody knew any foreign word in here. That time, Alanya has become a small province of Germany. People, who worked in tourism and knew a couple of German words, were almost worshiped and wanted everywhere.
After many young Turkish people, who were born in Germany, came to Turkey and started to work in tourism, Alanya didn’t feel a lack of German-speaking staff. Almost every hotel and restaurant could boast with literally native German-speaking personnel. All the signs and advertisings were written in German.
When I came to Alanya first time seven years ago, the situation was slowly changing. That time, Alanya was turning into an English-speaking city, but the hotels in its suburbs, such as Oba, Konakli, Mahmutlar etc, still remained “German”. The first Turkish word I learnt was “teaspoon” (“çay kaşığı”), since every morning I went to ask for it from the waiters at our hotel’s restaurant, who didn’t speak neither Russian, nor English. Nevertheless, when it came to the personal subjects, such as going out with a tourist girl, the waiters could make some efforts and perform something like “You, me, go disco evening?”
In Alanya, the situation was different. There are more apart hotels, loved by the Scandinavian and British people, and restaurants’ staff could speak very decent English, quite enough to keep customers’ company and negotiate with them in multiple shops. Foreign girlfriends have also contributed a lot into tourism guys’ language education. Now, in many restaurants you can meet Turkish waiters, speaking English with Irish, Scottish or even British accent.
One would think that, since English is almost an international language, Alanya’s language evolution must stop here. But no, there are Russian tourists coming, and now, Russian-speaking staff becomes the most valuable. Speaking about Russian tourists, I would like to mention, that many of them don’t speak any foreign language not because of being ignorant or lazy to bother learning one, but because of countries’ history. For many years Russia, called USSR that time, was a closed country, and listening to foreign music, reading foreign books etc was not just impossible but prohibited. They taught foreign languages at schools, but it’s almost impossible to learn anything, not seeing its purpose. Anyway, now the situation changes slowly, and many Russian people can speak foreign languages. Still, Russian language is essential for Turkish tourism. Now you can see that the most of shops’ signs are not German anymore, but mostly Russian and English. Some of them are written with mistakes, but, as many shopkeepers state, it’s done on purpose to attract the customers. Many Russians, passing a shop and seeing a mistake in advertising, stop and try to tell the shopkeeper that it is wrong. Then, after a small talk, they agree to enter the shop and look around. Apparently, that’s how Turkish tourism business works.
I wonder which language is going to be popular next in Alanya. They say, it’s Arabian, since more and more Arabian tourists are coming to Alanya every year. I even saw Arabian writings, added to Turkish and English ones in the windows of some shops. The future will tell.
Take care and see you next week.
Polina Akar
