Another Insurmountable Cultural Obstacle Presented by Turkish Class

So, we were learning the grammar for "because of/as a result of/that's why." It's really important to understand the grammar because the word order might not tell you what you need to know about the meaning of a sentence.

Here was the example used:

                    I ate ice cream. I have a sore throat.

Now, where I come from, cold is a noted treatment for painful swelling. I'm no doctor, but I think this is because it reduces blood flow to the inflamed area. When kids get their tonsils out, they get ice cream, right?

So I constructed the following sentence:

            Because I have a sore throat, I ate ice cream.

WRONG.

Imagine my confusion when the teacher tried to explain to me that there's no way the grammar I used could be correct when the idea I was expressing was patently false. Not only did I commit grammatical crimes, I also violated basic Turkish medical principles. Everyone knows eating cold things -- ice cream, cold water, ice -- can make you sick. The correct sentence:

            Because I ate ice cream, I have a sore throat.

There were the people in the class who could see no other way to construct the sentence than the way I did it, and a much greater number who could see no other way to construct it than the way our teacher demanded.

No amount of cultural assimilation will ever close the gap between our peoples on the uses and abuses of cold.

Comments

[Pat Temiz]

I totally agree with you on the weird way cold and draughts are feared in this country. However, it's their culture and if you want to speak Turkish you'll just have to give in and go along with it. Given previous post on air-con I think you knew what the correct grammar in this case was but, by choosing to follow you natural instincts, you created material for yet another excellent amusing post. Keep 'em coming.

[Vagabondblogger]

I don't know if this is related, but did you ever notice how hard it was to get ice in Baku? Even with a cocktail, they just give you one measly little piece. I think you've hit on something here about the relationship between eating cold things and getting sick, and how it's viewed in that area.

[carpetblogger]

No, in Baku they simply don't have the recipe for ice.

[Robyn]

Now, *that* is very Chinese! (unlike fear of the air-conditioner) Every ayi (aunty) knows that the only way to get better when you have a raging sore throat accompanied by blistering fever is to drink a cup of boiling hot water. Or eat some durian (it's heaty).

[Roy]

There are a couple useful words some friends and I coined while living in Turkey. Two of my favorite were "turknology" and "turklogic". Sometimes it was safe to use them and sometimes not. Turknology allowed one to jack a broken truck up on wooden blocks, then build a small fire under it so one could see what was broken on the undercarriege. It also allowed you to to plug the telephone wires that come out of the wall into 220v. Then all you have to do go to the ground floor and run a screwdriver over the telephone block until you get big sparks. This is how you identify the correct wires!
Turklogic on the other hand can be turned to your advantage. I am always told that drinking something with ice or that is cold on a cold day will make me deathly ill. So I said "using that logic means that that drinking something HOT (cay) when it is 105 degrees fahrenheit outside will also make you ill!"
I tend to hear "deli americali" and "NEY?" a lot.
Roy