22.09.2021, Karaman

Living abroad for a considerable period of time and moving back to your home country is a challenging decision. This decision could be a must or a choice. Both of them trigger the same consequence that can easily be summarized with an umbrella term, “orientation”.

I was thinking that I am an acclimatizer. I always find myself adapting quickly without any orientation problem. However, this is changing and I now have to acknowledge that I do not easily accept and adapt quickly. Moreover, I deny to change if the subject is out of my comfort zone.

One of the orientation issues that I face is the language. I do not want to overreact that I speak English like a native speaker. Nevertheless, after years of education and studying and working abroad, I can confidently speak English. My problem is the use of English words while speaking my native language. This is actually because my mind is set to think English. Instead of creating a Turkish sentence, I can automatically start the conversation in English. This causes me to hesitate while speaking in a group and make me feel uncomfortable because of being always on alert to check my sentence before saying.

I have recently spent some lovely hours that I did not hesitate while speaking. It was an uplanned day that I met a Dutch traveller couple. They were visiting the vetenerian and I was there for my lovely cat, Lena. I suddenly found myself translating between the vetenerian and them. We then decided to continue our conversation while enjoying our coffee. I took the advantage of speaking English and they had a chance of asking unlimited number of questions. At the end we spent almost three hours while me explaining various routes and locations that they can visit. Before I was leaving , Roya asked me whether I knew any stores that she could buy some fabrics. I told them that this query was not my cup of tea since I love online shopping and I never buy tailored clothing. I did not give up and we, altogether, started discovering Karaman to find a drapery. I did ask an old lady that I met her while crossing the street and she guided us to the drapery. Roya bought what she wishes and I unfortunately leave them for work.

All day when I was with them, I felt that I am again connected to the world and this motivated me again to continue what I desire.

AP.