Cultural Differences Between Turkey and USA

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Language
Belief
Food
Music
Government
Customs
Art and Architecture

Introduction

Comparing cultural and social life of two countries is generally difficult as it involves many elements and especially when they are in two extremes. Regarding Turkey and U.S., one can see the same difficulty. Analyzing the cultural differences, one can see that it calls for a thorough check about customs, belief, food, dress, art, music, language, architecture, government, and so on of the two countries. This paper is an attempt to find out the whether there exists any cultural difference between Turkey and U.S., and if there is what are those differences and how they are differed.

Language

It is a part of common knowledge that a nation’s language and customs are reflect to be the core of national culture and heritage. Americans does not have received any language as their official language. But majority of the people use English as their residential language. In case of Turkey the people have enjoyed the advantages of an official language. With number of other languages the people speak Turkish as their official languages. Spanish, Polish and Greek languages are also part of the oral communication of the people in America. In America the people uses language as a powerful medium for gaining membership to the global community. Analyzing the history we can feel people in America receive language as an effective tool of membership in the homes of world power.

Regarding their words I felt a kind of vowel harmony in their language. It is one of the most important features of Turkish language. Turkish languages follow the subject verb object pattern in their sentences and give more emphasis on the use of suffixes. The use of suffixes in Turkish language is very important and we can feel the grammatical functions of suffixes in their language.

Belief

As a person who lived in America more than five years my friend informed me that there is 75 percentage of Americans believed Christianity. When comparing people from Turkey Americans does not follow a strict religious practice in their life. Secularism is an important feature of American belief. I think Islam is the major religion in Turkey and more than 97 percentage of people believed in Islam religion. One of the major differences in belief between America and Turkey is that People in Turkey follow strict religious practices. It is clear that people in Turkey enjoy religious freedom and the constitution ensures it. Even the people believe in Islam religion Turkish people are modern and follow secularism in dressing.

Food

Food is extremely an important element of conventional culture, the attitudes, performs, and styles in a culture influence its in-taking practices too. Popular culture comprises the thoughts and substances created by a society which includes commercial, political and the other schemes. In Turkey food and non-alcoholic beverages, cafés and hotels are cheaper but as the result of the speedy life American’s preferred fast food. After traveling through the ancient Turkish cities, I were forced to believe that turkey’s food manly includes herbs, vegetables, meat and fish; they eat soup and bread in winter, bread and jam in summer. They drink water only at the time of lunch and dinner and they eat lightly at the evening. On the other side Americans give much consideration for eating and they prefer bread and wine during the leisure time, coffee at the community hall and in home rice and beans. Though they like their own regional food they prefer to eat the food of foreign countries especially from Chinese, Greek, French, Indian, Mexican and Italian. The Turkeys have special dishes during the time of celebration and feasts as ‘yuvarlama’ is a special dish they prepare in the time of Ramadan. Tea, coffee and butter milk are the main drinks in Turkish beverages but the young often prefers carbonated drinks. Traditional American food includes conservative European crops such as wheat, dairy products, pork, beef, and poultry. In difference to the Turkish American favors fast foods such as hamburgers, French fries, and soft drinks.

Music

The coming of globalization helps to spread the culture of one country to another. The culture of turkey incase of dressing, art, music are different from USA. The music tastes of turkey are similar to USA. The new generation Turkish people like to hear the songs from the same brand as young Americans hear but not all Turkish people listen to American bands. The bars and clubs of Turkey and USA play the same music. Rap music, metal music and electronic music can be considered as global music types. American music is very rich and diverse and it comprises of jazz, Rock and roll, Folk music, classical music, and new age music. These are the varieties of musical systems in America. People around the world are being influenced by the American pop culture including Turkey. The songs of Some Turkish singers have found a few similarities with the Americans.

Government

The government type of turkey is known as the Republican parliamentary democracy and Ankara is the capital of turkey. There are so many administrative divisions in turkey this includes 81 provinces. Such as iller, adana, adiyaman and so on. Turkey got independence on 29^th October 1923 and formed constitution on 7^th November 1982. The head of the government is the president and there are prime minister, deputy prime minister and the president has the power to appoint the council of ministers with the nomination of prime minister. The national assembly elects the president for 2-5 years terms. Among the parliament, the president appoints the prime minister. The constitution formed three Branches which include executive, legislative, and judicial branches. In the beginning, there were 13 independent states in USA in 1776 with a loose federation. America got freedom from Britain in 1783. America adopted a written constitution in 1787. A framework for Legal, political, governmental system was formed in that constitution. The powers are shared by Federal government and individual states in America. The federal government contains Three Branches including executive, legislative, and judicial. The president is considered as the head of the executive branch and there will be popular election in every four years to select the president. President’s cabinet contains other officers of the executive branch. At end of the discussion we can reach the conclusion American constitution provides effective inter relation between the congress and the President.

Customs

Turkey is a Muslim country and its tradition is strongly inspired by the customs of the country. The important religion in America is Christian Religion and they have no official religion. We can see the Turkish expressing admiration, politeness and formal air in everyday life. Americans greetings are not formal. It may include handshake, smile and hello. While speaking Turkey people pass niceties between the speakers and generally their conversation is good. In Turkey it is necessary to keep politeness and esteem when meeting new people. People in America shake their hands when they meet for the first time. Exhibition of affection in public places are scowled in Turkey. The close friends who are embracing each other and kissing is not general in America. Frequently American introduced himself as his first name and last name. In General Americans gives gift in times of ceremony. In Turkey we can’t see the people who are sitting on the floor to drink and eat. Compared to the other countries table manners are more comfortable in America. All restaurants in America adopt cash; some shops adopt ATM cards and seldom have other considered check for payment. Beer and wine are served in many restaurants in America. Smoking is abandon in public places in America. Rules of Mosque in Turkey are very important and one should follow the rule who visits the Mosque. Western people should dress conventionally and make sure that their limbs are closed. Women should over their hair and whole body. They keep murmuring when talking and it shows the signal of respect. In USA there are different religious belief and practice, large number of faith and gives equal place for every religion lead USA became the most religious diverse country in the world.

Art and Architecture

In light of my own experience I can feel that art and architecture have predominant role in cultural formation as they are closely connected with tradition. The art and architecture of Turkey has much prominence in the cultural formation of that country. Reading the reports of many historians’ archeologists we can find it as a real open-air museum of art and architecture. Different archeological evidences have been found out from different parts of Turkey announces the rich architecture of Turkey.

The architecture of the Hittites of Anatolia especially their statues of goddess in gold, bronze and copper are the examples of it. Another prominent architecture existed at the time of Ottoman Empire that paved the way for Turkey’s culture. Regarding the formation of American culture, one cannot find much influence of art and architecture, like the Turks. Anyway, the architectural diversity of US is so popular that it has been influenced with many external forces.

To conclude, we can infer that there exists many cultural differences between Turkey and US that keeps them entirely different cultural entities.

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