In this episode, we talked about the Turkish idiom "havadan sudan konuşmak".

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Transcript

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Merhaba everyone! I am Elif and I would like to share some information about Turkish and Turkish culture with this podcast. So what will I do? I will divide the episodes into two groups first. Some episodes will be in English and some of them will be only in Turkish. If you are a beginner or do not fully understand Turkish sentences yet, the episodes with English explanations will be more useful for you. If you are already at intermediate or upper level, the episodes where I speak Turkish may satisfy you more. This is my plan.

So! It’s our first episode and to be honest, I think the hardest episode of a podcast is the first episode because you can't get straight to the point, you have to say something, but you don't know exactly what to say. While I was thinking what to talk about in the first episode, I thought of a phrase that Turks use for this situation. So let’s talk about it.

In these situations, you only talk about something. So Turkish people call such situations "talking about the weather and water". In Turkish, “Havadan, sudan konuşmak.” It means, as I said, talking about nothing but still saying something, just to talk. You know. For example, you see a neighbor you don't like very much on the road and you have to say hi.

The dialogue usually goes like this: the neighbor says: Aaa, Nasılsın? Annen nasıl? Uzun zamandır görüşemiyoruz. You say: iyiyiz, iyiyiz her şey yolunda. Siz nasılsınız? And she says: Biz de iyiyiz. Herkes iyi. everybody is fine. Then she talks about how all her children are.

Then you listen, listen and in the end, there is nothing to talk about anymore. And you say something to break the silence like: havalar da bu aralar çok soğuk. (as if she was a meteorologist and she was going to tell you why). She says: evet evet kış geliyor…

And then you talk about the insect on the ground, the bird in the air. Finally, one of you mustered up his courage and said: oldu o zaman. Kendine iyi bak. Görüşürüz. Herkese selam söyle. say hi to everyone.. and everyone goes their own way.

So in Turkish we call such conversations “havadan sudan konuşmak.” Like, What did you talk to the neighbor? “hiç, havadan sudan konuştuk.”

So, we also talked about the weather and water in this episode. Now listen to some dialogues about this phrase. See you in the next episode then. Hoşça kalın!

Adnan: Oo Melek naber? Nasılsın?

Melek: İyiyim Adnan abi, sen nasılsın?

Adnan: Ben de iyiyim, teşekkürler. Okul nasıl gidiyor?

Melek: İyi gidiyor. Sınavlarım bitti, geçen hafta tatildeydim. Ailemin yanına gittim ve döndüm.

Adnan: Ne güzel! Ailen nasıl?

Melek: İyiler, her şey yolunda.

Adnan: Hmm, peki. Ee, hava nasıl orada?

Melek: İyi, çok soğuk değildi.

Adnan: İyi iyi, burada hava çok soğuktu. Şimdi biraz daha ılık.

Melek: Hmm… Evet duydum, arkadaşlarım söyledi.

Adnan: Hmm… İyi bakalım. Herkese çok selam söyle!

Melek: Olur söylerim, sen de çok selam söyle.

Adnan: Olur, görüşürüz!

Melek: Görüşürüz!

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