Classes

So now that I've got a full two weeks of classes under my belt, I thought I'd give you an update on what I'm taking and what my professors, or hocam (pronounced hojam) in Turkish, are like.

First of all, you need to understand the attitude towards exchange students. Professors love us. We can do no wrong. There's two reasons behind this feeling. The first is that teaching foreigners is seen as very prestigious. Secondly, exchange students are here to learn. The general feeling at private schools in Turkey is that you're paying for a diploma, not an education. I've been told by multiple people that professors do not fail people, because if they do, the professor risks being sued by the student's father. This is a very general feeling, but nevertheless, it contributes to preferential treatment of the exchange students.

Now about my classes.

The European Union and Turkey:
This is my favorite class. Unfortunately, It meets Friday afternoon from 3:40 - 5:30, but I still love it. The professor is very charismatic. The focus of the class will be on the relationship between the EU and Turkey and what Turkey's membership in the EU would mean for Turkey and Europe. That won't come until later in the semester, though. Right now we're just studying the EU and how it operates, since for most of us this is the first time we're studying the EU. To me, the EU is fascinating. The similarities between the U.S. in it's early days and the current EU are blowing my mind. I think the EU will be the next U.S. if it keeps expanding, but of course you can't tell a European that :)

Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA):
This is my second favorite class. My professor is very soft spoken, so he's hard to hear at the beginning of class while everyone is settling in, but once he gets started on the material, he raises the volume and gets very passionate. He's also very engaging, which is nice. He's constantly asking for or providing examples, and when the U.S. is used for an example he looks directly at me, since I'm the only non-Turkish student in the class. It's kind of funny because he gives me a look like he's giving the example for me. The reason I really like the class, though, is because I really get to see the Turkish perspective of the U.S. The U.S. tends to dominate FPA, and since I'm the only non-Turk, everything is from the Turkish perspective. It's so enlightening, but also kind of embarrassing because the Turks obviously know a lot about the U.S. and it's government, but I know very little about theirs. I'm making it a point to learn though.

International Political Economy (IPE):
This class is a cross between political science and economics. We're supposed to study the world economy and how the politics between countries effects the world economy. This is the class that I was most excited for, but I've been kind of let down so far. My professor is super intelligent, to the point of being almost too intelligent. We've only had three classes so far, but all of them have been unrelated to the subject. The professor always starts out on topic, but then one word, like theory, sets him off on a philosophical tangent. The first class we listened to him rant about how the education system became corrupt through specialization and the development of "majors". Last week was a very deep conversation about the validity of "facts". He told us that since facts are interpreted by theories, we can't analyze theories with facts. It's all very interesting and deep, but it's not the class I signed up for. However, like I said, we've only had three classes. Hopefully once we really delve into the material it'll get better.

Turkic/Muslim People of the Former USSR:
Hmmm.... how to describe this class? It's challenging. My professor for this class has a VERY thick accent, so I have to concentrate really hard to keep up. Not to mention he is very scatter brained, so we're constantly jumping from subject to subject throughout the class. The class is all about the different ethnicities that exist in the Middle East, a subject that I am totally unfamiliar with. It seems like it would be interesting right? The problem is, I feel like I spend all my effort in class trying to follow the professor rather than absorbing the material. Everyone says that after a while the accents get easier to understand, though.

Turkish as a Second Language:
This class kind of speaks for itself. So far we've learned numbers, colors, and household furniture. The numbers have been very helpful, but most of the applicable Turkish I've learned has been from walking around the city and talking to people in class.


So that's basically what my weeks consist of. This weekend I'm planning on going to Istanbul, so look for a post next week about that.