my turkish adventures: turkish language olympics (part 1)

Me and Sakinah posing with our bronze medals

Home of the competition (Kizilcahamam, Ankara)

The Malaysian team in Kizilcahamam

Presenting Malaysia to the world
The Malaysian booth in Ankara

Go MALEZYA!!!

The very main reason why I went to Turkey for 3 weeks was because of my participation in the 7th Turkish Language Olympics. What was the competition all about? The main aims were to promote Turkish language as a lingua franca and to introduce Turkish culture to the world and contribute to dialogue between different countries across the globe. There were 110 countries with 550 participants in the competition. And yes, the 550 people conversed in Turkish although not all the time. People like me who only studied Turkish for 5 months can only make simple conversations but most important thing was that all of us tried and put our Turkish knowledge into good use during the competition.

The competition started in Kizilcahamam in Ankara, a resort situated 1 hour away from the city centre and the best place to unwind and relax. I was in the singing competition and even though singing wasn't really my forte I gave my best shot and I was mentally prepared if I didn't win. I didn't win the first prize. Competing with people from 110 countries was no easy pie but I didn't come back home empty handed. I got more than what I bargained for. For starter I received a bronze medal when the rest only got the normal ones. Lol don't ask me why and how that happened but it was a good thing so never mind.


And after my quest in the singing competition ended, it gave me ample time to make new friends from other countries and I also joined the 'world choir' where participants from all over came together to perform in a choir for the finals in Istanbul. On our 2nd week in Turkey, we had this programme where we set up booths and promote our country to the local people. Malaysian booth sold some souveniers from Malaysia and everything was sold out and we made close to 1000 lira by the end of the day. Not only did we get to make some money, we also had a chance to promote our beloved country to the world. Tee-hee.

Next post is coming up!