Lesson Transcript

Merhaba. Hoşgeldiniz. Nasılsınız? Ben Seda.
Welcome to TurkishClass101.com. Okay.
I shouldn't be, you know, spending all my energy in the like first second, right? Anyway,
hoş geldiniz. Welcome. And today we will be talking about the last month of the year,
December. December. Okay. We talked about a lot of months since then, and now we came to our last
month. It's finally here. First of all, we need to learn the name of the month, December. Do you know
it? Do you know it, guys? Do you know it? Yeah. It is Aralık. Aralık. Aralık. Aralık. Hangi aydayız? Aralık. Which month we are in? Aralık. Hangi aydayız? Aralık. Aralık. Aralık, formerly known as Kanuni Evvel, Kanuni Evvel, till like 1945,
it's a Turkish word. The old one was Ottoman Turkish, and it got its name because it was
between the year we left behind and the new year. It literally means interval, like space gap. Aralık
means this. So in colloquial language, it means the month that separates like two festivals, two
seasons, and two years. So Aralık, which is also called karakış, meaning like dark winter, because
it causes cold winter nights. And it is also called like ilk kış, kazanay, yağarak, tekir ayı, and sığırgoyan
in the like local tongue. And you don't hear them like in the cities, but like
villages, you hear them a lot. So what do we have in Aralık? We have the 21st of December,
the longest night, En Uzun Gece. En Uzun Gece is also known as Kış Gündönümü.
And as you may already know, on this day, like the shortest day and the longest night of the year,
our experience. And from this day on, the nights get shorter and the days get longer. There's no
special like public event on this day, no holiday or anything like that. But some schools, like a
special kindergarten, acknowledge and celebrate this day. And some, you know, middle schools and
primary schools as well. And what else we have? What else we have? Although like Turkey, Turkish
population is widely Muslim. At least it's said so. And Turkey has a Christian people as well.
And actually the like earliest Christians used to live in the Asia Minor, Anatolia. We still have
really, really, really old and fascinating churches all over the country. And also the Eastern
Orthodox Church of Constantinople is in Istanbul. Constantinople is Istanbul,
if you already know it. And because of its like historical location as the capital of the former
Eastern Roman, like Byzantine Empire and its role as the mother church of most modern
Orthodox churches, Istanbul like holds a special place of honor within Orthodoxy,
Orthodoxy Christians. Man is regarded as a representative and spiritual leader of Eastern
Orthodox Christians. So Christmas is celebrated among Turkish Christians. But it is not celebrated
on 25th of December, but January, the difference comes from using different calendars.
Okay. Now I didn't say what we have in December. I said what we don't have. So that's kind of funny.
Okay. Anyway, I can continue with what we have. We have the New Year's Eve, New Year's like the
last day of the year. It is of course on like 31st of December. But we have a weird tradition.
We celebrate New Year's Eve just like Christmas Eve. I know, I know. It sounds kind of strange
and weird. And there are some really religious Muslim people having problems with this. It's
a Christian tradition they say, but it is what it is. And we do that and we love that. We get
a Christmas tree. Okay. Generally a fake one, not a real one. And we buy gifts for our friends and
family and we put them under the tree and make a special dinner like New Year's dinner. We make
turkey generally. It's like between Christmas and I mean Thanksgiving day. And you know,
we start counting backwards from 10 to zero around 12 o'clock. And after it's past 12 o'clock,
we exchange gifts. And in kindergarten, Santa Claus comes, the fake one of course.
Although the real Santa Claus is a real saint from Anatolia. Check him out. Anyway,
so he brings gifts to the kids. You can see people in Santa Claus, but they're not here for
Christmas, but it's New Year's Eve. It's not about Christianity. It's just the way we celebrate New
Year's. Go figure. It's weird. I told you, I told you it's weird. We took this Thanksgiving and the
Christmas traditions. What we love about them, we took them and we now do it during New Year's Day.
So what else do we have in Aralık? Nothing. We do have nothing, but it means like different things
for different people because it's the end of the year. So there are like final exams for
university students. They study, study and take their finals. Some finals are in January though,
but most of them are in December. And it's the month of budget making for like white-collar
workers. It's the budget month. So that's for, that's not fun. And it's the counting the goods
months for the like labor workers. So that's our last month of the year and the first month of
winter. And we didn't talk about it. What is the word for winter? Do you know it? It's kış,
one syllable, kış, kış. And like, it's like funny fact, but we do this sound to make someone
go away. It's rude. It's a rude thing. So be careful to use it, but like kush, kush, kush,
kush, kush, kush. It's like go away, go away. So it's also means winter. I don't know.
Anyway, so it's winter and there are no specific holidays. In December, there are no religious
holidays. If there are no religious holidays, there are no holidays. As I explained before,
for religious holidays, we use different calendar and the dates changes every year because the
Islamic calendar uses a moon calendar and we follow a sun calendar. So normally it follows
the stages of the moon, not the sun. So the dates move around the sun calendar, which we normally
use. Anyway, if you want to take a vacation, there are a lot of like nice winter spots in Turkey.
So I will give you three examples, okay? Three examples, three places to go. First one is Bolu
Abant Gölü. Bolu Abant Gölü. Abant Lake. It's a crater, reservoir lake and formed on the like
Abant mountains around like 30-35 kilometers southwest to
of Bolu. And there are many hills in the park area with heights from like 1400 to 1700 meters.
And Abant Lake has a fascinating beauty every month of the year, but especially during winter
when it snows, it looks like magical. It's a really good place. There are a lot of hotels there
and if you're close to Bolu, it's a good place to go daily for sightseeing or you can stay there,
check in a hotel and stay there, spend the weekend and enjoy the walk around the lake and
enjoy the winter, the snow if there's snow. The next one is Kapadokya Nevşehir. This place is
visited by local and you know foreign tourists throughout the year, but Kapadokya is a
fascinating place that has emerged as a result of like thousands of years of like changes in nature
and it is absolutely amazing. You should definitely google it and you can take balloon tours,
you can go hiking in Ürgüp, Göreme and like Avanos, also visit the ancient cave houses
and the most visited attractions include the underground sites of Göreme National Park.
There are like number of rock cut churches, the oldest churches and like dwellings. It's amazing
and in 1985, Göreme National Park and the other rock sites in that area were designated a
UNESCO World Heritage Site, I'm sorry. So it is amazing, you should definitely see it, at least
check it out online. And the last place is Kars and you should take Doğu Ekspresi.
Kars is a northern east city neighboring Armenia and you can take the famous train to go there
which is Doğu Ekspresi, the eastern express it's like in the you know novels. The eastern express
is an express train line that goes to Ankara, Kırıkkale, Kayseri, Sivas, Erzincan, Erzurum,
Kars direction advancing on a line extending to from west to the east and it's total of like
1310 kilometers and it takes about 24-25 hours to reach Kars and Kars, I know it sounds like
cars but it's Kars, is a very mixed place as a settlement at the juncture of Turkish, Armenian,
Georgian, Kurdish and Russian cultures. So you can see the mixed history, visit all the historical
places, eat the amazing food there and go back to your house. So that's all for the special days of
Aralık and again weather, weather, how is the weather, how is the weather in Aralık, let's see,
mostly cold oops because we are in the northern hemisphere. In some places it snows,
in the Mediterranean region it is warmer but let's look at the regions a little bit closer, let's go.
Marmara region, the average temperature is 6.9, it was 9.3 in November 2021, the lowest was
minus 7.5 in Balıkesir, the highest was 24.5 in Kocaeli.
Aegean region, the long-term average is 7.9, in 2021 it was 9, the lowest temperature was
minus 15.3 in Afyonkarisar and the highest was 23.6 in Salihli. Mediterranean region,
our warmer region, the average temperature is 8.9, it was 9.9 in 20 2021 and the lowest one
minus 22.7 in Göksun, the highest was 24.2 in Gazipaşa. Central and Anatolian region,
the average temperature is 1.1, it was 2.4 in 2021, the lowest was minus 26.4, the highest was
18 in Niğde. Black Sea region, the long-term average is 4.7, it was 6.8 in 2001, the lowest
temperature was minus 14.1 in Kastamonu and the highest was 27.1 in İnebolu. Eastern Anatolian
region, this region is colder, the long-term average is minus 1.8, it was minus 1.1 in 2001
and the lowest temperature was minus 25, my god in Ardahan, the highest temperature was 14.8 in Van.
And southern Anatolia region, the long-term average is 6.2, it was 7 in 2001,
the lowest was minus 6.3 in Batman and the highest was 21.1 and 1.1 in Ceylanpınar.
Okay, welcome back. If you want to learn in detail weather information, if you're going to
visit Turkey, you should check the government site www.mgm.gov.gov.tr, not the MGM, the movie company, meteoroloji genel müdürlüğü.
Okay, this was the weather. Guys, like it freaks me out to see that every like the long-term
you know temperature is like at least one degree higher in every month in every region.
Global warming is really here. Anyway, that's all I can say about Aralık. Do you guys have any
comments? Have you visited Turkey in Aralık? You know, where did you visit? Do you like this month?
And what do you think? Which you know region would you prefer? Would you go to like a little bit
warmer Mediterranean area or would you go to like skiing area? I didn't talk about them but we have
a lot of skiing places as well. And which would you like? I prefer like a little bit warmer weathers.
I like snow but not for like like for one two days not too much. Anyway, if you want more content
like this click the link in the description and sign up for free at turkishclass101.com and also
if you enjoyed this video don't forget to like the video and subscribe the channel for more content
like this. I will be here seeing you next time.

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