Lesson Transcript

Merhaba ben Seda. Welcome to turkishclass101.com.
Nasılsınız? İyi misiniz?
Havalar nasıl? How is the weather?
Okay, today we will be talking about the first month of the year, January.
Okay, so January in Turkey is our topic. First of all, let's learn the word January.
Do you know it? Do you remember? It is ocak. Ocak. Ocak. Ocak.
Does it sound kind of familiar to you?
It should because it is also the same word that we use for stove.
Do you know the place where we cook?
Okay, but when we say ocak, don't think it as like the modern
stoves on the top of the, you know, kitchen.
Kitchen, not the floor, but kitchen thing, but the old kind of hearth,
you know, those kind of stoves, the kind that you cook and you warm your house in the,
you know, old kind of houses and provide both heating, food and like the togetherness.
Okay, this heart also means in Turkish, I mean ocak also means home, the heart of the family.
So this is because the food is very important to Turkish culture and so the stove is kind of
where the food is cooked and it is the center of the home and it is said that the month ocak
is when people, you know, are gathered around the stove, eat and be together and nest
since it's a very cold month and nothing to do outside, but of course this is the old times,
not the modern world. And, you know, there is so much depth in this word ocak. It's a very
layered word and in ancient, for example, Turks, the smallest unit of the homeland
is ocak. So as long as the fire of the ocak was not extinguished, the house lived and as long as
the house lived, the state lived and this fire in, you know, inside the ocak, it's the fire,
not the electrical or gas ones, the fire in this ocak of the house was blessed and its extinction
was seen as the end of the family and the lineage. And so ocak is, you know, also means lineage and
it's directly connected to the like holy fire, the old times of course. For example, as an idiom,
we have ocağı sönmek, like to lose the fire of its stove and this means like terrible things
happen to that person, that family. And also, you know, old times, in olden times, it's like
there were healers and healers are thought to pass their gift to their family members and this
tradition passing the gift of healing tradition is expressed with the term ocaklı. Ocaklı, it's
literally means with stove, with the hearth, okay? And we also have another idiom, ocağına incir ağacı dikmek.
Ocağına incir ağacı dikmek. It's like a plant a fig tree to its, you know, stove, to its house,
meaning doing something bad to break the piece of the house. Since the fig tree roots are
tend to grow a lot and planting it next to the house suggests that you are intending to destroy
that house. So that's it. That's all for the cultural aspect of the word ocak. And I explained
this in another video. Aralık, December, was formerly known as Kanuni Evvel, meaning first
Kanun. This was the name of the month, December. Then it changed and ocak name was Kanuni Sani
or ikinci Kanun, meaning second Kanun. So it was a different way of thinking. It wasn't the first
month of the year. Anyway, it is interesting to say that there is nothing special about this month
for us at all. There is nothing special. So what do we have? Of course, the first day of the month,
the first of January, 1 ocak. It's the first day of the month and the first day of the
year. And it's off, it's holiday, so no school, no work, anything at all. All schools and business
are closed. Other than that, we only have a semester holiday for K-12 schools and also
universities, though every university has a different calendar, but universities take their
winter break during January. And the dates generally change every year, but generally in the
second, third week of the month. And other than that, nothing else. Maybe it can have religious
holidays according to the year. I can't think anything special about ocak. So a lot of people
go to winter skiing holidays since the schools are closed. So yes, there are places you can go skiing
in Turkey. Isn't Turkey amazing that you can swim, ski, experience history, like climb mountain,
nature, everything. We have everything. Anyway, let's check out some winter holiday spots in case
you may want to visit those. First, Uludağ Ski Center. So this is the first one I can think of.
It's a very popular center, ski resorts in Turkey, especially for young people. It's like more kind
of a partying and skiing altogether. And it has a huge national park and the area is considered
close to the city center of Bursa. And it has like 11 runways and snow thickness generally reaches up
to like three meters. And like the other center, it's open to service between December and April.
Of course, it depends on the weather. Sometimes it may not snow. So you can check the weather
before you come. Anyway, the next one is Kartalkaya Ski Center. Kartalkaya, Kartalkaya. It literally
means like Eagle Rock. Anyway, Kartalkaya is one of the most popular ski resorts after Uludağ.
And it was established on the Bolu, Köroğlu mountains in the Western Black region. So it serves
between December and March. And snow thickness is again exceeds like, it exceeds three meters.
And it is like 50 kilometers to the center of Bolu. And it is close to Ankara Istanbul Highway.
So it's easier to, you know, go there. And the nearest airport, I think it's like 220 kilometers
away, something like that. And the next one is Kartepe Ski Center. This is not a big one. This
is not a very popular one. When you think about the place, it's not that popular, but it's popular
because it is very close to Istanbul. I think it's one of the closest. And skiing time is like
between December and March. And snow thickness is again reaches up to like three meters.
Another one is Palandöken Ski Center. Palandöken Ski Resort as a ski center. It's like a peak of
3200 meters. And it is located in Erzurum, the east side of Turkey. These were on the western side.
And this one is eastern side. And it's a very, it has a very cold climate. And due to its cold
climate, it can start from December to May. So the season is longer. And snow thickness can be like
16 to 120 meters. So it's like a real ski center. And there are like two registered tracks and other
tracks for a slalom and grand slalom competitions in the ski center. So this is more professional.
So if you want to go professional, prefer this one. If you want a close one to big cities,
prefer the other ones. Also this has an international expansion of ski centers.
And it's very close to Erzurum as I said. So accommodations should be comfortable for
you guys if you think about it. So another one is Elmadağ. Elmadağ literally means
apple mountain. So cute, right? Elmadağ. Known for its proximity to Elmadağ, which is in Ankara,
the capital, the facility receives continuous snowfall in the winter. And it serves between
January and March and snow thickness between 30 and 60 centimeters. And slopes of Elmadağ ski
center are easy and like moderate, not like the other one. And transportation from city is provided
like university vehicles and private vehicles. It's very easy. Another one is again on the
eastern side, it's Erciyes ski center. And it is established on Erciyes mountain, which is almost
not 100, 4,000 meters high. So it's very high. And the climate of the region has continental
climate characteristic and thickness is like 50 to 100 centimeters. So we have also Sarıkamış
ski center. And it is like one of the five ski resorts in Turkey, Sarıkamış,
which has a top priority in terms of winter tourism and winter sports. And it's covered
with its most famous pine forest. It's beautiful. And the ski center is located on the plateau.
But it's a plateau, but it's between 2,000 and 3,000 meters altitude. So it's high.
And I think that's it, guys. You know, we have some other smaller centers, but I wanted to give
you the most common ones. So if you want to go skiing or go just play, you know, snowball or just
do the snow angel thing, you can visit these places. And let's check out the weather so you can,
you know, think about, you know, which place is better for me to go during the winter? Which one
is the coldest? Which one is the warmest? If you like the warm weather, you have to go to the
east, you know, the Mediterranean area. If you want, you know, cold, go to east. Anyway,
how is the weather? Hava nasıl? Soğuk, çok soğuk. Cold, very cold, like Bond, James Bond. Anyway, in some places, of course, it snows.
So we have ski centers. In the Mediterranean area, not so much. But let's look at the weather
closer. Let's look. In Marmara region, the average temperature is 5.2. It was again 5.2 in November
2022. The lowest was minus 9.3 in Bilecik and the highest 23.1 in Kocaeli.
Aegean region, the long-term average temperature is 6.3. It was 5.3 in 2022.
The lowest was minus 17.4 in Simav and the highest was 21.2 in Marmaris.
Mediterranean region, the average temperature is 7.5. It was 6.7 in 2022. The lowest temperature was
minus 27.6 in Göksun. The highest was 22.4 in Kale Demre. Let's look at the central Anatolia region.
The long-term average temperature is minus 0.6. It was minus 2 in 2022. The lowest was
minus 27.3 in Seydişehir. The highest was 16.4 in Eskişehir.
Black Sea region, the long-term average temperature is 3. It was 2.7 in 2022.
The lowest temperature was minus 18.3 in Bayburt. The highest was 25.5 in İnebolu.
Eastern Anatolia region, the long-term average temperature is minus 4.2. It was minus 4.7 in 2022
and the lowest was minus 34.4 in Özalp. The highest was 11.7 in Elbistan.
And the last one, the southern Anatolia region. The long-term temperature is 4.7. It was 4 in 2022.
The lowest was minus 14.4 in Çermik. The highest was 19.6 in Ceylanpınar.
Welcome back! If you want to learn the detailed weather information before you come,
before your ski trip, you should check the government site. I will share the link again here.
It's mgm.gov.tr. We talk about the name, we talk about what's going on, we talk about the weather,
we talk about the holiday spots and that's it. That's all I can say about the month Ocak.
So do you guys have any comments or questions? Have you ever visited Turkey during Ocak and
which city, which place did you visit and did you like it? What did you like? What didn't you like?
Leave some comments here. So if you want more content like this, what are you guys going to do?
Keep watching this channel, subscribe, you know, put, you know, click. I can never say this,
you know. Like the video, subscribe to the channel and you can always visit
turkishclass101.com to have more content like this and of course I will see you next time.
Görüşmek üzere, hoşçakalın. Kendinize iyi bakın.

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