Global fast food restaurants are affecting languages and attitudes -- worldwide.Have you noticed that when you walk into a Western fast food restaurant you are suddenly thrust into a crash course in English? It is rather humorous, if you are a native speaker, when you pronounce the menu as a native speaker and you are not understood. Not chicken burger, but “chick-inn burrrr-gerrrrrr!”
I wonder how many of you visited the first McDonald’s when it opened at Taksim in 1986. I walked by there and saw a long line of people of all ages, all dressed up waiting to go inside to try a Big Mac! Back then people thought you should dress up to go to Mickey-D’s. Not anymore, though.
Within one decade McDonald’s opened over 100 restaurants in Turkey. Since then other fast food chains such as Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Pizza Hut and many others have followed suit. Why is this? Turkey does have a large young population and it has wanted to open its doors to the West.
Just recently a friend of mine came back from Xinjiang, China, and told me that you can eat at a KFC there. Exotic places like Mongolia and Estonia are just a couple of examples of cultures struggling to keep their way of life -- their uniqueness.
When Mustafa Kemal Atatürk established the modern Republic of Turkey, he changed the alphabet Turkish was written in from an Arabic-based script to a Latin-based one. Up until this point, Ottoman Turkish had been the official language, a language that has many loan words from Persian and Arabic.
The English language is influencing languages around the world. Turkish has borrowed English loanwords. I’m sure you could list a few. Every day in our professional and personal vocabularies we hear words like “OK,” “good,” “shopping,” “pub,” “blockbuster,” “pop singer,” “photocopy” and “computer.” The list goes on…
How do our Turkish friends feel about this? Do Turks fret about the loss of their cultural identity? It is hard for many Westerners to understand that non-Westerners grapple with wanting to be more “Western” in their lifestyles while at the same time aspire to retain their cultural identity.
Growing global interdependence affects every nation’s identity in some way, including the identities of Western nations.
Some nations struggle to keep their traditional cultural identity.
I wonder, if present trends continue, will people across the world all be eating hamburgers, wearing jeans and listening to Western rock music at the expense of their own local customs and traditions?
When our book fair team visits a private Turkish school we always notice that these young Turks are greatly influenced by global mass culture. They drink Coca-Cola, wear blue jeans, watch Hollywood movies, buy popular English novels and picture books, listen to American music, use Microsoft software and eat fast food. When we ask students about their favorite musicians, they name Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, Ciara and Eminem. Everyone knows about Madonna, Michael Jackson, Louis Armstrong and other icons of American music.
What happened to traditional Turkish meals cooked at home and consumed at a leisurely pace? Fast food chains have brought about more than a diet change. What do you think?
Many of you are familiar with the Star Trek episode “Best of Both Worlds,” where Shelby wants to try to save Picard but is aware that there are only minutes left and the Borg appear ready to return to warp. Suddenly they are hailed by the Borg ship. “Picard,” now Locutus of the Borg, appears on the viewscreen and delivers an ultimatum: “I am Locutus of the Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life, as it has been, is over. From this point on, you will come to serve us.”
Now I enjoy seeing good Turkish restaurants develop chains. Some of them may even start to open branches abroad. I hope so. One of the most popular restaurants in Central London is Sofra, which serves wonderful Turkish cuisine amongst the most delightful İznik tiles. I also enjoy seeing international fast food chains adapt their menu to include Turkish style food: The McTurco burger and KFC’s chicken wrap (like a durum) are good examples of this.
Let’s hope that the best of both worlds can coexist and learn from one another.
