Ben Fève@BenjaminFeve
Reminds me of last week, when I was buying an ice cream somewhere in Damascus at around 10:30 p.m., and I saw a lady speaking Turkish to the ice cream seller. So I immediately asked her in Turkish, “Are you Turkish? You don’t speak Arabic?”
She replied, “No no I am not Turkish, I am [European nationality].”
I was visibly confused, and asked: “why would a foreigner speak Turkish to buy ice cream in Damascus?” “I just love the language, actually,” she replied.
Still confused, we kept speaking Turkish together for a bit… then the ice cream seller asked me, in fluent Turkish (!), “Are you Turkish?”
I replied, “No, I’m French, but I speak Turkish. What’s going on here with everyone speaking Turkish?”
And there we were: two Europeans and one Syrian speaking Turkish together.
Then… an older guy jumped in behind me, asking me and the lady in… Turkish: “So, are you two Turks?”
“No, but are you?” we replied.
He was like, “No, no! I am Syrian too!”
And that’s how the four of us ended up speaking Turkish together for a few minutes in the middle of Damascus and eating like there was some glitch in the matrix.
Good times. Unfathomable a few years back. Unforgettable today.