GOOD MANNERS IN TURKEY

Turkey is a big county, with 70 million people, it's a mixture of European and Arabic culture.

GREETINGS

About greetings, they have an European behavior when they meet someone for first time, they kiss on both cheeks and after that they shake hands.

CLOTHES

In Turkey, they can wear European clothes or Arabic style, if they are Arabic they have to be careful, specially women, who can't show their body. They must wear clothes that cover their body an also a head scarf.

FOOD AND DRINK

It's well-known that the most typical food in turkey is the Kebab, but they have an types of food that you can imagine. However, you shouldn't eat pork, if you want to respect their religion. In restaurants you must tip 10% of the bill, but is only in the most expensive restaurants. If you are over 18, you are lucky, because you can buy and drink whatever you want.

CELEBRATIONS

They only celebrate religious holidays and New Year's party which is celebrated by half of the population. On this day, they have the dinner with their family and they give presents to each others.

Good Manners in Turkey

Hi! I'm going to write about my partner's country and their customs and traditions.

• Greetings:

In Turkey you have to shake hands when you meet somebody. Although with your friends you can kiss on both cheeks and have physical contact between men a women.

• Clothes:

It is not an obligation for women to wear a head scarf. However, some women wear it for their religion. Apart from this, everybody can wear all kinds of clothes, even shorts ans skirts.

• Food and drink:

They eat three times a day: breakfast, dinner and lunch. For breakfast they drink tea and orange juice and eat eggs. For lunch they have salads, hamburgers, toast, kebabs and other things. Finally, for dinner, their most important meal, they eat soup, salads and meat like chicken and kebabs.

• Culture:

In Turkey there are various religions. It is the most important thing about their culture, although they don't have to pray daily like in other places.

• In public:

They have rules from the government such as they must not smoke in public buildings, but you are allowed smoke outside.

QATAR

Qatar is a small country, the capital of Qatar is Doha. There are big buildings in the centre but in the suburbs, there are a lot of big house.

About greetings, they kiss on both cheeks or shake hands, it depends on their relationship.

Everyday, men wears a thawb and women sometimes wear an abaya, but they don't only wear that in work with uniform (police...).

In Qatar, people don't eat pork or drink wine, because their religion doesn't allow it. They go to the Mosque five times every week. People in Qatar try to help poor people or other poor countries though their religion.

About their houses, everybody has maids and drivers. Normally, a house has three or four big living-rooms.

In public, you can't drink in the street and you can't smoke inside.

Qatar is a beautiful country to visit.

Good Manners in Thailand.

I'm going to give you some advice about things you should or shouldn't do if you go to Thailand.

Greetings-->How should you behave when you meet someone for the first time? In Thailand, the greeting is made by pressing both hands together at the chest, as if you're praying and bowing your head slightly, eye contact is avoided as a sign of respect.

Clothes--> All kinds of clothes are acceptable, except when you go to the temple,you need polite dress.

Food and Drink--> In Thailand, dinner is often the biggest meal of the day. Every meal is served with rice., but in Thailand can eat every food. Tipping in a restaurant depends on the person.

Culture--> In the winter, they have Songkran to celebrate the new year. And in November, Long Kralong, when they apologise to Kong Ha.

Body Language--> In Thailand, one person can't touch the head of another person and eye

contact is avoided as a sign of respect.

In Public--> In Thailand, they can't smoke in public.

Rules--> They've a special law for speed, they mustn't drive faster than 120 km/hour , which is the same as in Spain.

Good Manners In Spain

If you want to travel to Spain, you need to know about good manners in this country. Here are some things you should know and some things you should avoid.

Greetings in Spain are normally the same as other western countries. They shake hands to say hello but the Spanish also kiss friends on both cheeks.

For clothes, you can wear whatever you want to wear because in Spain there are no specific rules for your clothes. But on special occasions you should wear smart clothes.

For food and drinks, the Spanish eat lunch as the main meal of the day. And when you are there you should try 'tapas', the traditional Spanish food. And it's not necessary to tip after you finish your meal.

For culture, in February there is a carnival in Spain where people wear different clothes. It is fantastic to come at this time. Another celebration is New year when the Spanish eat 12 grapes because they want a wish from god and 1 grape means 1 wish.

For regulation, it's the same as other countries, there is a speed limit, you mustn't drive more than 120 km./h. And you can't smoke indoors but you can smoke in public.

a little bit of descriptive writing...

So...this is my first blog entry on the Berlitz Manchester blog. As homework we had to do some descriptive writing about a scene we could choose. Our teacher Joel then had the idea to post it on the blog. So here is mine:

The children were laying on the parched ground like dead animals in the shadow of a small tree. It was too hot and too exhausting to run around and have fun. But something was different that day and they could feel it. The air was salty and oppressive. Suddenly a wind came up and blew dark and heavy clouds across the sky. Big rain drops fell on the ground and the children began to jump around like animals driven wild because they were so excited. It seemed like the rain was breathing new life into them while you could hear the heavy drops knocking on the dusty roof...

First signs

Yeah, actually our teacher, Joel, gave us this as a homework. We had to write a short scene with lots of adjectives and so on.
At that moment I was thinking of my prospective Croatian holiday with my family and boyfriend and that`s why I wrote this below. But at that moment I didn`t know that my boyfriend can`t come with us because there isn`t enough place for one more person. But here is the scene:

"They are staring at the sea, which is as glittering, because of the rising sun, as his almond-shaped diamond eyes. He looks at her softly, his face warms up the chilling purplish red dawn. They can speak without words, even a small smile is enough to show their eternal love. They are breathing the fresh mediterraenan air as if they were breathing their first breath in this very moment.
They are holding each others` hands tightly as though they never want to release them. They are sitting close with the mysterious shadow of the silence, but a good silence, called happiness. It is crystal clear that they belong to each other like a pair of shoes: existence without the other can`t be imagined. He is smiling happily, breathing her sweet perfume and all he wants to do is to stop time to be with the girl he loves more than anything in this colorful world."