Colombia· 2019
Colombia: six years, two cities, one accent I still miss.
Draft — sample text, not yet Fatma's own account
I went to Bogotá to study and stayed six years. Slang is where belonging actually starts.
Open the book· 4 pages
The Journal
Every country is a little book. Open one and turn the pages — each page has its own address, so you can share exactly where you are.
Togo· 2016
Togo, 2016: the first trip I took alone
Draft — sample text, not yet Fatma's own account
My first international solo trip, with almost no French and a notebook full of words I'd copied down wrong.
Open the book· 3 pages
PortugalDate to confirm
Portugal: it looks like Spanish and sounds like nothing I knew
Draft — sample text, not yet Fatma's own account
On the page I could read almost everything. Out loud I could catch almost nothing. That gap is the whole story.
Open the book· 3 pages
GermanyDate to confirm
Germany: a language with an exact word for it
Draft — sample text, not yet Fatma's own account
German has a single word for things other languages need a whole sentence to describe. That is not a joke about long words. It is a way of thinking.
Open the book· 3 pages
ItalyDate to confirm
Italy: half the language is not in the words
Draft — sample text, not yet Fatma's own account
Gesture, tone and one endlessly flexible word carry more of Italian than the vocabulary does.
Open the book· 3 pages
SpainDate to confirm
Andalusia: the same language is not the same language
Draft — sample text, not yet Fatma's own account
I learned my Spanish in Colombia. Travelling through Seville, Málaga and Granada, I met a completely different one — the accent, the vosotros form, half the vocabulary.
Open the book· 4 pages
MoroccoDate to confirm
Morocco: the price is a conversation, not a number
Draft — sample text, not yet Fatma's own account
I arrived with French, discovered Darija, and learned that in a souk the negotiation is the relationship.
Open the book· 4 pages
USA· 2024
Missouri, 2024: fluent English is not Midwestern English
Draft — sample text, not yet Fatma's own account
I arrived in the American Midwest to teach Spanish and Turkish, and spent the first month relearning the language I already spoke.
Open the book· 3 pages
United KingdomDate to confirm
England and Wales: British politeness is a code
Draft — sample text, not yet Fatma's own account
I already spoke the language fluently. It took much longer to learn what people actually meant.
Open the book· 3 pages
Peru· 2017
Peru, 2017: textbook Spanish meets market Spanish
Draft — sample text, not yet Fatma's own account
I arrived able to conjugate and unable to buy a kilo of anything. The market fixed that in a week.
Open the book· 3 pages
Mexico· 2019
Mexico, 2019: what ahorita really means
Draft — sample text, not yet Fatma's own account
Same language, different shape. One word told me how a whole country treats time.
Open the book· 3 pages
TurkeyDate to confirm
Turkey: teaching the language I grew up inside
Draft — sample text, not yet Fatma's own account
This one isn't a trip. It's home — and hearing my own country described by people who are about to see it for the first time.
Open the book· 3 pages