Yinzurkish JOSHUA CHANG University of Pittsburgh s Turkish professor, Nur Lider gives insight into her childhood growing up in a politically tumultuous country, and how those experiences have shaped her life in the States. Expressive in demeanor through slender limbs and tall physique, thin glasses framing warm yet almost mischievously twinkling eyes, Nur Lider, with her lilting Turkish accent and sharp, yet motherly features is known by most as the friendly Turkish professor in the Less Commonly Taught Languages Center at the University of Pittsburgh. Her fellow Monroeville residents know her as the gracious neighbor, head of the local PTA in years past who coordinated volunteer activities, cooked up scrumptious baked goodies, and scurried her daughter from one play date to another. However, not many people may know that Nur grew up in Turkey during a time of great political upheaval, a time where she lived through two military coup d états, attended a top university despite heavy government crack down on individual expression, studied hard eventually graduating second in her class, and received multiple scholarships that allowed her to travel to the U.S. where she would ultimately find her place in Steel-City Pittsburgh. I love this city, she says. It s my home. 1
* * * Nur was born in 1967 in her hometown of Tokat, located in northeastern Turkey. During this time Turkey had been experiencing an economic recession, and tension between left wing and student movement groups mounted against Islamist and nationalist parties. By the time Nur took the nation-wide Turkish university entrance exams in 1985, two military Turkish coup d état coups had occurred, placing the country under strict martial law. Though military control on the government started to eventually fade away, restrictions and pressure were still set in place against organization groups while Nur was attending college. Her college, Middle Eastern Technical University, one of Turkey s top universities and once the hub for leftist student movements and liberal student associations, was almost eerily silent on campus since all student movements were shut down and forbidden. Any kind of group activity, you were not supposed to do, says Nur. We were not even able to come together and have a cup of tea and discuss what was going on in the country without bringing the suspicion of the police [stationed on campus]. Meetings were not only forbidden, but outside unauthorized material was not allowed on campuses as well. Nur says her and her peers found it hard to express themselves individually and in groups, due to the controlled environment and lack of freedom. We were called the Lost Generation, she says, because all sense of protest was completely shut down, curbed, and repressed in my generation. Protest, a word not uncommon to the Western world with home-front financial troubles and revolutionary events such as the Arab Spring, Nur says despite the negatives parts of protesting, she is proud of the young generation in Turkey today. You can see the ideals and sense of entitlement, sense of personal freedom, and personal expression with this [young] generation. I was very touched and impressed by these groups of young people expressing themselves, which I think is also very good for Turkey s evolving democracy. Nur would go on to graduate second in her undergraduate class, 2
and seek to obtain her Master s degree in Public and International Affairs abroad in the States. She had originally planned to study at State College in Boston, but after some money problems, Nur remembered what her professor back at Middle Eastern Technical University had said. [He] had actually done his PhD at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1950 s, explains Nur with a chuckle. So when I went to him to say goodbye in college, he said to just keep in mind a place called Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania, just in case I didn t like New York or Boston or other big-shot places. So after a brief month in Boston, Nur came to Pittsburgh on a typical hot, humid, muggy summer day in the August of 1990. Slowly turning into a Yinzer, Nur s path to adapting to American society in Pittsburgh also had its bumps in the road. The biggest struggle I had here was having so many choices, recalls Nur. I remember going to Giant Eagle and looking up at the tea isle with all kinds of tea, thinking, How am I going to decide which one to buy? Or when I went to the mall with my friends to buy snow boots, I couldn t choose one. I had to ask my friends to choose for me. Nur thinks this problem in choosing things for herself, a privilege most Americans wouldn t even think twice about, came not only from her country s political atmosphere in suppressing individual expression, but from her home life growing up as well. I come from a small town. And in that small town we all know each other, says Nur. My cousins, neighbors, friends. They would watch out for me. But this community also made it hard for Nur to make choices for herself, thousands of miles away in a then foreign country. I wasn t able to make a decision, because I had never been in a position of making a decision for myself, says Nur. I was overwhelmed with 3
a lot of information, and most of the time, I ended up not buying anything. But Nur soon adapted, and her family life grew more once she met the love of her life, eventually settled down, and had a baby girl on the way. The once work and study-focused Nur, now with daughter and husband, thought her academic days were over before they began, and now took up the mantle of the American mother and housewife. That was like a different life, because suddenly I was in suburbia, not at the university, doing what they call the soccer mom. Nur became involved in the local PTA, raising funds and organizing charity events. And surprisingly enough, it was at one of these bake sales, where Nur was selling home baked goods that a volunteer friend brought news that would lead Nur her back down the path to academia. The University of Pittsburgh had a position open for a Turkish professor with a Masters degree, and Nur knew she had to take the chance. After 9/11, the U.S. government had noticed a lack of proficiency in certain critical foreign languages, Turkish being one of them, and offered institutions support in promoting this Critical Languages Program. The University of Pittsburgh, seeking federal funding, had started Turkish language classes in the Less Commonly Taught Languages Center with a Turkish Masters student. However once that student left, the University was left seeking a new instructor. Though excited, Nur found herself worrying about her skills. I had no formal work experience, said Nur. I had tutored Turkish when I was in college, mainly professors who had some interest in Turkey or history but it was nothing formal. Nur almost decided not to pursue the job offer, until a push from her mother made her send a email. My mom is not shy about asking things, says Nur. She s very bold, and just told me to ask them. And she did. Nur emailed asking about her application, to which the director responding apologizing for getting back to her so late. He offered her an interview the next week. 4
I still remember, I had no formal clothing so I went to the mall and got something, went to the 20 th floor, and we ended up talking almost two and a half hours, she says. They hired me instantly. From then on Nur s life became a balance of designing course curriculums, arranging projects, and assigning homework, with her home life spending time with her daughter, husband, and two cats. Nur currently teaches 8 levels of Turkish, ranging from Turkish 1 to Advanced Independent Study, alternating between even and odd number courses each semester. She has also served as a panelist for the Turkish language at the State department s Critical Languages Programs for the last three years, and now spends most of her time at home making lesson plans, though still nourishes her love for baking with her daughter. Nur, now having spent over half her life in Pittsburgh, says her life is settled in her home of eighteen years in Monroeville, East End Pittsburgh. I consider it my home town. I know all my neighbors, all the little streets and street names. Nur s family, though, sometimes finds it hard to have their daughter living in the U.S. away from relatives and country, especially in hard times. Nur Lider takes a picture with her Independent Study: Advanced Turkish 6 class. They were all hoping that I would go back to Turkey, says Nur. They had expectations of me, being the oldest one of the four. But I ended up staying here. But it s not all bad. Nur s younger sister came over the spring break to visit, and Nur showed her around the city that she has grown to love. I took my sister around Pittsburgh with my daughter. Some days it would rain and we would just stay indoors and watch movies but she loved it all, says Nur. I love this city, and I am so thankful to God that I can work, teaching what I love, and still have the time to raise my daughter with my husband here in Pittsburgh. * * * 5