Q&A about life in Turkey with an English citizen

welcome back to another video today we will be taking a different sort of video where i will be interviewing someone very close to me which is my mother karen hello hello so i will be asking some questions and she will be giving her honest opinion and her honest answer about a certain question so if you're ready let's begin [Music] [Applause] [Music] so if you're ready mom i will ask a few questions would that be all right yeah that's fine and i want you to answer honestly uh with these sorts of questions and so uh our clients or our future clients can review this and decide if they want to buy a house here or anywhere around turkey okay okay i'll be honest all right so question one what made you come to turkey well originally i came here for your dad i met him on holiday came for a couple of years after that and then decided to move over here all right and how many years have you been here i've been here this year i'll have been here 30 years wow 30 years yeah 30 years still looking well yeah it's the sunshine question number two was there a language barrier back then and how is it now well back then um i came here and i didn't know any turkish whatsoever i have to say but because this is a tourist area there was always somebody that could help you and i think it's very important that you try to learn some words or some of the language obviously if you go to a different part of turkey where it's not touristic then you're really going to struggle now we're very cosmopolitan in and i don't think there's any language barriers for most countries and people who come to live here give or take how many years do you think it took you to learn the language oh good god i still don't speak very good turkish but i can get by and i also work here so my language is not too bad but it's not correct that's enough right oh god enough yes if you try to speak something people are very appreciative of you trying to learn the language but really you can get by without speaking much at all or any at all okay question number three could you find a job back then and how is it now yeah back then extremely difficult i would say because um you had to get work permits to work which i think you still do but i think now the opportunities are much more well much easier because you've got internet and people can do jobs from their homes then what did i do then oh my goodness first i worked in a laundry ironing well he didn't need language then didn't no i didn't need any language then and from that got me a job in a hotel actually and i worked in a supermarket on a five-star hotels site so you could even work in a hotel in a market because you still needed the language anyway yes but i was very lucky i worked with young people who'd studied english at school and university so everyone was really helpful and as time goes by as you you soon learned some words and then you start stringing sentences together from the hotel i got a job as a rep which was very easy because i was dealing with english people and from then i moved on to managing a hotel which i still do so i've been very lucky in my lifetime here if you're ready mom i'm going to ask question number four oh dear okay compared to the uk what do you think the turkish health system is like is it good or is it bad like do you have any like recommendations or do you have any sort of like things you don't like about it could you explain us how like how it works for us and well for locals and foreigners well i think we're very very lucky here in alanya we have a fantastic health system i think in my own experiences we have the government hospitals and we also have private hospitals because i work and because i married a turkish man i can go to both because you have segregated yes i have sega care and for people who come to live here as a resident you also need to pay for sergey of course you can either have sega car or you can have private insurance yeah yeah yeah and the service well what can i say in england if you have a minor problem you could be waiting yeah you could be waiting weeks to go anywhere i mean we have wonderful dentists doctors of every kind of profession you can make an appointment one day and in my case when i have had to go in hospital you're in the next day you can pay to go to the private hospital or you can go to the government hospital and pay a small percentage of what the operation or whatever would cost well it depends which um say you know which doctor you see right because also i believe the price differs from um how educated the doctor is like if he's a doctor or if he's a professor yeah yes of course of course i've never fortunately touchwood had to have a major operation so i've always seen a normal doctor here i as you can see i wear glasses second to none i can't fault anything i've been very lucky with all the services i've got from turkey i think they're brilliant and you there's no waiting and you can probably have but if you if you go to the government hospital you have to wait some time right you can't just go straight in no you have to make an appointment to go but it's certainly not as long as you'd wait in the uk for an appointment give or take how many days do you think it would take oh wow if you in a week if you were seriously ill you just go to the what they call the argue which is emergency and you would be seen that day so excellent service so question number five is there an expats community in alanya oh yes there's a fabulous expats group here not just for british people either there are um expat sites on facebook for all kinds of different nationalities that live here obviously i look at the one that's in english um and it's a brilliant way of finding out things for newcomers who come to live here like where do you pay your taxes or where do you pay your electric water all these kind of things you can put any question on there and you will get an answer from somebody who's been through that experience before you and it's so so good they also have during covid we've not been able to get together but usually they have a speaking english group or a coffee group or a book swapping restaurants right we went to one yes one or two years ago i think yes they they're meeting restaurants but obviously at the moment they can't so you will always find a friend or if you are interested in any particular sports or activities people can help you if you want to visit anywhere they'll also help you the best way of getting there and what to see and what to do we have lots of things here in alanya which i think's marvelous when i first came there was not these many activities around but you can go to gyms you can go swimming clubs you've got the beautiful sea um you can go to historical sites i don't know there's a sports activity for any any kind of sport anybody wants to do and if you don't want to do it alone you can always ask on the expats group is there anybody who'd like to do this activity with me so yes there is and i and you're never alone which is the most important thing do you think living in alanya is safe yes i do i feel i have to say i do feel more safe here than i do in the uk um i think walking around in the streets as a lady alone and an older lady alone even in the height of the summer and 12 o'clock at night i feel very very safe in the street obviously things do happen here everywhere all around the world all around the world things happen but i am never looking over my shoulder never worrying oh my god i must get home it's dark it's it's there's nobody in the street never ever have i felt like that um house wise yes i feel safe in my house um obviously we do have burglaries like everywhere but no one's ever tried to attempt to enter into our house right no no we've been very lucky we've never had that and there are not many people who i have heard have been burgled but obviously it does happen um but i'm not feeling unsafe and i do feel safer here than i do in england so very nice i'm very happy also another small question in general let's say for turkey do you feel more safer in different cities or do you feel more safer in alanya i feel more safer in melania obviously if i went to istanbul or ankara or somewhere like that then it's more populated um i feel safer here because everybody's in the same circumstances as yourself exactly well everyone knows each other right yes you know and you can pop into anywhere if you didn't feel safe you just walk in a shop or talk to someone and they'll help you and you can flag a taxi anywhere it's not a big city it's big enough but not a huge city and i think that's why you feel safer okay so there's only two questions left so i'm going to ask the next one you have been working here for many years and you will like and you will receive your pension right yes and from the uk of course and you will be receiving a pension in turkey a few years later yes do you think it's possible to live off that pension from the uk in alanya or in turkey in general yes i'm going to receive a pension from both countries hopefully and i'd like to explain how i've done that i've been very fortunate that ever since i've lived here i've been able to make my own national insurance contributions that's towards your pension in england i've sent the money every year since i've lived here i already worked 20 years in england before i came here so i've got continued to pay that for the 30 years i've lived here so that's how i'll eventually get my english pension which is only another year to go so yeah hey in turkey uh the years i've worked here i've also paid into the sergei care system which is the pension and health insurance system here in turkey um i haven't paid enough years to get a full pension but by the time i'm 65 which is also not very far away um i will receive some kind of payment from the turkish pension then you ask me could you live here on your pension oh my god yes lovely with your turkish passion well with my english pension it's well everybody knows it's about 150 160 pounds a a week so here in turkey that's uh at the moment about um six thousand lira yeah which is ample to live here in turkey and especially for me i own our apartment so you've got no rent out going so you're just paying for your electric and your water and the food you eat very very comfortable to live here on a pension and if you're an english couple or a foreign couple with a foreign pension your money will go a really long way it's we're very lucky to live here because economy here is not as high as your own european country or arab country or wherever so the cost of living here is much cheaper very comfortable thank you okay mom so i'm going to ask you the last question of the day oh god all right do you think you made a mistake by moving to turkey oh my goodness no it was the best decision i ever made in my whole life i love living here i actually do now love living here more than i loved living in the uk and why wouldn't you want to live here 300 days a year of beautiful sunshine you can go anywhere here walking in alanya it's not such a big place it's fabulous best decision i ever made in my life and for your listeners you won't be you won't regret it everyone it's a super thing to do do you feel relieved mom oh thank god yes all right everyone that's all we have for today and if you like these sort of things like where i ask questions and receive them and if you find it very useful make sure to write them down on the comments and we will try to make more content such as you know where we uh interview other ex-pats groups or newcomers who start to live in alanya in turkey so that's all we have for today make sure to give a thumbs up leave a like put the notification bell on and make sure to follow us on other social media platforms such as instagram facebook and of course our youtube channel that's all for today see you guys [Music] you

Channel: summerhometurkey

Views: 21,572

Rating: 4.944304 out of 5

Keywords: live in turkey, live in alanya, turkey, alanya, how in live in turkey, how in live in alanya, finding job in alanya, finding job in turkey, health system in turkey, alanya safety, learning turkish, moving to turkey, moving to alanya, living in alanya, living in turkey, life in turkey for foreigners, living in turkey as a woman, cost of living in turkey, benefits of living in turkey, is turkey safe to live, working and living in turkey, cost of living in alanya

Id: Us-gYXlwdDY

Length: 15min 30sec (930 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 19 2021