What Türkiye Taught Me Before I Ever Worked in Hospitality

Long before I designed a single training program or thought about hospitality as a career, I was a student in Türkiye, studying International Relations on a scholarship that took me far from home. I didn't know it then, but that chapter was quietly preparing me for the work I do now.

An Education Beyond the Classroom

Türkiye placed me in the middle of something I hadn't experienced before — a genuinely international environment, surrounded by people from different countries, each carrying their own customs, expectations, and ways of moving through the world. Living alongside that kind of diversity teaches you things no textbook can. You start to notice etiquette at an international level: not just what's polite, but why. Why a gesture that feels perfectly normal in one culture can feel abrupt in another. Why silence means something different depending on where someone is from. Why hospitality itself is understood so differently across borders.

Understanding the history behind these customs mattered just as much as recognizing them. Behavior rarely exists without a reason behind it — a country's history, its values, its relationship with the rest of the world all shape how its people greet each other, negotiate, or show respect. Learning to see that context changed the way I understand people altogether, long before I ever applied it to a guest checking into a hotel.

Ephesus - 2024

A Country Built for Hospitality

Türkiye itself deserves its own mention here. It's a remarkably touristic, fast-growing country in hospitality, rich with history and genuinely warm in the way it welcomes visitors. If it's not already on your travel list, I'd highly recommend it — not just for the sights, but for how naturally hospitality seems woven into daily life there.

Why This Still Shapes My Work Today

I didn't step into hospitality with a hospitality background. I stepped into it with a cultural one. And it turns out that understanding why people behave the way they do, across different customs and histories, is exactly the foundation good service is built on. Long before I ever trained a team on guest communication, Türkiye had already taught me to look for the reason behind the behavior — a habit that still shapes how I see every guest interaction today.