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Especially soothing cough syrup... 
One day, back in 1986, in the middle of winter, shortly after moving to
Turkey from the U.S., I developed a horrible cold with all the
accompanying unpleasant symptoms -- the runny nose, weeping eyes and the
cough. The type of cough that keeps you awake all of the night.
In the
morning, I was determined to go to the pharmacy to buy some cough syrup. I
managed to catch my husband before he left to go to his office and asked him
what the Turkish name for cough syrup was. 'Öksürük şurubu' was his
answer.
Of course, I immediately forgot it -- didn't write it down (I'll
check the dictionary before I go out, I thought). Okay, that time was
'before glasses'...so I scanned the dictionary before leaving for the
pharmacy where the woman who owned the pharmacy spoke good English and I
was sure I would have no trouble.
Unfortunately, the lady of the pharmacy
was not in the store that morning -- so I was met by a customary "Merhaba-Hos
geldiniz," from the young man who was a new graduate of the Pharmacy Faculty
at Ankara University. This was his first job and he knew
no English, at all.
"Hoş bulduk," I said. (What do I do now, I thought.)
Well I knew what I wanted so decided to just ask for it -- "Osurmak
şurubu, istiyorum." I smiled weakly and tried to cough a little to show what I
wanted.
"Is your stomach upset?" he asked me.
"No," coughing again -- this
time louder!
"Are you having problems with your intestines?" he asked. "Do
you have gas?"
Gas, intestines, my stomach!? What (I wondered) did that have to do
with my cough?
Luckily, a real coughing attack came and before I
knew it the young man was laughing and reached behind the counter and
handed me a box of cough syrup. I paid the bill, went home and puzzled
about why he had asked me all those 'strange' questions about my
gastro-intestinal system and problems totally unrelated to my cold.
Ah
well, I thought, he probably wanted to be a doctor! And was just checking
out if I really had a cold. Didn't think anything about it until evening
when I told my family about my successful (!) trip to the drugstore...
I, oh
so proudly, explained that I had bought the cough syrup and gave the
Turkish phrase I had used! My husband was convulsed with laughter and my
daughter in a typical teenage manner said "Where did you get the word for
cough syrup from?" I got the dictionary and showed her...
"Mom, you need
glasses! Do you know what you asked for?"
"Yes, I asked for 'cough syrup' --
was there something wrong with that?"
"Mom," she said with an ever-broadening grin,
"You asked for 'farting syrup'!!"
SO (July '00)
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