The following documentaries can be helpful in getting to know the history of Cyprus, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the 1974 conflict that started it all. They have been chosen from different sources, so that they are representative of different ideas and perspectives. Personally, I think that this issue is the first one that people who will visit Cyprus learn! The very first conversation in Cyprus could be about the division and what happened in 1974 and how the island is still divided. 

Documentary | The Island of Cyprus - National Geographic

North Cyprus Problem Documentary (English language)

Domantary : The Cyprus Problem, Still devided 1974

Homeland (Turkish Cypriot Documentary)

Hello everyone

This blog is a cultural journey project for ENLT 521, Cultural Aspects of Language Teaching at Middle East Technical University Northern Cyprus Campus. The guideline of the project can be found at the end of this post.
I chose Northern Cyprus as the culture that I want to investigate because I recently moved here to do my master's degree and I found this place more than amazing. Therefore, in the process of gathering data for project, I decided to share this fantastic experience with everyone with the purpose and the hope that this information can be helpful. The project will be closely connected to Shaule's (2010) Deep Culture experience definition, which he has superbly explained in his book,  A beginner’s guide to the deep culture experience. Beneath the surface;

"Spending even a day or a week in a new place can open our eyes to the world. ... Longer stays involve more hidden challenges, such as learning new ways of communicating or thinking, and involve a deeper learning—one that touches upon the habits of our unconscious mind. Cultural learning at this level revolves around the hidden programming of the mind called deep culture. Deep culture influences our thinking and values in ways that we generally aren't aware of. We rely on it in everyday life to interact, communicate, and interpret others’ actions. It is integrated into our thinking at such a basic level that we take it for granted. ... People who adapt deeply to life in a new country— especially if they must learn a foreign language to do so— often report transformational experiences ... . That’s because longer sojourns bring us into contact with people who, despite our common humanity, have deep culture settings different from our own. Trying to make sense of these deep culture differences requires us to look beneath the surface and notice patterns of behavior and thought that are not obvious at first glance. And in the process of learning these deeper lessons about our cultural hosts, we bring to light previously hidden parts of ourselves. I call this a deep culture journey. It involves a trial-and-error process of entering into another cultural reality—the world as seen from the point of view of our hosts. We gain a new perspective that can develop to the point that we feel that we have created a new self. We may even become bicultural. Some people experience this as a conscious shift between different selves and different social realities. They've created a new set of deep culture patterns in addition to the ones they grew up with."

Shaules, 2010 

In this project, I will try to go as deep into the culture as I possibly can and find the cultural patterns and if possible compare the similarities and differences with my previous experiences. The hope is to be as objective as possible while writing the posts but as mentioned in Giroux (2004), the complete objectivity, specially in cultural studies, is not possible and unwanted (or even sometimes wanted)  biases may occur in writings of such projects. I will also try to include some general information about the island in general and the northern part in specific.

Finally, the reason for calling the website NCC experience is for the nice ambiguity that it can have. It stands both for Northern Cyprus Cultural experience which is the main focus of this blog and also, Northern Cyprus Campus experience which is the one that I am currently studying in and is one of the main sources for gathering the data.

Any question or criticism of the exiting posts can be written in the comments or be sent to nccexperience@gmail.com. I would appreciate all of them.

CULTURAL JOURNEY: 

Students will pick a culture that they are new to or don’t know anything about and explore that culture following Shaules’ pattern and guidelines in his book. The final project will include the following parts: Introduction—Explaining the reason for choosing this culture; personal interest, social connections, etc.) Weekly Journal Entries (at least 10 entries)—The writer is expected to keep weekly entries for this assignment, talking about a different aspect of this culture. For example, one week the writer may watch a movie from that culture and comment on it; another week, s/he may interview a cultural informant about controversial issues in that culture; or attend a social event carried out in a community that consists of people from that culture. Conclusion—The writer reflects on his journey through this culture and talks about his experience and learning in retrospect. IMPORTANT POINTS to consider while completing this assignment: 

o The writer is expected to triangulate his/her data to come up with a picture of the culture in question. In order to do that, the writer should use at least 3 of the following sources of information: Library sources (books, articles, book chapters about general and specific aspects of the target culture); interviews with cultural informants (2-3 people, at least, talking about a variety of issues from family relationships to politics), media sources (Internet pages, news, movies); personal participation in social events (e.g., celebrations, family life). o The information from these data sources should be incorporated into the weekly entries when relevant. Some may be used in the Conclusion part. o The writers are expected to submit a copy of their sources, audio-files of interviews, and video files of media sources, etc. along with their final projects. It is the students’ responsibility to keep a back-up copy of their sources.

Shaules, J. (2010). A beginner’s guide to the deep culture experience. Beneath the surface. Boston, MA: Intercultural Press.

Giroux, H. A. (2004) Cultural studies, public pedagogy, and the responsibility of intellectuals, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 1:1, 59-79