PHYLLIS HULL AKTURK
Rockville, MD
I check “other” for race because we are all just homo sapiens. Although Father was from Norman English+Dutch and Mother from German+English stock (both born and raised in Denver, Colorado), I didn’t know I was a WASP until I got to the dorm, as a junior, at American University, where I got a BA in Anthropology. The Navy posted us to Napoli (where I picked up child’s Italian), Jacksonville, Florida (picked up a southern drawl), then back to Maryland, where, of four girls, only I had been born (in 1950). In public schools, I found American kids boring, always had a book about ancient civilizations in my bag, enjoyed choir and French class the most, and made friends with the rare international student; in community college, began to learn Spanish (and really fun dancing) from Latin-American students; at AU, started teaching ESOL in small schools; while editing ESOL books then working as an English-language secretary in the Turkish Embassy in DC, learned Portuguese from a Brasilian family and their friends; then met my future husband and, in 1979, moved to Turkey to marry, learned Turkish, taught English, and had two children. The Turkish Treasury posted us to Tokyo for three years, where we adults picked up basic Japanese and the kids became fluent in child’s Japanese, then to the World Bank/IMF in DC for four years in 1990. My husband then, wanting our kids to remain in US schools, took an IMF assignment to set up a modern treasury department in Azerbaijan, where he learned Russian (and I only learned some). We live in both the US and Turkey now. Last Christmas, I gave my husband participation in the Genographic Project, so we know his ancestry (my eldest sister also participated). My parents taught me to appreciate other people, cultures and languages as equals, and I continually to strive to carry that on.
