In first 10 seconds of the movie above, they use the word “Erkete” twice. Try to catch it… Sorry no subtitles…

I am back from my yearly Greek Island holiday. There are tones of things to write but to do that I need to dig into the pictures. For now I want to write about a funny (for me) issue. OK here it goes…

There is a saying in Turkish, “Erketeye yatmak” which means “To sleep on erkete”. This term is used when a group of people do something hidden from the others, like “smoking in the high school bathroom while trying not to get caught by the teachers”. You pick someone from the group to watch outside the door and say “Go and sleep on erkete”. So this person waits outside and watches around and when someone is coming he shouts back inside “He is coming”.

The term was not widely used till a comedy movie from 1972 came out called “Hababam Sinifi / The class of hababam”. A group of young guys in a private school makes naughty (mostly funny) things. The movie was a big success and the term “Erkete” has became a known term, not only by Istanbul people but all over the country.

Now the funny thing for me is; I never knew what this word means and thought it was an army term or one of the thousands of Persian words in Turkish. I used it in high school, in army and in lot of other occasions.

If you are Greek, you already know what is funny with this, but if you are not, here you go. “ερχεται” means “He/She/It is coming” in Greek. Third person, present tense.

It is funny I learn what I am saying at 33 years old.