I recently watched episode 1 of the Turkish drama Full Moon.  Here is the link to watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/S5-dxUVsWgI

In this show I noticed that there was a clear gap in wealth between different people.  There were some people who were rich and there were some people that worked for the rich in jobs such as cooking or cleaning.  One of the main characters, Ferit, is rich and expects everything to be done how he wants.  This is shown by him firing many cooks on their first day because of any small mistake.  They say no one has been his cook for more than 2 months and many people are fired on the first day.  The other main character, Nazlı, has just been hired as Ferit’s newest cook.  On her first day she leaves him a note.  He does not like this and tells his secretary to fire her.  Later, he tries the food that she had prepared for him and realizes it is amazing and so he changes his mind about her.  It was surprising for me to see how quick he was willing to fire her.  She is the cook and he had already made up his mind about her before he tried the food.  

In the culture that they are in, it seems more common for wealthy people to hire cooks and cleaners.  Personally, I don’t know anyone who has hired both a cook and a cleaner.  He was also very quick to fire someone if they were not perfect.  He is able to do all this fairly easily because of his wealth.  He has a secretary that does all the hiring and firing.  He just tells her what he wants and she makes it happen.  Money is never a problem.  One part of their culture that seemed similar was the food.  It was hard to tell what exactly she was cooking at times, but I recognized a lot of the ingredients.  

A lot of their culture was dependent on if they were one of the wealthy people or one of the not so wealthy people.  The wealthy people would have business events and that would be their time to relax and socialize.  The people who weren’t as wealthy would spend their nights together while talking about their dreams of being the chef in their own restaurant.  The wealthy characters focused a lot of their time on business where the less wealthy people spent time being and interacting with friends or family.  The wealthy people traveled by car, helicopter, or boat, but the other people traveled by bus.  Comparing this to my own culture, there are similarities to both sides. I would say I spend time with my friends and family which is more like the less wealthy people.  However, I also have my own car and do not have to take a bus which is more like the wealthy people.  

Overall the culture of people in this series don’t seem too different from what I would expect from my own experiences.  I think a lot of the differences were based on wealth and not another language or culture outside of this wealth.  I know there are wealthy people in the US that hire cooks and cleaners, but it is just not something I’ve personally experienced.  I wonder how much wealth can change the perspective of people when they are from the same culture with no other major differences.