BEING TURKISH ERASMUS STUDENT IN SLOVENIA

In this study, I focus on the experience of Turkish students who had been in Slovenia as an Erasmus student at 2014-2015 winter semester. I made depth interview 15 Turkish students. Erasmus that is providing cultural encountering opportunity has changed many things in the students mind. In this study, I try to figure out in what way the Erasmus experience made them change.  According to this study, students start to consider their life conditions, daily routines, their customs and cultural habits significantly different viewpoint. I try to get insight about the experiences that makes possible these kinds of changes and how they interpret the cultural elements they got involved. I realized that how Erasmus experience is interpreted depends on gender. It shows diversification according to gender of the students. For female students, living abroad and being Erasmus student mostly means freedom and they realized how they have been living in restricted condition and they encounter different gender attitude than they used to. They enjoy walking at the street at night safely and feeling any social pressure about dressing style.  For male students, Erasmus broadly means sexual freedom and kind of turning point in which they reconsider their future plans.

Keywords: Erasmus, Culture, Gender, Slovenia, Education