the language barrier

The language barrier is much less obscure as I was led to believe before arriving here in Istanbul. From what I had heard and read, I understood that the majority of Turks in Istanbul could manage in English. Being an international city, there are plenty of opportunities to learn and practice English. With so many foreigners from all over the world speaking so many different languages, I wrongly assumed that English would be the choice vehicle of communication. When looking into teaching English while here, I found that there are numerous schools in the city. And although I have seen these schools everywhere now that I am here, my assumption does not hold true. The majority of people I have encountered, that are Turkish, I have had a difficult time communicating with them because the only know a few English words. Don't get me wrong though, I love the challenge of having to communicate with someone when we have no mutual understanding of each others' language. I have only been here a week, but it seems to me that they aren't that eager to cater to tourists. Ironic, being as Istanbul is a chaotic hub for tourism. There are very few menus and signs that have English on them, which is fine, just unusual for a city like Istanbul. Perhaps Turks are not as prone to changing their ways as I imagined. Their history does proves their stubbornness to conform completely, despite the desire to "Europeanize". Of course there are many, many traditions that were forgotten in order to do so (the removal of Islam in the state with the formation of the Republic for example), but there has always been a limit, a restraint that they have held on to and reeled in whenever they have come to close to changing. It will be interesting to see if other cultural encounters are denied change because of this stubbornness. It would also be interesting to see if this is only characteristic of certain Turks...old vs young, muslim vs non muslim, etc.