About Suheyl

Süheyl Sökmen was born in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1957 and spent his childhood moving across various Turkish cities due to his father's career as a judge. His early years were spent in Ünye Ordu on the Black Sea coast, followed by nine years in Kayseri, then Ankara, and finally Istanbul, where he attended Marmara University, majoring in Accounting and Finance​​. After graduating, he served in the military for 18 months in Doğubeyazıt, a far eastern Turkish location near Ararat Mountain. Post-military service, Süheyl worked for the Kavala Group in Istanbul but soon realized the need to improve his English skills for career advancement. This realization brought him to Seattle in 1985, where he joined the University of Washington's English as a Second Language School​​. He fell in love with and married his English teacher, which led him to settle in the city and they had a son together in 1987. His wife, unfortunately, passed away in 2016 due to brain cancer​​. While in Seattle, he worked various jobs, including selling carpets and cooking, before securing a position in the telecommunications department at the University of Washington, where he worked for 30 years until his retirement​​. Suheyl visits Turkey annually since his retirement, particularly enjoying time on the west coast in places like İzmir and Bodrum​​. Despite speaking Turkish fluently, he notes that living in an English-speaking environment has affected his proficiency in Turkish, requiring him to think more deliberately when speaking it​​. (Something about going forward)