How Languages Shape Our Understanding of History

Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here.

Today I wanna change the subject of my discussion a little bit away from

sort of how to learn languages and the joys of language learning and focus a

little bit on history, because history is a big part of why I learn languages.

I learn languages in order to better understand different cultures in order

to better understand different histories.

And every time you study the history of a country or a part of the world

you are transported to that area.

You start to see if, if you read the history of that country in the language

of that country, from the point of view of someone from that country, you start

to see the history of the world or the world from a different perspective.

A historical perspective, even a geographic perspective that's

different from what we have typically in our own education systems.

So for example, right now I'm listening to and reading an

ebook on the history of Denmark.

So all of a sudden, Denmark, in a way becomes the center of the world.

And so I start to see that the Baltic there is almost like, you

know, I hadn't really focused on it.

It's kinda like the Mediterranean, but it's an area where you

have a variety of countries.

You know the Baltic Sea and you have Denmark over here and you

follow the history of countries like Denmark and Sweden that

expanded and contracted over time.

Uh, you get a perspective I hadn't realized, for example, that there

is far more open sea between Denmark and England than there is

between Norway and North America.

Wow!

And sudden perspective because all of a sudden if you look at the map and you

say, well, how did the Vikings end up in North America back a thousand years ago?

And then you realize that if you're a Viking from Norway as opposed to a

Viking from Denmark, that you can go from Norway to the Orkney or she Shetland

Islands, to Iceland, to Greenland and to North America, and you're never

crossing as many, you know, kilometers of open ocean as you have to, if

you're going some from, say, Denmark to England, just a different perspective.

What we call the North Sea to the Danes is probably the West Sea.

Uh, but at any rate, there's that perspective up there.

I read a history book, unfortunately in English, but I'd love to do it in

Greek on the history of the Greeks.

Not just Greece, but the Greeks because the Greeks had, you

know, activity all around the Mediterranean and, and the Black Sea.

Here again, we talk about all of a sudden looking at the world centered

on the Black Sea or the Mediterranean.

And the Greeks had colonies, uh, around the Black Sea, around the Mediterranean,

you know, however many 2,500 years ago.

And so they have a certain pers...

had a certain perspective on the world around them, different

peoples and stuff like that.

Even reading a history of say, the Indian Ocean and then you realize the

extent to which, you know, the coast of Africa and uh, Arabic countries,

Iran, India, all of that, or as it is today, Pakistan, all of that is

kind of connected around this ocean.

So you start to see these ocean s as, kind of, centers of trading

activity and so forth and so on.

Uh, when I, you know, was learning Persian and I had this wonderful series on the

history of Iran, all of a sudden I, I see a, a, a center of the world and I

read books about that part of the world, and I see Central Asia as a center of

the world with influence from, you know, China, Greece, from the time of Alexander

the Great, Alexander of Macedonia.

Influence from, from, uh, India, the Islam from the Arabic world.

So it becomes a center of the world.

So no longer do we see sort of North America or Western Europe

as the center of the world.

Or if you're studying Chinese and you look at the relationships

between China and Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Mongolia, uh, all of a sudden

that's the center of the world.

So, and, and I haven't done much with the languages of Southeast Asia where

they interact with, you know, India and China and, and other, you know,

of course the people who had lived there since, uh, time immemorial.

So all I'm saying is, uh, when we learn languages through history, we also

acquire this different perspective on the world and become sort of multipolar

in our view of the world, not only do we become multilingual, but we become,

we become multicultural, multilingual, multipolar in our understanding of

how, uh, world history developed.

And so that's very enriching.

It's just another example of how in language learning, the process

is the reward, as I've said before.

So as we're learning about the histories of these different countries, you know,

where we're studying their languages very often I'm in no great hurry to get

to the end of whatever I'm listening to or reading I, I miss, I will miss this

history of Denmark once it's complete.

Because it's, it's fun to be doing this, to be listening to it.

Every time I go back to it, it's, it's an enjoyable process.

Uh, if I could all of a sudden just bingo and know everything that, that

was there, the language and the history and stuff, it would be less fun.

It, it's basically a great source of enjoyment to be able

to immerse myself in that sense.

I'm also, by the way, I just started reading a book on Ancient Rome,

again in English, uh, but trying to imagine people in Ancient Rome and,

and who are humans like us and had the same kinds of human interactions,

but in an entirely different world.

So there I'm reading it in English.

Maybe one day I'll do it in Latin.

Those who do study Latin are able to do it through the language,

which is so much more enriching.

So, a big reason why I learn languages.

Uh, a big reason I think to learn languages is through the history and

of course the perspectives that we get.

I, I was just reminded of this, uh, you know, Denmark, Norway,

and Sweden, uh, will have dif...

completely different perspectives on the events there in the Baltic, for

example, obviously, um, the Swedes and the Norwegians, like Norway

was under Denmark for many years.

Then it was taken over by Sweden uh, they would rather, ended up

rather preferring to be independent.

It would be interesting to read this sort of history of that period

written by Norwegians, written by Swedes, written by Danes.

Uh, when I was learning Ukrainian, obviously Ukraine was very much influenced

by Poland, by Russia, and of course...

so they would have their own Ukrainian history in the Ukrainian

language, Polish history, Russian history, maybe the Lithuanians.

I don't read Lithuanian, but they dominated that part of

the world for a long time.

And so they would have a perspective, not to mention the Crimean Tatars,

who for most of say, history of the last, at least a thousand years

they were the dominant force in the southern part of what today is Ukraine.

Uh, they ended up becoming very much a, a minority in Crimea and they

were very unfortunately deported at one point by by the Russians.

But they would have a perspective, the Ottoman Empire would have a perspective.

So again, uh, I'm repeating myself, but language gives us perspective.

Perspectives, different points of view on world history, and it's a major reason

to learn languages and a major re...

sort of source of enjoyment for me in learning languages.

So I just thought I would share that with you.

That's all.

Bye for now.