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Random History | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| FailArtist Aka ’Akao’ Newbie United States Joined 5308 days ago 34 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 11 19 May 2010 at 12:40am | IP Logged | ||
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In your language studies, have you ever come across a random historical figure that you
never knew existed before? One example is 赤尾清綱 (あかおきよつな, Akao Kiyotsuna), an ancient Japanese man who has little entry at all, but at least some, on various websites. Basically, he was a renowned Japanese warrior in the early 1500's. Keeping history alive is very important to me, people die, and if they are forgotten, their death is pointless. No death should be pointless. IF YOU DIDN'T WANT TO READ THE ABOVE JUST READ BELOW HERE Basically, just list a random character from history with little to no recognition, and tell us about that person. History is a fascinating topic, I'm interested to see who you guys bring up. Feel free to include the name of the person in the language script, assuming it isn't Latin script, as well as the romanization. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5585 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 2 of 11 19 May 2010 at 2:26am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not sure about history, but I always find a piece of culture that I absolutely love.
The style of clothing/dress, food, and music. Music is huge for me, ever since I started studying other languages I've found dozens of artists that I never knew even existed :P Examples The German rappers Sido, Fler, and Kollegah The Russian rap group "Mafyo" Spanish rappers Tego Calderón, Daddy Yankee, Julio Voltio, Tito el Bambino Edited by datsunking1 on 19 May 2010 at 2:28am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Louis Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 5730 days ago 92 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish | Message 3 of 11 19 May 2010 at 3:58am | IP Logged | ||
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In my complete fascination with Finnish, I naturally delved into the country's history a bit. One interesting historical figure is a Finnish sniper from World War II named Simo Häyhä. I'm still unsure if Finnish students learn about him in their studies of the war, but I am certain I would have never come across his story if I had not decided to study Finnish. He is perhaps most famous for his exploits on the Finnish front during WWII. Using a standard iron-sighted, bolt action rifle in the Winter War, he has the highest recorded number (505) of confirmed kills in any major war. I recommend perusing his Wikipedia page for a little more information, as well as posting a "random history" story yourself!
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| FailArtist Aka ’Akao’ Newbie United States Joined 5308 days ago 34 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 11 19 May 2010 at 4:13am | IP Logged | ||
I was playing one of my WWII style games and he was brought up at some point by the players. Edited by FailArtist on 19 May 2010 at 4:13am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kounotori Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 5344 days ago 136 posts - 264 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Russian Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 11 19 May 2010 at 5:57pm | IP Logged | ||
My favorite Finnish historical figure unknown to the Anglophone world is, by far, Anders Chydenius (1729–1803). He published his ideas on free trade and economics eleven years before Adam Smith published his own presentation of the same ideas in The Wealth of Nations. Chydenius was also exceptionally progressive during his time: he was a staunch proponent of universal rights (for everyone) and demanded a free, unbiased press. He also managed to convince a village of clodhoppers to vaccinate their spawn, thus setting an example which helped spread the practice of vaccinating further in Finland. f**kin' A. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nescafe Senior Member Japan Joined 5409 days ago 137 posts - 227 votes | Message 6 of 11 19 May 2010 at 6:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Minakata Kumagusu 南方熊楠, eccentric and interesting person. famous for the ability of massive memorisation: Thre are many ledengary stories of his memory capacity. He was a polyglot who spoke 19 languages. English wikipedia has detailed account of his life. I was aspired much by his achivements when having started language learning.
Adding other people I like in Japanese history. Seki Kowa, 関孝和, a math genius in Edo perios, who invented determinant preceding to Leibniz, and used a primitive culculus to compute volums ans areas of various geometrical figures, preceding to Newton and Leibniz. He computed up a calender which was the most precise one in his time. He was a samurai official of Tokugawa shogunate during the time of 5th Shogun Tsunayoshi, and hoped to get a highr position. There was a rival of Seki whose name was Shibukawa Harumi, then champion of Go. Tsunayoshi loved Go very much and he commanded two men to compete in Go game: Winner would take a higher post. Seki Kowa lost the game, and the rest of life he conducted lonely math study as an Shogunate's astronomer. Hiraga Gen-nai 平賀源内, I do not know what he shold be called. A very versatile person. He was fascinated at electromagnetism he learned from a Datch book 蘭学書, and used it for a medical treatment (nevertheless he was not trained as a medical profession). He caused an accident with so called an Elekiter(エレキテル), a galvanizeing machine, in his medical activity and one guy died in this accident. He arrested for murder and executed. He was also a pioneer of copy writing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5651 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 7 of 11 19 May 2010 at 8:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Gorgani was an 11th c. author in Persia who is very little known, as opposed to Hafez, Rumi, Khayyam, and Sa'adi, whose names might be familiar to anyone paying attention to Persian literature. Gorgani wrote a long book in poetic form called Vis and Ramin, after a pair of star-crossed lovers. The book is very interesting because it portrays pre-Islamic customs (incestuous royal marriages, a fervent dedication to sensuality, magic) that apparently date back to Sassanian times. Gorgani's book is thought by many scholars to have been transmitted to Europe, perhaps through Crusader settlements in Syria, and to have formed the basis for the Tristan and Isolde legends. It's fascinating to see how connected the world was even then, from Europe to China to India to Africa, and this is just one small example of it in the form of an excellent book. (There is an English translation of the book, btw, but I cannot recommend it. If you're interested, learn Persian! Vis and Ramin is easier than comparable works by Nezami and Ferdowsi.)
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| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 8 of 11 19 May 2010 at 8:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Miklós Wesselényi (1796-1850) comes to mind from my earlier days when studying Hungarian. Wesselényi is known among Hungarians as a statesman and a bit of a Renaissance man. He was a nobleman who not only was athletically accomplished but combined the nationalist ideals of the 19th century with a certain sense of humanism. He was elected as a member of the Board for the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and later formed part of the progressive (but not in its modern alteration of being a cover-word for "socialist") opposition to the monarchial leadership of the Habsburg Empire in the Hungarian Diet. He put his money where his mouth was by abolishing feudalism and serfdom on his estates and then funding the construction of schools which taught agricultural techniques to his former serfs. For his opposition to the Habsburgs and ideas for reform, he became a political prisoner and eventually went blind because of an eye disorder which began developing while he was in prison.
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