
Are We Different People in Different Languages? - benbreen
http://lithub.com/are-we-different-people-in-different-languages/
======
crazygringo
Short answer? Yes, you certainly can be.

A friend of mine is a foul-mouthed dirty scoundrel when he speaks Portuguese
with Brazilian friends (where he grew up for half his childhood), a normally-
swearing Texan cowboy when he speaks with American friends (where he went to
college), and a swear-words-have-never-touched-my-lips gentleman when he
speaks received pronunciation with his British friends (other half of
childhood in London).

He's the same person... but entirely different people.

Another anecdote, when I taught English in Brazil, I had one adult student, a
lawyer, who was entirely serious and down-to-business with a deeper voice when
speaking her native Portuguese, but in English she spoke like a little girl,
at a much higher pitch, and a much sunnier personality.

But on the other hand, another very multi-lingual friend of mine is exactly
the same person in every language -- same attitude, same swearing, same
everything.

So not sure what it says about your personality... or personalities... :)

~~~
mbrookes
I believe, at least for your anecdotes, that this has less to do with
language, and more to do with context.

We all speak (and behave) differently when we are with our parents, our
colleagues and our friends - and arguably online, even when speaking in our
native tongue in all these (and other) scenarios.

That is not to say that certain languages don't lend themselves better to
certain forms of expression, but I'm not convinced your anecdotes support that
argument.

~~~
hkmurakami
Anecdote, but I speak Japanese and English both as native languages (learned
them simultaneously growing up). I definitely have different personalities in
each language, and can attest to both there contextual influences (working in
bigcorp Jalan does things to you) and also that inherent influences of the
language mechanisms. Japanese is grammatically and structurally built with a
control and deference mechanism.

~~~
mattnumbe
I also speak Japanese and English, but I learned Japanese while living in
Japan in my 20's. Did you grow up in Japan or in a western country? I'm
wondering if, as the blog post implies, that the situation/period in life in
which you learn the language changes your personality in that language.

~~~
hkmurakami
I grew up in California, in a household speaking Japanese at home, and going
to two schools at the same time: one American school 5 days a week, one
Japanese school all day Saturday following the Japanese government curriculum
(it was mainly for students going back to Japan after their families' overseas
work assignment was over).

All my friends were Japanese until middle school, and my social life was
dominated by Japanese. Definitely didn't fit into American elementary school
at all and was a problem student.

But then I stopped going to Japanese school in HS, and then figured out how to
excel in American school, met likeminded friends for the first time, etc.

Then I went to work at a Japanese megacorp in my early 20's.

It's a strange mix of time spent using the language.

~~~
bla2
Do you like that you grew up getting to know two cultures, or do you wish it
had been different? Growing up bilingual sounds super cool to me, but people
who actually did it often tend to sound less excited about it.

~~~
hkmurakami
Mixed feelings.

In a vacuum, it's a net positive to be able to understand an additional
language very well. But I've felt that my life would be easier in Japan if I
were "more foreign", since I wouldn't be subjected to the expectations of a
domestic person while actually internally being a foreigner.

Also I'm convinced that had I spent the resources that would put towards
Japanese into English, I would have become much more proficient at English
earlier in my life. That would have translated into better verbal test scores,
and may have meant I wouldn't have had such a hard time in my younger years in
school. Then again plenty of solo-English speakers of the shy nerd bretheren
have problems at school of not fitting in, so this isn't only a language
issue.

Honestly it's just a grass is greener type of situation. It's brought me great
advantages (I wouldn't be doing my current company without this advantage, and
I genuinely think the language is a beautiful and sonorous one, and the
cultural traditions are admirable), but it's also held me back in many ways
compared to my 100% American English peers as well.

------
BeetleB
>Only one—my single American—was monolingual.

Two American cyclists were cycling in Europe.

Someone flagged them for help. He spoke to them in German.

The Americans indicated they did not understand.

He then tried French. Then Italian. Then Spanish. Then Portugese. Then
Russian.

Finally, the person showed his irritation and took off looking for someone
else who could help him.

One America turned to the other and said "Do you think we Americans should
learn more languages?"

The other scoffed "Why? Look at this dude. He knew so many languages but it
didn't help him, did it?"

~~~
lacampbell
English is the worlds most important language. 52.3% of websites pages are in
English, the next highest percentage is Russian at 5.4%. People in other
countries learn it just to study things not related to English, like Medicine.

The advantages gained by say a French speaker learning English are huge. An
English speaker learning French, or even Mandarin? Really not so much. This
attitude of "those Europeans are so much more intelligent than us, look at all
the languages they know" really needs to die. They know English because they
need it and it gives them an advantage. Or often just because they want to
watch popular TV shows.

BTW English is the most commonly language spoken in Europe as well. The days
of Europeans learning the languages of their neighbours is largely over;
Norwegians and Swedes, Germans and Dutchmen are much more likely to converse
in English than to know each others languages. In your hypothetical scenario,
the person would have almost certainly tried the national language first, then
English.

~~~
flukus
> or even Mandarin? Really not so much

Not right now, I can easily see that being different within the next century
though. Probably too late for us, but not for our children and grand children.

~~~
lacampbell
Why do you expect the language of a middle-income country with a rapidly aging
population and unsustainable economic model to somehow become more useful in
the next 100 years?

There's also the uncomfortable fact that many Chinese people just think it's
funny that a foreigner speaks their language, or they feel like they have
something over you because you have to talk to them on their terms.

(I say this as a Mandarin learner, btw)

~~~
flukus
Because that middle income country is the second biggest economy in the world
and could be number one in the next century.

~~~
lacampbell
In the next century, UN projections predict that the population of China will
have dropped to 940 million, from its current value of 1,340 million. [1]

More immediately, Chinas population will peak in 15 years or so, which means
its labour pool is already shrinking. Many East Asian countries are facing the
same issue of course (South Korea, Taiwan) and Japan is dealing with it
already. But these countries are all high income democracies - how will a
middle income dictatorship deal with a rapidly aging population? How can they
push through that to become even more economically productive, as you
envision? I don't see it.

Chinas official GDP figures are hugely questionable btw, at least one province
has been caught fabricating data
[http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-18/chinese-province-
ad...](http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-18/chinese-province-admits-it-
fabricated-economic-data-three-years) [2]

I don't know why so many people seem to extrapolate Chinas rise in the past
few decades out indefinitely into the future. I don't see it ever becoming a
high income country - at least not under its current system.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_China#Populati...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_China#Population_projection)

[2] [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-18/chinese-province-
ad...](http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-18/chinese-province-admits-it-
fabricated-economic-data-three-years)

------
avenoir
I'd say yes, but to some extent. My native tongue is Russian, but i'm also
fluent in English. I often find myself cursing like a sailor in English
(mostly in a group of close friends) while I find cursing in Russian
absolutely disgusting. This is hard to explain, but when I say "fuck" and
"shit" it really doesn't mean much to me because it isn't said in my native
language. Somehow it doesn't register as me cursing the same way it does when
I curse in Russian. If i do slip and curse in Russian i always catch myself
right away and then feel bad about it for a few hours. I always found this
weird and wonder if anybody else experiences it this way?

PS. It makes me wonder how much of it has to do with Russian cursing being
more "colorful" for a lack of a better word and more diverse than in English.
You can make a dictionary of Russian curse words which will rival English lol.
I'm exaggerating of course, but it's a pretty massive vocabulary of vulgar
terms.

~~~
rocgf
You're definitely not the only one, I've talked about this with friends and
it's quite common, as far as I can tell.

I swear in my native language too, but I perceive it very differently in
English. If someone calls me a "twat" or something like that, I'd probably not
even register it. Also, I think of certain words (for example "nigger",
"paki") like completely meaningless words, not that I ever used them.

~~~
elros
Regarding your second paragraph: I find the English word "cunt" extremely
interesting, because my own native languages (French and Portuguese) simply do
not have any words that convey the level of offensiveness that seems to be
communicated by it.

I guess this probably has to do with English speaking societies being,
generally, way more prudish than French or Portuguese speaking societies.

------
liberte82
I lived and worked in France for two years in my early twenties and really
made an effort to make good friendships with local French and try to adapt to
and understand the culture. Once in awhile people would hear me speak to
people back home in Canada on the phone and on several different occasions
they commented to me that I speak much more loudly and boisterously in
English. It was very unconscious to me.

In short, yes, speaking a different language can very much affect your
personality. But it is not just the language, it is the culture that you
express that language within, and also how the structure and vocabulary of
that language itself reflects the culture in which it is used.

My favorite thing in France was when I would learn some new word or concept
and I would "get" how to use it in French, but I couldn't fully and perfectly
translate it to English because of how it just doesn't work quite the same
within our culture.

e.g.: "C'est normal." It seems like an easy translation, but it requires a
real understanding of the differences between French and English/American
cultural views of conformity to really be able to see how it doesn't translate
quite correctly. It means sort of "how things should be" or "as expected", but
even that isn't quite correct, because the "should" is so implicit and assumed
in a way that we don't assume in English.

~~~
combatentropy
Could _c 'est normal_ be translated "That's how it goes"?

I am not fluent in French, but I know that just because English has a word
that looks like a Latinate one, it doesn't mean we use it the same way. In
English, "normal" has two uses. First, it has a kind of insulting meaning,
like "boring", "average", etc., as is often captured when people say things
like "I don't want to be normal, I want to be unique." When we use it more
straightforwardly, we tend to limit it to medical or scientific situations:
"My blood pressure is normal." So it feels a little stiff.

Another thing to think about is whether a word's meaning is bent by its sound.
In English, "normal" is stressed on its first syllable. NORmul. It kind of
just stops there and stands, boringly. But isn't in French it stressed on the
second syllable? NurMAAAAAL. It kind of trails off, and by doing so, seems at
least to me to convey the meaning of "Oh whatever, _c 'est la vie_, that's
just how it goes". So you have to use an English word that also trails off,
like _goes_.

~~~
nicolas314
Good translation.

You are right about intonation of 'normal' in French, though spoken French is
_always_ stressing the last (pronounced) vowel of every word by default.

------
two2two
This article doesn't really go into what the title suggests so much as it
explains that we prefer languages for different reasons. The author talks
about several of her students that chose not to use their native language to
write because of their negative associations with the language.

"For me, language was a kind of initiation into multiple realities."

This is how I feel about learning a second language. I feel that I'm opening a
door to a land of adventure that had previously been closed.

~~~
ommunist
You are very right. After learning the third, you start to feel a glimpse of
some more universal structure in your brain, that pinpoints meaning to
expression in languages you know. So you can tell "this cant be said in
English, it is too Spanish", or something like that. And it is very useful to
learn at least one Eastern Asian language with non-latin script, to get full
experience of this kind. Your own depths are unfathomable, and every language
pulls the cover, unraveling the abyss of your own mind.

~~~
dmingoddd
Do you know a substantail number of Indians speak atleast 3 languages. 1st is
their regional language where they were born, another is Hindi and the third
is English. And it's not considered out of the ordinary at all..

~~~
ommunist
This may well be the reason of the very fact that India has more kids with
IQ>120 than the U.S. has all kids combined.

~~~
mamon
Maybe what you're saying is true, but I work for an Indian IT consulting
company in Europe and from my experience Indians with IQ > 120 (or even > 100)
are extremely hard to come by.

~~~
zardo
One company probably isn't a very good sample. Why are you giving IQ tests?

------
pesfandiar
Personal anecdote: My mother tongue (Persian) is very complicated when it
comes to conveying respect to strangers. You need to be very careful to use
the right terms and exchange obligatory niceties. That's why I often try to
hide my mother tongue when interacting with fellow Iranians. For instance,
it's a lot easier to order food at an Iranian restaurant in English than
Persian. English just means business.

~~~
dmingoddd
languages where you can convey respect by certain forms of words and its
inherent link with social status or superiority are a pain to get the initial
social coordination. cause you're judging and gauging consistently on how to
play it especially with strangers.

~~~
bitwize
Frickin' Japanese. There are some social customs that tie into this: when two
salarymen meet for the first time, the first thing they do is _wordlessly
exchange business cards_ , so that the right honorifics, registers, verb
forms, and such can be used depending on who outranks whom.

~~~
ommunist
And they have so many words to express degrees of gratitude and denote degrees
of favours. So I was told by a fellow startup guy who speaks Japanese.

------
poofyleek
Korean language has built-in social framework for respecting the elders.
Different words used when speaking to someone older vs. younger. The language
enforces filial piety.

When I learned German, French and Spanish I struggled with gender specific
features in them.

When I learned English, I struggled and still struggle with the use of
articles, like the "the".

Languages reflect and reinforce culture and mindsets. I am a different person
in each language.

Reading translated books is a great mental and cultural exercise.

Elena Ferrante reads better in English than the original Italian.

Jhumpa Lahiri reads better in English than Italian.

~~~
skyisblue
Indonesians also use honorifics when addressing elders. I find that i'm much
more respectful to elders that i talk to in Indonesian than in English.

~~~
int_19h
Many languages have the sigular vs plural "you" distinction that is heavily
used to indicate degrees of social standing and/or respect, that are utterly
lacking in English. When you come to English from those languages, it sounds
very blunt and disrespectful initially.

Russian also uses names for this purpose, since we have first + last +
patronymic, various combinations of those when addressing someone denote
various degrees of familiarity and deference. E.g. first + patronymic is
respect for authority or seniority (but sometimes used jokingly); last name
alone is very impersonal; first name + plural you is respectful while
asserting equal authority; and first name + singular you indicates a more
personal relationship (friend or at least close acquaintance). Some combos,
like last name + singular you, are outright insulting in and of themselves -
curiously, historically that was the combo used by aristocracy to address
inferiors. And as conversation develops, it's not uncommon for people to start
with the most formal form of address, and gradually dial it down by mutual
consent, often implicit.

And, because of all this, addressing someone by name repeatedly over the
course of the conversation is more common in Russian than it is in English -
because of all that extra meaning attached to it.

~~~
xpinguin
It is not that rigorous in Russian, though. "First name + patronymic"
combination is often used among equals (supposedly equally qualifed/approx.
same age group) as a matter of style or tradition, which engineering or
research bureaus are especially known for. I've personally encountered such
usage in university and in a factory IT departments; my friend, working as
mechanical engineer in a big industrial complex, has the same observation.
However, despite the inclusion of patronymic, personal pronouns tend to be
singular in that case. Such style of referencing perhaps lies between full-
blown formal interaction and a joking context as in a casual speech.

Another subtlety is an explicit and implicit addressing style unification
among unequal participants.

I. [explicit] When you are referring to superior, using the aforementioned
"f.n.+patronymic", he is expected to return you in the same way, even (or
especially...) in the case of student-professor interaction.

II. [implicit] You are still expected to use formal addressing, when addressed
informally by superior - _but when that expectation holds, it is actually
considered unacceptable, or bad style at least, for superior to use such
addressing_ ; unless you're in the student-professor relationship with the
superior, or you're working in some shitty-unwitty paperstocking dogfood
reselling organization, or you're unskilled/simple-skilled labour in a
government institution. Rephrasing, superior should make sure that you both
use the same addressing style (ie. as in I.).

------
blacksmith_tb
This is a commonly-observed phenomenon, in linguistics it's called code
switching[1]

1: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-
switching](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching)

------
noisy_boy
I speak four languages (English, Bengali (mother-tongue), Hindi fluently and
Lao semi-fluently). I just find that every language has some specific quality
of expression that is unique to it and hence when you use that language to its
maximum potential, you are expressing a side of you that you could not express
in another language.

My speech is much more colorful (I don't mean in a dirty foul-mouthed way) in
Bengali than any of the other languages I speak - I can express nuances while
maintaining a style that I cannot in another language I speak without losing
either the style or the nuance. I find Hindi is also very expressive that way.
For the lack of a better word, I feel I'm unable to be equally "juicy" in
English. Of course, I'm not a native English speaker so probably the
limitation is me and not the language.

~~~
chimeracoder
I'm a native speaker of both Bengali and English, and my experience matches
yours. Out of curiosity, which dialect of Bengali do you speak?

Separately, something I've long found interesting: sarcasm (the way we
understand the concept in English) doesn't really come across in Bengali. I
don't mean that Bengali people are incapable of sarcasm, but almost
invariably, the Bengali speakers I know only make sarcastic comments in
English, never in Bengali.

Or, to put it more accurately: there is a way of expressing ironic sentiment
in Bengali, but it's very different from how we'd think of it in English, both
textually and in the delivery.

~~~
dang
Perhaps we should make Hacker News a Bengali site instead of an English one.

~~~
noisy_boy
That would be beautifully ironic because I perceive HN as an Adda[1] of
intellectually stimulating nature. And everybody knows, Bengalis love Adda.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adda_(South_Asian)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adda_\(South_Asian\))

~~~
dang
Thank you! that's very interesting. The NYT article linked there seems pretty
good. Maybe I'll submit it here.

------
spraak
I often feel less shy about sharing personal details in languages I've learned
(vs. my 'mother tongues'). Or similarly, I feel more comfortable lying.

~~~
sateesh
Something along similar lines, I am not very comfortable in using cuss words
in my native language whereas I feel less compunction in using cuss words in
languages I have learned. In general I swear rarely, but when I do feel like
swearing I feel it easier to do so in learned languages. Probably with my
native language the cuss words trigger a stronger emotions, and making their
usage repugnant (for me).

------
bonoboTP
> “River” in Polish was a vital sound, energized with the essence of
> riverhood, of my rivers, of my being immersed in rivers. “River” in English
> is cold—a word without an aura. It has no accumulated associations for me,
> and it does not give off the radiating haze of connotation. It does not
> evoke.”

This is how I feel about foreign languages as well. Things don't feel as
"heavy" somehow. In my native language, official things sound very official,
strict and serious, in English it's just the meaning, factually.

Or for example when I read English technical (CS, math) books it evokes the
same feeling that I took from Numberphile, or online tutorials etc, while the
equivalent book in my language would sound and smell like school and
obligations instead of exciting and fun things.

------
Nadya
Yes. In my opinion, entirely. I'm also a believer that how one chooses to
speak impacts their behavior and ultimately how they think (of themselves and
others).

People who speak negatively tend to be negative people. I find the opposite to
be true as well, as long as the speech is genuine. Someone "faking" their
optimism could of course be a really negative person, regardless of how they
speak. I think believing what you say plays a big role.

I find myself complimenting others and thanking people for things more
frequently in Japanese. Not just as a formality - but because it seems so much
more natural than in English.

And I think it is very important that any person who speaks only one language
does their best to embrace another culture and learn a second. It will change
how you think about many things.

------
bangda
You should read this [http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-morality-
chang...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-morality-changes-in-a-
foreign-language/)

------
kafkaesq
From a neurological point of view -- quite possibly yes.

In that, as one becomes fluent in new language, different centers of the brain
(perhaps entirely different from those used for developing one's mother
tongue) are activity. And literally new brain tissue grows in these regions.
So when these newer centers are activated... in part, it's literally a
different "you" that's being engaged.

Just another among the many side benefits of becoming bilingual.

------
woodandsteel
Interesting article, but very one-sided. Yes, there are a great many ways
people are different when they switch languages. But the basic realities of
human existence, like being bodies that have to eat and so on to survive, and
living in a three-dimensional world, and, are still basically the same. Oh,
and that is why it is possible to translate, imperfectly but still to a great
extent, between different languages.

~~~
ommunist
It however asks an important question about our internal wiring. During the
lat two years I started to think that our wetware runs different AIs, when we
think in different languages.

------
ganfortran
Obviously. I am dumb in any other languages, except English and my mother
tongue.

~~~
Broken_Hippo
This made me laugh. For a long time, I felt like I could only speak like a
child using Norwegian (my second language). It has improved, but there are
things I still can't properly express.

------
vinchuco
Answering the question

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingualism#Personality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingualism#Personality)

------
blacksmythe
I probably am. My wife could tell if I was speaking English or Japanese on the
phone based on my body language.

------
known
"You are a product of your environment." \--Clement Stone

------
dboreham
My French definitely gets better the more drunk I am.

------
chairmanwow
This article is unreadable on my Android mobile.

------
deepuj
Pls consider making the website mobile friendly.

------
british_india
I speak two languages fluently: English and Russian with English being my
mother tongue.

I find when people speak a language other than their mother tongue, their
voice is higher from the concentration it takes to make the second language.
Also, I do agree--when you speak a language your personality is affected by
the culture of the language you're speaking. One personality for English,
another for Russian--in my case.

~~~
lacampbell
> I find when people speak a language other than their mother tongue, their
> voice is higher from the concentration it takes to make the second language.

Huh! I've wondered about this. I'm male, and my voice is much higher when
speaking my girlfriends language - who unsurprisingly has a higher pitched
voice than me. I figured it was just because I mimic her to pronounce things,
but that actually makes sense as well.

------
ommunist
ROTFL. This is translation not from Sanskrit, but from Traditional Chinese.
Dude, you really need to learn some languages. Try Russian. Latvian has many
words taken from Russian in 19th century.

~~~
ptaipale
Languages borrow words from neighbours, just as peoples get influences from
neighbouring peoples, so it is hardly a surprise that Latvian language has
Slavic words - and Russian language has borrowed lots from neighbours, as well
as substantial amount of words from English, German and French languages. Not
just in 19th century, but for the past 1000 years; a significant impact to
Russian language was during the time of Peter the Great when cultural opening
brought lots of new words.

~~~
tikums
Indeed, there are so many words of French and German origins in the Russian
language, that linguists have lost their count. This is to do with the Russian
nobility, at different periods, helming from those countries and/or it being
the language of the court at the time (same as with French in England, however
briefly). There is no shame in borrowing. Good languages copy, great languages
steal.

~~~
ptaipale
I don't even really know Russian, I've never studied it; but I have learned
the alphabet, and I can typically understand some part of newspaper articles
etc simply because there are so many loan words from languages I know
(English, German, Swedish and Finnish).

There is a movement to "purify" Russian language of loan words, which sounds
silly:
[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/20/russia...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/20/russia-
nyet-foreign-words-duma)

~~~
ommunist
Yup, silly it is. I made a survey of preferential by understanding term for
"widget" in Russian among Russian businessmen this January, and got about 90%
"pro" votes for using the borrowed English term. Practical people do not care
for "purity".

------
ommunist
As a Latvian speaker, I must say, that particular language is very poor in
expressing abstract concepts and expressing suspense. The language was quite
literally designed by Germans as 'slave language'. It had major redesign in
20-ies, but surprisingly most of books in Latvian were published during Soviet
times. I agree with hero, Latvian is 'sweet'. It is very good in expressing
practical concepts, and as daily conversational speak is much more 'positive'
than Russian or English with their multitude of meanings behind simple
expressions.

UPD: Example of sweet positive character of Latvian. Latvian for "How do you
do?" is "Ka labi iet?", means literally the same, but asking person is also
telling that he is sure that everything is OK and somehow cheers up spirits of
the respondent in this short expression.

UPD2: For those native Latvian speakers who care to read Russian and they are
many, here is study summing up the first 400 years of Latvian books
[https://dspace.lu.lv/dspace/bitstream/handle/7/2152/Konferen...](https://dspace.lu.lv/dspace/bitstream/handle/7/2152/Konference_2006_Dagnija_Ivbule.pdf?sequence=1)
And you know, in 1956 there were 7.9 million books printed in Latvian language
(!). Quite a figure for a nation of 2.5 mln people.

~~~
tikums
As a native Latvian speaker, I have no idea what you're talking about. In
comparison to other languages spoken on the European continent, Lithuanian and
Latvian have retained more of the features of what linguists call Proto-Indo-
European (PIE), a language spoken circa 3500 BCE. It was certainly not
"designed by Germans as 'slave language'". Perhaps that's what you were taught
during the "ommunist" times under the Soviet occupation. Incidentally, this
was also a time of Russification[1], i.e., marginalization of languages spoken
by the native population. You can see how this would fit nicely into their
narrative. Latvian speakers today, though, would really appreciate if people
could stop spreading such falsehoods. That'd be really nice too, Jevgēnij.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russification)

~~~
ommunist
This is bullshit. I spoke about it with Edgar Leitan, who is native Latvian
speaker, born in Rezekne, and is Professor of linguistics specializing in
oriental languages, in Vienna University. Ask him yourself. [http://edgar-
leitan.livejournal.com](http://edgar-leitan.livejournal.com)

Latvian as a language never lived better under the USSR, because Russian
revolution performance was much ensured by Latvian soldiers hired by Lenin,
and that was never forgotten. Among the highest Soviet officials there always
been Latvians. Boris Pugo being the last.

Learn your own history from professionals, not from tabloids full of hate
speech.

UPD: By the way, its Latgalian that is PTE. Latvian is simplified Latgalian.
It may look as a bit of exagerration, but truth is worth discovery.

~~~
yongjik
> I spoke about it with Edgar Leitan, who is native Latvian speaker, born in
> Rezekne, and is Professor of linguistics specializing in oriental languages,
> in Vienna University.

Is he, though?
[http://univie.academia.edu/EdgarLeitan](http://univie.academia.edu/EdgarLeitan)
says "University of Vienna, Department of South Asian, Tibet and Buddhist
Studies, PhD Student"

Nothing personally against him, but "South Asian, Tibet and Buddhist Studies"
is pretty far from Indo-European linguistics. Also, it's not unusual that
native speakers have craziest ideas about their own languages. You don't
automatically gain a deep insight into the history of your language just by
being a native speaker.

~~~
ommunist
He delivers Sanskrit course in Vienna.

