Poll: How well do you know the history of your country? Trådens avsändare: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How well do you know the history of your country?".
View the poll results »
| | | | | I know enough to get by | May 17 |
Portugal has a very long and rich history, it was founded as an independent kingdom in 1143. Although I was a very good student and got an excellent mark in History when I finished high school, over the years I‘ve forgotten a lot of things, so nowadays I have a deeper knowledge of the recent history of my country (XX-XXI centuries).
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America was discovered around 1500. Costa Rica was colonized by Spain around 3 centuries until we decided to be independent in 1821. After that, our constitution was established in 1949, where we abolished the army and invested that money in education. Costa Rica is a well-educated country with a great economy despite the rise of populism. This not only happens in Costa Rica but also everywhere, that is very sad, honestly.
| | | | lovish Juneja
Indien
Local time: 07:47
Franska till Engelska
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My country, India has a rich history spanning ancient civilizations, empires, and colonial rule. The Indus Valley Civilization (c. 2500 BCE) was among the world’s earliest. The Vedic period introduced Hinduism. Great empires like the Mauryas and Guptas advanced culture and science. The Delhi Sultanate and Mughals brought Islamic influence. British rule began in the 1600s, leading to the freedom struggle led by Gandhi and others. India gained independence in 1947 and became a republic in 1950. ... See more My country, India has a rich history spanning ancient civilizations, empires, and colonial rule. The Indus Valley Civilization (c. 2500 BCE) was among the world’s earliest. The Vedic period introduced Hinduism. Great empires like the Mauryas and Guptas advanced culture and science. The Delhi Sultanate and Mughals brought Islamic influence. British rule began in the 1600s, leading to the freedom struggle led by Gandhi and others. India gained independence in 1947 and became a republic in 1950. Today, it’s the world’s largest democracy, known for its diversity, growth, and global influence in technology, economy, and culture. ▲ Collapse
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Josephine Cassar 
Malta
Local time: 04:17
Medlem (2012)
Engelska till Maltesiska
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| More than just to get by but not to teach a class | May 17 |
I know my country's history well enough but I wouldn't dare teach it. I liked history lessons both as a young student when I learnt about the history of my country and which I found fascinating. I learnt about the roots leading to present day Malta. You cannot live in the present without knowing your country's history - it's like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle falling in place. Then later in university, we had history lessons as part of EU studies. We got to learn why the EU was set up, the backgroun... See more I know my country's history well enough but I wouldn't dare teach it. I liked history lessons both as a young student when I learnt about the history of my country and which I found fascinating. I learnt about the roots leading to present day Malta. You cannot live in the present without knowing your country's history - it's like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle falling in place. Then later in university, we had history lessons as part of EU studies. We got to learn why the EU was set up, the background that led to it, the building blocks, and then why countries joined. . ▲ Collapse
| | | | Baran Keki
Turkiet
Local time: 05:17
Medlem
Engelska till Turkiska
As a product of the old secular Turkish education system of the 80s and 90s, I know one fact about my country's history very well: We beat shit out of every imperialist mofo out there during the WWI! Brits, French, Italians, Aussies, Yanks, Russkies, you name 'em, we f*cked them! Nobody hoped to stand against the valour of our soldiers and the tactical brilliance of our commanders! We was getting victory after victory until our allies, zee Germans, lost the war!
Since those poor saps gone... See more As a product of the old secular Turkish education system of the 80s and 90s, I know one fact about my country's history very well: We beat shit out of every imperialist mofo out there during the WWI! Brits, French, Italians, Aussies, Yanks, Russkies, you name 'em, we f*cked them! Nobody hoped to stand against the valour of our soldiers and the tactical brilliance of our commanders! We was getting victory after victory until our allies, zee Germans, lost the war!
Since those poor saps gone and lost the war, we were deemed to have lost the war as well*, I mean talk about injustice!
*Turkish translation: "Almanya yenilince bizde yenilmiş sayıldık". Textbook! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | With preparation, I could probably teach a class on it, but I am no teacher | May 17 |
The history of my country - or both my countries - is long and complicated.
Given that I am not a teacher, and would never be as good as a qualified history teacher, I could take a class for a time if their regular teacher was unable to do so.
I would need to know what the pupils/students were expecting - and are they schoolchildren (what age?), tourists, teens, evening class adults ...? But I would NOT teach university students or potential subject specialists!
Which pe... See more The history of my country - or both my countries - is long and complicated.
Given that I am not a teacher, and would never be as good as a qualified history teacher, I could take a class for a time if their regular teacher was unable to do so.
I would need to know what the pupils/students were expecting - and are they schoolchildren (what age?), tourists, teens, evening class adults ...? But I would NOT teach university students or potential subject specialists!
Which period and subject area are we talking about?
(E.g. prehistory, middle ages, industrial revolution, 20th century? Preferably not too many wars or political intrigues.  )
I would hate the idea - my efforts at teaching in an earlier life were not a success. But if I really had to, and had time to check on details in the subject area, find suitable activities etc. then I could talk about either English or Danish history for an hour or two.
[Edited at 2025-05-17 15:37 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Peter Simon
Nederländerna
Local time: 04:17
Engelska till Ungerska
+ ...
Define 'my country'! I consider my home country, where I was born and brought up and spent most of my life, my country. But you may mean it should be the one where I've been living - for nearly two decades.
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Denis Fesik
Local time: 05:17
Engelska till Ryska
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| I'm afraid of history | May 19 |
Because it's so huge (as is any science these days): how can you remember so much? I can talk about Russian history for hours and still can't claim that I know it. I was a bad student as a kid and teen, but I've been making amends as an adult. And I only know basic facts about U. S. history. Maybe Donald Trump will hate me for that if he ever finds out that I exist. I was in the North American Studies Department in my first year of university. That didn't help. My lecture notes (of which I showe... See more Because it's so huge (as is any science these days): how can you remember so much? I can talk about Russian history for hours and still can't claim that I know it. I was a bad student as a kid and teen, but I've been making amends as an adult. And I only know basic facts about U. S. history. Maybe Donald Trump will hate me for that if he ever finds out that I exist. I was in the North American Studies Department in my first year of university. That didn't help. My lecture notes (of which I showed an example in another post) are illegible ▲ Collapse
| | | | Denis Fesik
Local time: 05:17
Engelska till Ryska
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| Things we cannot know | May 19 |
lovish Juneja wrote:
The Indus Valley Civilization (c. 2500 BCE) was among the world’s earliest
This post may or may not have been written by AI, but the Mohenjo-daro and Harappa civilization is always somewhere at the back of my mind, as a long-standing enigma. Why can't we know about such things if we want to know them so much? One thing that amazed me when I heard a lecture about them was that, based on how they built their houses and cities, they didn't expect a threat of invasion and didn't make war. Everyone did, but they didn't: an inherently peaceful nation (I know that "nation" is a wrong term here, but anyway). The Arians came and changed this. I also badly want to know what happened in the Neolithic beginning from the time when people started settling down. According to Court de Gebelin, this was because agricultire was a great boon in and of itself, but studies show that people who didn't transition from the old hunting and gathering lifestyle kept a better diet and were healthier (and followed the migrations of animals that could be hunted, while the agriculturers had to travel longer and longer distances when they wanted to hunt). Climate change that messed things up when everyone started moving, conquering each other, being conquered, and dying out happened in about 3000 years. And yet they began to settle down, as if they suddenly realized that their dead may not rise again. Neanderthals and Cro-magnons had no doubts that their dead would rise again, but people from the early Neolithic suddenly wanted to stay where their dead were buried, under the floor in the north-facing sectors of their round houses or in the continuations of those sectors. They realized that their dead wanted attendance, wanted them to perform rituals to rise again. I know of two other immensely important realizations of religious nature that happened in the Neolithic, and I hate it that I can never understand why they happened. Off-topic, I know
| | | | Edwin den Boer
Nederländerna
Local time: 04:17
Medlem (2009)
Engelska till Nederländska
One of my favorite podcasts, The History of the Netherlands by Republic of Amsterdam Radio, surprised and embarrassed me by dedicating an episode to transportation on inland waterways, in answer to a tweet in which I said that the Low Countries should be seen as a river delta rather than 'our lovable swamp' in their words. I actually meant it in a geopolitical way: when Julius Caesar conquered Gallia and made the Rhine the border of the Roman Empire, he doomed the Rhine/Meuse delta which couldn'... See more One of my favorite podcasts, The History of the Netherlands by Republic of Amsterdam Radio, surprised and embarrassed me by dedicating an episode to transportation on inland waterways, in answer to a tweet in which I said that the Low Countries should be seen as a river delta rather than 'our lovable swamp' in their words. I actually meant it in a geopolitical way: when Julius Caesar conquered Gallia and made the Rhine the border of the Roman Empire, he doomed the Rhine/Meuse delta which couldn't be neatly divided to become a small state dominated by larger neighbors.
This also made our country a cultural crossroads until Anglo-Saxon monoculture took over. When I studied literary theory in the 1990s, we were still expected to read Dutch, English, French and German, but only a minority of students did so. I know, I also focus on English in my work, but I still read news and social media in Spanish, German and French, for a wider perspective.
The one history course I took in college taught me that primary and secondary sources might not confirm the received wisdom you'll find in encyclopedias (Wikipedia didn't exist yet) or popular articles. For example, general prejudice suggests that city leaders were less belligerent than army commanders, but the opposite was the case during the Dutch Republic's campaign in Flanders in 1600, a tactical victory which yielded no strategic gains, remembered because of the round number. This was an eye-opener for me, after an education which relied on textbooks up until that moment. My research focused on pamphlets, which on both sides referred to a stranded whale as a bad omen for the other side. Motivated reasoning is timeless. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Matthias Brombach
Tyskland
Local time: 04:17
Medlem (2007)
Nederländska till Tyska
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| Historical conclusions | May 24 |
Baran Keki wrote:
We was getting victory after victory until our allies, zee Germans, lost the war!
Since those poor saps gone and lost the war, we were deemed to have lost the war as well!
I can feel your pain and fears regarding the fact that more and more German freelancers put down their profession nowadays, which must lead you to think "When it's my turn to give up, since the Germans are gone again (at least on proz.com)?"
[Bearbeitet am 2025-05-25 10:05 GMT]
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Daryo
Storbritannien
Local time: 03:17
Serbiska till Engelska
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| For one of my other professions | May 24 |
I hade to learn a lot of history, ways more than what you learn in school. So I could say that I know relatively well European history.
But it made me also realise how many glaring gaps are in that 'knowledge' ... and how the perception of history has its own history.
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