How did ancient people learn foreign languages?

On this video we'll explore the ways in which people in ancient times went about learning someone else's language and how they overcame the obstacles they would have and what the most effective way to become fluent in another language in a time where no internet, computers and dictionaries were available was.

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Language learning in ancient times occurred primarily through immersion, oral tradition, and practical necessity rather than formal classroom instruction, with methods varying significantly across different civilizations and social classes. In ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, elite children typically learned additional languages through household slaves, tutors, or governesses who were native speakers, while merchants, soldiers, and travelers acquired languages through direct contact during trade expeditions, military campaigns, and diplomatic missions. The wealthy Romans, for example, commonly employed Greek tutors and slaves to teach their children Greek, which was considered essential for education and culture, while Greek children in cosmopolitan cities like Alexandria learned Egyptian, Latin, or other regional languages through daily interaction with diverse populations. Ancient educational systems like those in Mesopotamian schools focused heavily on memorization and repetition, with students copying texts in cuneiform script to simultaneously learn writing and vocabulary in Sumerian and Akkadian. Religious institutions played a crucial role, as priests and scribes needed to master sacred languages—Egyptian hieroglyphs, Hebrew, Sanskrit, or Latin—through intensive study of religious texts, often spending years memorizing and reciting scriptures. Trade languages and lingua francas developed naturally along major commercial routes, with Aramaic serving this function across the Persian Empire, Greek throughout the Mediterranean after Alexander's conquests, and Latin across the Roman territories, spreading through practical use rather than formal instruction. Unlike modern language learning, ancient methods emphasized listening, speaking, and memorization over grammatical analysis, with pronunciation learned through imitation and vocabulary acquired through contextual use in real-life situations rather than through systematic study of grammar rules or dictionaries.

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