Lex Fridman's Interview with Zelenskyy
Cognates and Complacency
It's worth taking advantage of the cognates of your target language—words that are the same in your native language. Complacency, however, can be an easy trap to fall into with the presence of false cognates—words that sound similar in your native language but carry a different meaning.
Oddly enough, myself and other language learners have sometimes fallen into the trap of false cognates in cultural contexts more often at higher proficiency levels. I'm not sure if this is true for everybody, but just remember to take an extra look at the false cognates and what exactly makes them false.
Today's Letter
This morning I finished listening to Lex Fridman's interview with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Aside from wanting to know more about the Russia-Ukraine war and hear what Zelenskyy would say in this type of long-form discussion, I knew this would be a captivating conversation from a linguistic perspective. Fridman even dedicated a decent portion of his intro, the interview itself, and his outro to the topic of language. After explaining how and why they maneuvered between three different languages (Russian, Ukrainian, and English) with the help of interpreters and artificial intelligence, Fridman asserts in his opening to the audience:
"We will continue to explore how to break down the barriers that language creates with AI and otherwise. This is a difficult but important endeavor. Language, after all, is much more than a cold sequence of facts and logic statements. There are words when spoken in the right sequence and at the right time that can shake the world and turn the tides of history."
Fridman speaks fluently in Russian (but not yet in Ukrainian) and decided to conduct much of the interview in this language, which Zelenskyy is also fluent in, in an attempt to have a more meaningful conversation through a common language.
It's worth noting how language can easily complicate the work of other podcasters or journalists, even with an abundance of resources.
When Tucker Carlson was describing his experience interviewing President Putin, he mentioned how difficult the language barrier made the interview because of the constant delay, even with the help of simultaneous interpreters (I'm sure they had really good ones). In that interview, I noticed there were moments where Carlson briefly laughed at something Putin said, but by the time Carlson had heard it in English and reacted, Putin had already moved on to a serious statement. There were other aspects that inhibited the flow of communication such as unfamiliar cultural references. Naturally, Fridman being fluent in Russian is an advantage for him to have such discussions with Zelenskyy in addition to his planned interview with Putin in Moscow.
There were a handful of lighthearted moments between Fridman and Zelenskyy, even one about a proposed barbecue in Texas with Joe Rogan but decidedly without Putin.
Fridman: "Who will pay?"
Zelenskyy: "Putin, for everything. He has to pay."
Fridman: "Okay I'll invite him too."
Zelenskyy: "No, without him."
With this said, you could quickly feel the seriousness of the discussion topics and the severity of what is at stake. The war is obviously tragic, and I admire Fridman for having these discussions in an attempt to do his part and advocate for a peaceful resolution.
The technical challenges of this interview alone made the whole endeavor impressive to watch, but there's one point in particular that Fridman made in his address to the audience I think is worth relaying:
"drawing lines between good and evil on a world map is much easier than seeing that line between good and evil in every human being, including you and me."
Knowing more languages of course helps you better understand people from various parts of the world. More importantly, however, the learning process itself, before reaching "fluency" or any other high levels of proficiency, is the real education worth embracing as it forces you to look at concepts and the world in new ways.
You may even learn some things about yourself you otherwise wouldn't be exposed to.
Thank you for reading.
Until next week, my friends!
—Thomas