Georgian Language Course

This summer, I spent around two months in Tbilisi, Georgia, participating in an intensive Georgian-language study program. It was both an unforgettable experience and a rigorous challenge: Georgian is totally unrelated to any other language I’ve ever studied and, in addition to having its own alphabet, has a complex verbal system that required substantial untangling. That said, I found the process of improving my proficiency to be like a gym workout; exhausting, but gratifying. Having individual classes in a challenging language every day stretched my brain in ways I have never experienced and will likely never have the chance to again. You have to appreciate these opportunities when you have them! 

Though I spent most of my afternoons and evenings pouring over flashcards and meticulously filling in worksheets, I also sought to make time for more culturally inclined experiences. Tbilisi is a remarkable city that is rapidly transforming into a tourism hotspot. In addition to its famed cuisine and fascinating history, its presence at the crossroads of so many cultures and regions means that it draws travelers from a diverse array of places. This is, in some sense, a continuation of Tbilisi’s historical role as a cultural entrepot — Russian, Ottoman, Arab, and Persian imperial legacies have all left their mark, to say nothing of the dozens of ethnic and linguistic minority communities that, at one point or another, made a corner of the city their home. As for my travels outside of the capital, I especially enjoyed my time in Kakheti, Georgia’s famed wine region. Cooler weather and beautiful vineyards made for an excellent escape from the urban heat. 

As most of my MA work is focused on history, I hope to be able to put my newly sharpened language skills to work navigating Georgian-language primary sources (or, at the very least, materials in other languages that are filed away in Georgian-language finding aids). However, I have increasingly come to the conclusion that my knowledge of Georgian will be useful even if I never put it to direct use. Languages are mediums of communication for particular cultural communities, many of which operate under contexts and assumptions that are difficult to translate but come through clearly in native conversation. Getting a better sense of a few of those assumptions gives me another, significant perch from which to interpret and understand my own research topic.