Wagner, Colonialism, and K-Pop: How Language Learning Connects Us to Culture and History

About this episode

The episode discusses the connection between language learning, culture, and history with a focus on the popularity of Korean language amidst declining enrollments in other foreign languages.

ACTA’s Academic Affairs Fellow Veronica Bryant is joined by Doctor Marie Kawthar Daouda, lecturer in French at the University of Oxford’s Oriel College. Their conversation ranges from language’s role in shaping national and cultural identity, to how language learning changes one’s thinking and worldview, to the explosion in popularity of Korean in defiance of the sagging enrollment faced by other foreign language programs. Dr. Daouda was born and raised in Morocco and moved to France alone at 17 where she studied French, English, and Classics at Lycée Henri-IV and La Sorbonne. Her research focuses on the artistic representations of good and evil in periods of political and religious crisis. She is the author of Not Your Victim: How our Obsession with Race Entraps and Divides Us, where she argues against a simplistic worldview where all the evil in the world is downstream of racism and colonialism, in favor of a more nuanced and historically-literate understanding of how the past informs the present. Dr. Daouda is also a regular contributor to The Critic and The Daily Telegraph.

People in this episode

Host: Veronica Bryant

Guest: Doctor Marie Kawthar Daouda

Topics covered

• language learning
• cultural identity
• Korean language popularity
• colonialism
• historical context

Keywords

• language learning
• cultural identity
• K-Pop
• colonialism
• historical understanding
• foreign language programs

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Oxford, Lycée Henri-IV, La Sorbonne, The Critic, The Daily Telegraph

Books & works: Not Your Victim: How our Obsession with Race Entraps and Divides Us

Places: Morocco, France

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