
Originally Posted by
Pravit Very interesting. It reminds me of Thailand, which was the only Southeast Asian nation never colonized by a Western power(mainly by playing the Europeans against each other, like Ethiopia did).
One thing that always interested me: How did all these people back in the day learn languages so well from a distance? I mean, it's difficult enough to get a book about Amharic living in the US in the year 2005, let alone learn it well. I can't imagine trying to learn it while living in 19th century Russia.
Harbay, are you studying Russian?