BBC Learnings · Section 5

The history of swimming

Can you swim, Georgina? I can, Neil.

Level: B2 · 78 sentences

Transcript

  1. Can you swim, Georgina?
  2. I can, Neil.
  3. I learned to swim as a child and now I enjoy swimming for exercise and to relax.
  4. In the summer, hundreds of keen swimmers, like Georgina,
  5. head off to swimming pools, lakes and beaches to take a dip.
  6. an informal idiom meaning go for a swim.
  7. Swimming has many health benefits and since ancient times has been used to promote strength and wellbeing.
  8. But swimming's not just about exercise.
  9. There's far more to it beneath the surface,
  10. as we'll be finding out in this programme on the history of swimming.
  11. Although evidence suggests that ancient Mediterranean people dived eagerly into temple pleasure pools,
  12. lakes and the sea, other cultures have swum against the tide.
  13. Another swimming idiom there, Neil,
  14. meaning not to follow what everyone else is doing.
  15. Someone who did enjoy swimming was the poet Lord Byron.
  16. He wrote poems popularising the sport and in 1810 swam the Hellespont,
  17. a stretch of water separating Europe from Asia.
  18. But in which modern country can the Hellespont be found?
  19. That's my quiz question, Georgina.
  20. Is it...
  21. I think Lord Byron visited Istanbul,
  22. so I'll say sea, Turkey.
  23. OK, we'll find out the answer at the end of the programme.
  24. For all its good points,
  25. swimming seems to have lost its appeal in Europe after the decline of the Roman Empire.
  26. According to historian and swimming enthusiast Professor Kevin Dawson,
  27. the rise of Christian beliefs discouraged swimming,
  28. as he explains here to BBC World Service programme, The Forum.
  29. that water is this unsafe space, unnatural space for human beings,
  30. that it's a perpetuation of the chaos that existed before God created land,
  31. or that water is a mechanism for punishment,
  32. like the great flood story or Pharaoh's army being destroyed in the Red Sea.
  33. But then there's also beliefs that swimming is immodest.
  34. I mean, most people at the time swam nude,
  35. and so church officials discouraged swimming because they felt that it led to immodest behavior.
  36. As well as being considered unsafe or chaotic,
  37. swimming was seen as immodest – shocking because it shows too much of the body.
  38. This was because most people at the time swam nude – naked without clothes.
  39. Another place with a long history of swimming is the remote Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean.
  40. In the Maldives, access to shallow,
  41. warm seawater lakes called lagoons makes it an unbeatable place for swimming.
  42. But even on a tropical island, things haven't always gone swimmingly,
  43. as diver and Maldives resident Mikael Rosen told BBC World Service programme The Forum.
  44. Listen for the reason Mikael gives for the change in people's attitudes to swimming in the Maldives.
  45. No citizen of the Maldives has half a mile to a lukewarm lagoon.
  46. Given that, they could be world-leading in swimming, but in the 1960s,
  47. The government recruited a lot of teachers from India, Sri Lanka.
  48. They didn't know anything about the water culture.
  49. And they noticed that the young students playing hooky, they were in the lagoons.
  50. And swimming soon got frowned upon.
  51. But now the government and the local organizations,
  52. they try to reclaim swimming.
  53. Did you hear the reason Mikhail gave, Neil?
  54. Yes, he said that young students were playing hooky to go swimming in the lagoons.
  55. Play hooky is an informal way of saying stay away from school without permission.
  56. Right, and that meant swimming quickly got frowned upon or disapproved of.
  57. It seems a bit unfair since there was already a strong culture of swimming in the Maldives,
  58. which the arriving teachers didn't fully appreciate.
  59. Well, I know which I'd rather do – sit in a classroom or swim in a warm tropical lagoon.
  60. Swimming, right? But then you would never have learned about Lord Byron.
  61. Yes, in your quiz question you asked me about Lord Byron swimming the Hellespont –
  62. a stretch of water separating Europe from Asia.
  63. I asked you in which country the Hellespont can be found.
  64. Is it... a Greece, b Cyprus or c Turkey?
  65. What did you say?
  66. I said sea turkey.
  67. Was I right?
  68. Yes, you were, Georgina.
  69. The Hellespont, also known as the Straits of Dardanelles,
  70. is a six kilometre wide stretch of water in Turkey.
  71. Let's recap the vocabulary from this programme on swimming,
  72. which some people informally call taking a dip.
  73. Someone who swims against the tide refuses to do what everyone else is doing.
  74. In the past, swimming was considered immodest,
  75. shocking because it showed too much of the body.
  76. Another word for naked, or not wearing any clothes, is nude.
  77. Children who play hooky stay away from school without permission.
  78. And finally, if something is frowned upon, it's disapproved of.