Cosmopolitanism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Cosmopolitanism - Essay Example While in Europe he integrated with Romany people that his English contemporaries. His integration with the people enabled him to acquire Gypsy wandering culture. For instance while he was in Marseilles, France he learned Modern Greek, French, Italian, and Neapolitan dialect. Those languages came handy when the family traversed Europe especially France and Italy before settling in Britain. He learned an intermediate language between French and Spanish called BÃ ©arnaise in addition to classical Greek and Latin. I think Burton was an exemplary linguistic and a great European swordsperson that saw him expelled at Britain’s Oxford college since he had contravened one of its by-laws against mixing with other races. He challenged a fellow Oxford college student that had heard of his prowess with the Saber that ridiculed his walrus moustache. Burton later traveled to Asia to work for the East India Company in Sindth, India. He learned Gujarati, Marathi, Persian, and Afghan. He deepened his Arabic and Persian languages that he had started learning while in England. He traveled to the Arabian Peninsula in 1853 and admitted to Mecca and Medina as a pilgrim while he posed as a Pathan from India’s Northwest Frontier Province. Later on in 1858, he traveled to Africa together with his colleague John Hanning Speke. Historically, they were the first Europeans to see Lake Tanganyika. . Other places he visited in Africa included Somalia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Lagos, and Cape Coast.