It's really weird to get in Europe
去欧洲时我觉得很不可思议
Last time I was in Paris, went out to Chartres,
上次我去巴黎,去了沙特尔
the big cathedral outside of Paris
那是巴黎外围的一座大教堂
and they started building that thousand, thousand, thousand years ago
那是一座几千年前就开始建造起来的建筑物
It's just, you know for us it's so weird you know
对于我们来说,这真是不可思议的
to be standing, gosh, people have been wandering here
天啊,我们竟然站在一个
for thousand years in the structure
人们在这里已经来来往往了千年的地方
and so you know the sense of antiquity
这时你才会体会到古迹的风采
it's hard for Americans
对于美国人来说这是极难得的
because everything's almost post modern
因为所有的东西基本上都是后现代的
Our whole society is post modern
我们整个社会都是后现代的
Anyway, also a Aix-la-Chapelle you might as well know this
不管怎么说,亚琛这个地方
and the ruler was a German an ethnic group
现在的统治者是德国这个民族
that had been left out of ancient civilization
这个由古文明保留下来的地方
Charlemagne did a lot of things he foster education,
查理大帝做了很多事,比如鼓励教育发展
he said that all monasteries had to open up schools
他要求所有的修道院必须开设学校
and so we tried to have more literacy
来提高全民的读写能力
he ordered certain things be written down
他命令一些特定的事情必须被记载下来
This is the beginning of German being a written language mostly
就是这时,德语开始成为一门被记载的语言
documents like glossaries like German words or Latin words
就是那时有了德语单词和拉丁语单词的词汇表
or translations into the native languages of like Our Father,
还有一些当地语言的翻译,比如 "我父"
and things in that nature, not really literature
很多这样的文化兴盛起来,但并不是真正的文学
Also the alphabet was developed at this time,
字母表亦是那个时候发展起来的
which is the basis of our alphabet
便成了我们今日所用字母的基础
This empire didn't last even though we have new hoards
但这个帝国并没有一直长存下去
of the Hungarians Germanic tribes,
尽管有了匈牙利日耳曼群落的加入
actually made it all the way to Kiev in 864,
尽管这个帝国在公元864年延伸到了乌克兰的基辅
we made it to Iceland in 874,
还在公元874年延伸到了冰岛
and of course much to Christopher Columbus' should grand historically
克里斯托弗哥伦布立下的历史性功劳
They made it to the Americas by the year 1000
他在公元1000年将帝国的范围延伸到了美国
They still find like I was reading recently
我最近还读到
about the studying of settlement sites in Lutheran
关于路德教植根地区的一些研究
They were tribute back to the Vikings
还有来自维京人的进贡
Really interesting stuff
这段历史实在是很有趣