How UN Peacekeepers Use Languages in War Zones

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“United Nations Peacekeeping Logo” by United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations is licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

“UN battalion Bastille Day 2008 n2” by Marie-Lan Nguyen is licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons

“Norwegian Peacekeeper during the Siege of Sarajevo, 1992-1993” by Mikhail Evstafiev is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

DRC Kinshasa 29/05/13 International Peacekeeping Day by MONUSCO/ Myriam Asmani is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

"Blue helmet" by Daniel Košinár is licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

UNFICYP peacekeepers patrolling the buffer zone by Thaizacastilho is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A United Nations (UN) peacekeeper from Argentina talks to men waiting for their female family members 100216-N-HX866-009 is licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

"Logo of UNICEF" by UNICEF is licensed under public domain via Wikimedia Commons

"Flags of the member states at UNON" by Kip254 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

"A Brazilian U.N. peacekeeper walks with Haitian children during a patrol in Cite Soleil" by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class David A. Frech is licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

⏱ TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 - Intro
0:18 - The Back Story
1:24 - What Do Peacekeepers Do?
2:30 - Blue Helmets
3:27 - Why Are Languages Important?
5:05 - Where Do They Come From?
6:11 - What Languages Do They Speak?
9:17 - How Do They Learn Languages?
11:32 - Language Training Problems
13:33 - Using Interpreters
14:53 - Peacekeepers Teach Languages

[fggnyd]

I live in a UN buffer zone. The UN guys are pretty chill, ngl

[Sklzky]

I actually used the peacekeeper phrasebook (with cultural notes and dialogues! ) for south Sahara and atlas mountains to kickstart my learning of basic tamazight, and it was genuinely the most effortless beginner experience which yielded the fastest returns* in my adult language learning experience (I can't really include English since I had begun learning it as a toddler who only spoke very basic Polish kek).
*this financial term is imo very good for gauging the efficiency of one's learning process

[AbelWinterBoy]

In Lebanon 🇱🇧 we have UN peacekeepers
However the Lebanese people do speak English and French quite well :)
So no problem here

[Mr.Nichan]

10:00 Kind of an ironic choice, since it actually was a French colony until the 1950s, but I think you're right that few Cambodian's speak French anymore, especially not people young enough to be soldiers, and the Khmer Rouge purging of foreigners and intellectuals can't have improved that number (even if their leaders definitely did speak French).

[ismaelsantos]

I'm Brazilian, in terms of the forces we send to peacekeeping missions, usually the field forces are mostly special forces personnel, our guys speak several different languages.

[gabrielneves]

The best part is seeing my country flag i. The arm of the soldier, even tough we are going through dark times over here, i still love my country

[robertschlachter]

Really enjoyed this video. I went through language training at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California and can relate to a lot of the video. We also lived in Turkey for a few years. My daughter played with the Turkish kids who didn't speak English when we got there in the early 80's. Unfortunately, her capability and mine is almost totally gone.😀😀

[controllerplayer]

The Dutch “peacekeepers” in Bosnia, 1995. Shaking hands and exchanging gifts with Mladić.

[lapiswolf]

UN: We've arrived the battle field! Time to get help the people here!

Country unfamiliar with UN: Aw crap, a second invading faction. Prepare the artillery!

[theking-ogoe]

You can also work in the UN if you speak Spanish and English. It mostly depends on your base location

[bappyhasanjahid]

As Bangladeshi im proud of my soldiers.

[krishnar]

Thanks for the video. Just as a clarification South Sudan was never a French colony/they don't really use French there, so the note at 8:06 was inaccurate.

[jflatley]

Fantastic video. Loved the part with the Ghanaians teaching Lebanese kids English! Love to Ghana from the US. Hope to visit one day!

[JohnnyBoy-gm]

The Scottish guys in the video. Not even the English understand them LOL.

[ItsThatOneJinx]

I live in Lithuania (moving back to Netherlands soon), and the UN Troops are casual and chill. I even met one for myself and he even told me about a peacekeeping mission he went on in 1992 to Mozambique.

[thegrandlord]

As an Indonesian, i'm a bit happy that indonesian peace keeper always have good relations with the locals where they deployed. This because indonesian peace keeper always learn local language for months before deployed

In alot of news, the locals even feel sad when indonesian troops leave that country

[davilimaduraes]

NAH, When I opened the video, an advertisement for learning new languages ​​​​appeared 💀

[mtathos_]

Being french immigrated to canada I am perfect for this.

[Notllamalord]

“Peacekeepers are not technically soldiers!”
The pile of blue helmets in my front yard:

[eliasan]

There is a great film called "Quo Vadis, Aida?" about an interpreter working at a UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia before the Srebrenica massacre happened. It's a fascinating film that captures all the emotional difficulties an interpreter can face in such disastrous circumstances. Highly recommended!