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TheBattler t1_j86x5wv wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in Weekly History Questions Thread. by AutoModerator

IIRC, the earliest usage of the word "Eurasian" was used to describe the children of British colonists and their Indian wives.

Anyway, I saw in another comment that you seem to be pretty annoyed by this, but man, language is messy; words change meaning over time, and the same word has different meanings in different contexts.

Like if I told you I'm amped up, I'm not describing the amount of elecrical current in my body.

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[deleted] t1_j889efi wrote

You're not wrong. I deleted my comment.

My frustration stems from the fact that I applied to a "Russian & Eurasian Studies" program, thinking that it was simply focusing on Russia's place within the broader Eurasia, only to get here and find out it's just a post-Soviet studies program.

Of course, I now know this is par for the course throughout Western universities, think tanks, etc. But as a first-gen college student from a poor area of the U.S., I had no way of knowing this beforehand. I was going off of what I was taught, and it makes me feel misled.

Furthermore, I think there's a strong argument that what I thought this program would be makes more sense in the 21st century than straight up area studies.

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quantdave t1_j89082y wrote

That sucks. I had a course (unrelated) being changed halfway through with all of my intended options being scrapped, so i feel the pain of not getting the course you wanted. It's always best to get the details before accepting, but my experience is that you can't even rely on that.

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[deleted] t1_j899e6r wrote

That's the thing - I only knew of 1 Eurasia, the Eurasia that I was taught in elementary school, so why would I think it was anything different?

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quantdave t1_j89j7f4 wrote

Yes, I think I only encountered it in the 2000s, and even now it's not that common outside academia. Hopefully the fad will pass.

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