The history of swimming - 6 Minute English

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Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC

Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Georgina.

Can you swim, Georgina?

I can, Neil. I learned to swim as a child

and now I enjoy swimming for

exercise and to relax.

In the summer hundreds of keen

swimmers, like Georgina, head off to

swimming pools, lakes and beaches to

take a dip - an informal idiom meaning

'go for a swim'.

Swimming has many health benefits and

since ancient times has been used to

promote strength and wellbeing.

But swimming's not just about exercise -

there's far more to it beneath the surface

as we'll be finding out in this programme

on the history of swimming.

Although evidence suggests that ancient

Mediterranean people dived eagerly into

temple pleasure pools, lakes and the sea,

other cultures have 'swum against the tide' -

another swimming idiom there, Neil -

meaning 'not to follow what everyone

else is doing'.

Someone who did enjoy swimming was

the poet, Lord Byron. He wrote poems

popularising the sport and in 1810 swam

the Hellespont, a stretch of water

separating Europe from Asia. But in

which modern country can the Hellespont

be found - that's my quiz question,

Georgina. Is it:

a) Greece? b) Cyprus? or c) Turkey?

I think Lord Byron visited Istanbul,

so I'll say c) Turkey.

OK, we'll find out the answer at the end

of the programme. For all its good

points, swimming seems to have

lost its appeal in Europe after the

decline of the Roman Empire.

According to historian and swimming

enthusiast, Professor Kevin Dawson, the

rise of Christian beliefs discouraged

swimming, as he explains here to BBC

World Service programme, The Forum:

You have some beliefs that water is

this unsafe space, unnatural space for

human beings - that it's a perpetuation of

the chaos that existed before God

created land, or that water is

a mechanism for punishment like

the Great Flood story or pharaoh's

army being destroyed in the

Red Sea - but then there's also

beliefs that swimming is immodest -

most people at the time swam

nude and so church officials

discouraged swimming because

they felt that it lead

to immodest behaviour.

As well as being considered

unsafe or chaotic, swimming

was seen as immodest - shocking

because it shows too much

of the body.

This was because most people

at the time swam nude - naked,

without clothes.

Another place with a long history

of swimming is the remote Maldives

Islands in the Indian Ocean.

In the Maldives, access to shallow,

warm sea-water lakes called lagoons

makes it an unbeatable

place for swimming.

But even on a tropical island, things

haven't always gone swimmingly as diver

and Maldives resident, Mikael Rosen,

told BBC World Service programme,

The Forum:

Listen for the reason Mikael gives for

the change in people's attitudes to

swimming in the Maldives:

Most citizens of the Maldives have half

a mile to a lukewarm lagoon. Given that,

they could be world leaders in

swimming, but in the 1960s the

government recruited a lot of

teachers from India, Sri Lanka.

They didn't know anything about

the water culture and they noticed

that the young students playing

hooky - they were in the lagoons,

and swimming soon got frowned upon,

but now the government and

the local organisations - they

try to reclaim swimming.

Did you hear the reason

Mikael gave, Neil?

Yes, he said that young students

were playing hooky to go

swimming in the lagoons. Play

hooky is an informal way of

saying 'stay away from

school without permission'.

Right, and that meant swimming

quickly got frowned upon,

or disapproved of.

It seems a bit unfair since there

was already a strong culture of

swimming in the Maldives which

the arriving teachers didn't

fully appreciate.

Well, I know which I'd rather do - sit in

a classroom or swim in a

warm tropical lagoon!

Swimming, right? But then you

would never have learned

about Lord Byron.

Yes, in your quiz question you

asked me about Lord Byron

swimming the Hellespont, a stretch

of water separating Europe from Asia.

I asked you in which country the

Hellespont can be found. Is it:

a) Greece? b) Cyprus? or

c) Turkey? What did you say?

I said c) Turkey. Was I right?

Yes, you were, Georgina!

The Hellespont, also known as

the Straits of Dardanelles, is a

six-kilometre-wide stretch of

water in Turkey.

Let's recap the vocabulary from

this programme on swimming,

which some people informally

call taking a dip.

Someone who swims against

the tide refuses to do what

everyone else is doing.

In the past, swimming was

considered immodest - shocking

because it showed too much

of the body.

Another word for naked or not

wearing any clothes is nude.

Children who play hooky stay

away from school without permission.

And finally, if something is

'frowned upon' it's disapproved of.

That s all for our dive into the

deep end of the vocabulary of

swimming. As we've discovered,

there's plenty of idioms and

expressions relating to

swimming and water!

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Bye for now!

Goodbye!