Today I am with Tala Haramtan (25) who will introduce us to the Mongolian culture and language, as well as daily life in both independent Mongolia (now referred to as: Mongolia) and Inner Mongolia (northern part of China). Thank you for being with us today, Tala!

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude for being invited to this interview. I am glad to be able to share my personal story. I was born and raised in Inner Mongolia, which is the northeast part of China. I grew up in a bilingual environment in which I spoke my mother tongue, Mongolian, but I also started learning Mandarin when I was nine years old and not much later, I also started studying English in elementary school.

You mentioned that you were born and raised in Inner Mongolia. Could you tell the readers more about this region? 

Well, Inner Mongolia is also referred to as Southern Mongolia, which has become part of the People’s Republic of China since 1949. It has a shared border with independent Mongolia and if you look closely at the map, you will notice that this region also shares its border with Russia.  

Currently you reside in Rome, Italy. How do you experience living in Italy thus far?

So, I have been in Rome for two years already and I still cannot believe I am here. Especially when the pandemic hit, it was hard to fit in with my environment and to grab the scarce opportunities to meet new people. It was difficult to get used to life in Europe. I study at the Sapienza Università di Rome and I am about to graduate from the master’s programme in Economics and Business Innovation. My active personality helps me to reach out to more people to get used to the life over there. 

Did you feel a desire to get in touch with a Mongolian community?

Most certainly. Back in Mongolia, I have a good friend of mine who has a lot of friends outside of Mongolia. He helped me to get in contact with his friend who lives in Rome. It is a challenge though. I would rather look for the Mongolian community in Italy instead of the Mongolian community in Rome. Finding Mongolian people in Italy is not that easy! You really have to be proactive in finding members of your own community, you know. 

I can also imagine Italy being somewhat of a remote destination for Mongolian students to go to. Are there other regions in the world where you can find a larger Mongolian community? 

When it comes to studying abroad, I would say that Mongolians have the preference to study in the United States. However, loads of Mongolians have been going to other countries such as Germany, Japan, South Korea, and even the Netherlands. It is important to note that Mongolia only has about 3.2 million citizens and the younger generations have the tendency to go abroad for education purposes or to kickstart their career. There are more opportunities abroad compared to within Mongolia itself. For me, the situation is also a little bit different from the independent country of Mongolia, since Inner Mongolia is one part of China. Do you mind me talking more about the in-depth differences between Mongolia and Inner Mongolia? 

It is a great transition into this topic. Please, go ahead.

It is probably very confusing when it comes to mentioning Mongolia, especially for Europeans who barely hear about it. Every time someone hears about ‘Mongolia’ it would most likely be associated with the independent nation. However, there is a large portion of Mongolians who reside in Inner Mongolia, which is part of China as mentioned before. We share a lot of similarities regarding our cultures and languages. We basically speak the same language. I feel like I am part of the same nation of Mongolia, but with the historical impacts and events of the past, it becomes clear that both Mongolia and Inner Mongolia are evolving in different ways. For instance, Mongolia has been heavily influenced by Russian culture because the Soviet occupation of Mongolia was a period of time from 1921 to 1924, which had aided its independence declaration. On the other hand, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was founded by the Chinese national government in 1947.

You mentioned some similarities when it comes to the culture and language in both Mongolia and Inner Mongolia. Do you have any examples to illustrate these kinds of similarities you addressed?

Generally, it is pretty much all the same, they're just some different nouns that come from either Russian or Chinese. When I was doing my bachelor’s degree back in Inner Mongolia, I also had a chance to be part of an exchange programme in Mongolia. At that time, which was in 2016, I had never been to another country and I thought it would be a great opportunity to fulfil my potential or to meet up with new people. Even if we are generally seen as the same nation, there are still some slight differences between us. So, I just went there for one year and I made a lot of friends. In the beginning, I started to detect differences. I was speaking with a different accent, which led to me struggling to have a good conversation with the locals. I was frustrated at the beginning. Fortunately, over time I got used to the accent and I felt great in the end. Most of the people in Mongolia would not be able to guess where I am really from. 

I was studying in a private business school in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar. After I got used to the accent, I tried to socialise more than I used to. And I came across so many strangers who were likely to have conversations with me and slowly, but surely, I was discovering a new version of myself. Before my experience in Mongolia, I was not able to express myself that much. Not even in my own language. However, in Mongolia, I started to listen carefully to people’s conversations and accents that they have, and it worked out. Moreover, my experience even helped me to build up my own way of logical thinking and to find the correct ways to express myself. I saw the result in the end.  

If we move towards the language itself. Mongolian is one of the smaller languages represented on our website. How would you introduce our readers to the Mongolian language?

Officially, the Mongolian language originated from back in the thirteenth century and I would probably start by mentioning the time in which the Mongolian Empire flourished. It was considered our Golden Time. The Mongolian Empire was built in the thirteenth century, 1206, precisely. We started to standardise the language from that moment onwards. A new scripture was created, which most of the people from my own region apply up until now. However, nowadays Mongolia is using a different script that is based on the Russian alphabet. They call it the Mongolian Cyrillic scripture. The story of the language and scripture has been through so many ups and downs. For two or three decades, the Latin script was even applied to our language for a short period, but it has never been officially recognised. Regarding the writing of traditional scripture, we write vertically from top to bottom and also left to right. And as for pronunciation or speaking, it really depends on the person where they come from because we have a lot of dialects, such as Khalh mainly speaking in the middle north of Mongolia, on the contrary, the Horchin dialect is mainly common in the East part of Inner Mongolia.

Do you have any recommendations for literature, music or art that can help people to get acquainted with the language? 

Yeah, sure! There are tons of ways to know about our culture and language. If you're really into music, nowadays, internationally, there's a Mongolian band that has been getting popular in the last few years, it is called The Khu. They integrate the traditional way of singing, throat singing (Khomi), with a modern way of singing. There are also quite a lot of pop and folk songs and all types of music connecting us to the rest of the world. In terms of literature, we have had so many writers and authors in the past, and personally I think all our diversifying vocabulary is mostly shown through poetry and fiction. What else… Mongolian people are evolving throughout the years either by technology or urbanisation and if you want to know about the Mongolian culture and the core of our culture, I definitely recommend going to the place and experiencing it first-hand. That would be the best way to get to know about it since the core of our culture is always nature-related and the lifestyle is nomadic I also believe that most Mongolians are very hospitable. They are very much willing to host new guests coming into their place. Even if you are a stranger.

How do you see the future of the Mongolian language?

Well, independent Mongolia has lost their traditional way of writing, but they are reclaiming it since 2015 as I just mentioned before. Their government is trying to use both writing systems and making an effort to reclaim the most treasured aspect of Mongolian culture. In my region, the situation is somehow different. If you look at the statistics and see the real situation in my region, we have a lot of benefits with regard to preserving our culture, but we are still facing a lot of difficulties and problems. For example, the use of traditional scriptures has been declining because of the globalisation and assimilation of different cultures. But the good thing is we have a good foundation of more Mongolian speakers compared to the independent country so we can really make use of it during the development of technology and the continuous rise of the internet. Overall, I believe we will keep our most treasured culture and adjust ourselves to the fast-evolving world since we are all working hard on it and our efforts should pay off.

In what way do you still keep in touch with the Mongolian language, especially now you reside in Italy?

I talk to friends and family in Mongolian every day. I watch a lot of videos and listen to a lot of podcasts pretty much every day and sometimes I read some books. Lots of my friends are from Mongolia and we still keep in touch, which also gets me back to the Mongolian vibe and being back in my hometown. I’m very happy to be the ‘ambassador’ of Mongolian culture and let others know about us. Whatever they want to learn and discover about Mongolia, I am always here to help and answer. That is my true passion!