 Bērziņš studied Turkish in Leningrad University Oriental Studies Department (from 1968 to 1971), and also studied in the Asian and African Studies section of Moscow State University (concentrating on Persian and Turkish), at Tashkent State University (Uzbek), Reykjavik University (Icelandic), as well as in Czechoslovakia, Sweden and other countries.Bērziņš has taken part in the international Bible translation seminar at the Amsterdam Open University and Lund University forum over questions regarding Koran translations.From 2002 on he has been teaching Turkish at the Modern Languages Department of the University of Latvia.