EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES

The European Year of Languages 2001 was organised by the Council of Europe and the European Union. Its activities celebrated language variety in Europe and tried to make the idea of language learning more popular. It was very successful. That is why the Council of Europe decided to celebrate a European Day of Languages on 26th of September each year.

The objectives of the European Day of Languages are: To show the importance of language learning in order to understand other cultures; To preserve the rich linguistic and cultural variety of Europe; To show the importance of lifelong language learning in and out of school, for study and professional needs, for pleasure and exchanges.

Nowadays, there are many opportunities to work and study in different European countries, but many people can’t do this because they don’t know foreign languages. 81 per cent of adults feel sorry they don’t know another language.

You are never too old to learn a language and to enjoy the opportunities it brings. Even if you only know a few words of the language of the country that you visit (for example on holiday), this helps you make new friends and contacts.

The slogan of the Day of Languages is "Talk to Me”

Language facts Did you know that... There are between 6,000 and 7,000 languages in the world - spoken by six billion people There are about 225 languages in Europe – about 3% of the world’s total Most of the world’s languages are spoken in Asia and Africa

At least half of the world’s population are bilingual or plurilingual, i.e. they speak two or more languages Many languages have 50,000 words or more, but normally people know and use in everyday life only few hundred words

Languages are like the members of a family. Most European languages belong to the large Indo-European family. Most European languages belong to three groups: Germanic, Romance and Slavic. The Germanic family of languages includes Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, German, Dutch, English and Yiddish, among others. The Romance languages include Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian, among others. The Slavic languages include Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Bulgarian and others. Most European languages use the Latin alphabet. Some Slavic languages use the Cyrillic alphabet. Greek, Armenian,Georgian and Yiddish have their own alphabet.

The non-European languages most widely used on European territory are Arabic, Chinese and Hindi, each with its own writing system. Russia (148 million people) has the highest number of languages spoken on its territory: from 130 to 200. Today Europe is largely multilingual. For example, in London 300 languages are spoken (Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, Berber, Hindi, Punjabi, etc.).

On the European Day of Languages different activities are organised: competitions, festivals, TV and radio programmes, open days in language learning centres, language mini courses, conferences

The first and best way is to start to learn a new foreign language! Take part in events and activities in your country or region. Get together with other people to organise your own activities. Language teachers use the European Day to tell people about the importance of learning languages. Language schools organise open days and mini courses. HOW TO PARTICIPATE?

LANGUAGES OPEN DOORS