EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES

EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES

Europe is a continent where 24 official languages, some 60 regional languages and many more languages from other parts of the world are spoken. To celebrate this linguistic diversity, the European Day of Languages is celebrated on September 26, an initiative launched in 2001 by the European Commission and the Council of Europe.

The objectives of these organizations were to find a special day in the calendar to raise awareness of the great variety of languages that characterizes Europe and to promote this linguistic wealth, to promote cultural and linguistic diversity and, especially, to encourage people of all ages to learn languages, since this learning favors and enriches the personal, social and economic life of citizens and, therefore, that of our countries.

In fact, today it is estimated that more than half of the world's population is bilingual (or multilingual), and studies have shown that knowing two languages facilitates the learning of other languages and improves the cognitive processes of individuals. It also seems clear that, in today's globalized world, languages have enormous potential as professional and intercultural tools that not only enable individuals to obtain better jobs or become "global citizens", but are also a way of preserving the culture of countries and ensuring its survival throughout future generations. For all these reasons, it is not surprising that the EU invests almost 30 million euros every year in language learning and linguistic diversity programs through, for example, its Socrates and Leonardo Davinci programs or through the Cervantes Institute.

Throughout this week, the different countries hold numerous events, generally in language-related institutions. Through their official website, we can download many ideas, materials and activities to work on this event in our classes.

For our particular case of ELE teachers, we love the ideas proposed by Verónica Tarantino in her website la clasedeele and the activity, simple but interesting, from the blog elespaciodelasletras.

As you can see, we have many resources to work on this international day in our classes and make our students aware of the importance of learning new languages because, as Flora Lewis said: "Learning a language is not just learning different words for the same things, but learning another way of thinking about things".