European Day of Languages Turned Our School into a Journey Across Europe
Every year on 26 September, European Day of Languages reminds us how rich and diverse the family of languages on our continent is. This year we marked it a little earlier, on 24 September, and for a few hours our school became a small European Union.
Classes as embassies Each class stepped into the role of ambassadors for an EU member state. Students chose the country they wanted to get to know better and began their research: how people live there, what they celebrate, how the language sounds and what makes it special. The result was a series of engaging presentations that the classes shared with their schoolmates.
What we learned The ambassadors shared their knowledge in three ways: - Language in practice. Students taught useful phrases and interesting words, and many tried saying hello or thank you for the first time in a language they had only heard about in stories from faraway trips. - Traditions and symbols. The presentations were full of stories about national holidays, customs and symbols, which help us understand what matters most to each nation. - Surprising facts. Listeners were amazed by facts about language history and the number of speakers, and more than one discovered that languages can be both more similar and more different than they seemed.
Thank you! Many thanks to all the students for their creativity, energy and courage to stand up and present, and to the teachers for their support and hard work. Once again we saw that languages bring us together and expand the borders of our world.