September complete mag

European Day of Languages
If someone came up to you and said “Snak med mig”, what would
you do?
a) Run?
b) Eat what they offered you?
c) Be offended?
d) Answer “Jeg ville elske at” and continue with a conversation
in Danish?
“Snak med mig” means “talk to me” in Danish, so the correct
response would be d, which means “I would love to”.
1-b, 2-True, 3-c, 4-a - ‘Kiss’ in Swedish means a pee! 5-b, 6-a, 7-a BSL evolved at Thomas
Braidwood’s schools for the deaf in the late 1700s and later spread to Australia and New
Zealand. 8-c, 9-a, 10-c.
16 September 2020 | parenta.com
Answers:
If you’re a little rusty on your Danish and
didn’t know that, don’t worry, on our
European continent, there are over 200
languages spoken and no one could
possibly know them all! However, every
year on 26th September since 2001, the
Council of Europe organises the European
Day of Languages, an initiative to promote
plurilingualism across the continent. The
Council of Europe includes 47 member
states, 27 of which are members of the
European Union. Members extend as far
north as Iceland, east to Russia, south to
Cyprus and west to Portugal. The idea
arose out of the 2001 European Year of
Languages, and the Council believes that
linguistic diversity can be useful in achieving
greater intercultural understanding and is
a key element in exploring the rich cultural
heritage of the European continent.
Activities on and around the
day are designed to:
1. Promote life-long language
learning for all ages and for all
purposes
2. Raise awareness of the importance
of language learning and diversify
the languages learnt
3. Encourage Europeans to speak
more than one language
(plurilingualism), even if only at a
basic level
4. Promote the rich linguistic and
cultural diversity of Europe with the
aim of preserving and fostering it
The main website can be found at
European Day of Languages and is packed
full of useful information, games, quizzes
and resources that are free and fun to use
for all different levels. You can download
images and logos, add your own events
and find lots of ideas to promote language
learning in your own setting. Everyone is
encouraged to join in in some way, be
they a national policy-maker, educational
establishment or the voluntary sector and
general public.
We’ve put together some useful ideas to
help you promote the day in your setting
and devised a fun quiz for you to test
your language knowledge too, so there
are “niente scuse” or ‘no excuses’ for not
getting involved!
Ideas to use in your setting:
1. Research and promote the
languages around you
Language is one of those topics that often
surprises you when you get talking to
people about it. You suddenly discover
that your postman speaks Greek or your
local hairdresser speaks Welsh, so you
might find lots of people on your doorstep
who can help you out when if comes to
promoting languages. Ask around and
see what languages are spoken by your
colleagues, your children and your parents
– you might be pleasantly surprised about
the rich culture around you, so why not
ask people to come and give a short talk
or demonstration about their language or
culture?
2. Create a language map
Create a map showing some local, national
or international languages spoken around
you. You could find different words for
“hello”, “nursery” or “children”, for example;
or put up simple phrases in different
languages and practice saying them out
loud. You can have a lot of fun practicing
different accents too.
3. Learn some foreign songs or
nursery rhymes
Learning languages is always more fun
when there’s a song or game attached,
so why not use this to your advantage and
promote your language day using songs
or nursery rhymes from around Europe?
There’s an excellent resource at mamalisa.
com which has nursery rhymes and songs
from around the world too, including games
and music to sing along with.
4. Practise writing or mark-making in
different languages
Most mark-making does not start out as
any form of language, but you could have
some fun with the students trying to draw
or trace in some different languages. Look
up different alphabets and see what you
can come up with. You could start with
the Greek alphabet which is often used in
maths and science such as:
• Alpha - ɑ
• Beta -
• Gamma - ɣ
• Delta - δ
5. Learn some British Sign Language
(BSL)
BSL is the preferred language of around
145,000 people in the UK. You could learn
some basic words and teach them to the
1. How many languages are
spoken in the world?
a. Between 3,000 and 4,000
b. Between 6,000 and 7,000
c. Over 10,000
2. Most of the world’s
languages are spoken in
Asia and Africa. True or
false?
3. How many languages are
spoken in London?
a. 100
b. 200
c. 300
4. If a Swedish person wanted
a ‘kiss’ what would they
need?
a. A toilet
b. A shower
c. A cuddle
5. Speaking several
languages has been shown
to postpone the onset of:
a. Hair loss
b. Alzheimer’s disease
c. Arthritis
6. Which word is a plant in
English, but means ‘hello’ in
Russian?
children and staff in your setting. Other sign
languages include Sign Supported English,
Makaton and Social haptic communication.
See sense.org or british-sign.co.uk/ for
more details and an online course. You
might also find this useful if you have
children with sensory needs.
Whatever you do - spraoi a bheith agat
(“have fun”...in Irish!)
Try our fun quiz to test your
language knowledge
a. Privet
b. Pansy
c. Packera
7. There are many different
sign languages. Which
country’s sign language
is closest to British Sign
Language?
a. Australian
b. American
c. Irish
8. A Dutch child making the
sound of a cow would say:
a. Moo!
b. Meh!
c. Boeh!
9. There are 3 broad groups
of European languages:
Germanic, Slavic and
Romance. Which group
does English belong to?
a. Germanic
b. Slavic
c. Romance
10. Which is the only European
language in the Afro-Asiatic
family (which includes
Arabic, Hebrew, Berber,
and Hausa)?
a. Russian
b. Turkish
c. Maltese
parenta.com | September 2020 17