The European Day of Languages (EDL) aims to celebrate linguistic diversity by showing people across Europe how important languages are and what fun can be had learning them. The European Day of Languages is 26 September. It was set up by the Council of Europe and was first celebrated in 2001. It’s getting bigger every year, with 45 countries now involved. Schools across Scotland will be celebrating the European Day of Languages 2010 in Septmber. This is a snapshot of what’s happening.

Wednesday, 29 September 2010

St George's School, Edinburgh

The EDL- inspired Languages week at St George’s was launched on Monday 27th September, at morning assembly. Louise Campbell, Head of the Faculty of Languages, showed a powerpoint containing interesting facts about language learning and went on to highlight to the assembly why being able to speak even a little of another language is one of life’s essential skills.
Throughout the week in the modern languages faculty, there are lunchtime language taster courses, where pupils will have the opportunity to learn Swahili, Portuguese, Russian, Finnish, Ga, Afrikaans, “cool” Spanish & even  Aussie English!
In the junior school , many of the plurilingual girls are contributing to the “Teach a friend a language” week, where no less than 15 diverse languages will be taught by pupils.
The school’s EDL week will culminate on Friday 1st October, with a lunchtime “Chatterbox” event, where all pupils and staff are invited to come along to various language classrooms and have a chat in French, Spanish, German, Chinese or Italian. In a bid to recruit as many people as possible through their doors, the languages staff will reward all “Chatterbox” participants with a snack which is typical of the country whose language they have chosen!

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