European Day of Languages is a day to encourage Language Learning around Europe.

Every year, since 2001, the European Day of Languages has been celebrated on 26th of September.This is a reminder of the importance of language learning, plurilingualism and cultural diversity.

Did you know?

1. There are between 6000 and 7000 languages in the world - spoken by 7 billion people divided into 189 independent states.

2. At least half of the world’s population are bilingual or plurilingual, i.e. they speak two or more languages.

3. Languages are constantly in contact with each other and affect each other in many ways: English borrowed words and expressions from many other languages in the past, European languages are now borrowing many words from English.

4. Bilingualism brings with it many benefits: it makes the learning of additional languages easier, enhances the thinking process and fosters contacts with other people and their cultures.

There are many other interesting facts you can find on the official site: http://edl.ecml.at

In Albany, we celebrated it by engaging students in a creative activity. We identified European countries, searched for key facts and information and made our own country & flag project. Students enjoyed presenting the facts to the class and they especially liked how differently the greetings sounded in each language.

"Travel the world" is a classic boardgame in which students get the chance to find out more about countries and their corresponding capitals.

The flag/language/country project is already on our corkboard so other students can have a look at it!

Here's a selection of links teachers can use on this particular day, or any other time they consider useful:

• The official page of European Day of Languages: http://edl.ecml.at

• Animal sounds in different languages:http://gizmodo.com/what-different-languages-think-different-animals-sound-737939826

• "Let it go" song in 25 languages:http://youtu.be/OC83NA5tAGE

• Ideas on how to teach this topic from the The Guardian Teaching network:http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/sep/03/how-to-teach-european-languages?newsfeed=true

• A video presentation with facts and figures:http://youtu.be/27YMbX8fH6Y

This was a great day to finish our week! 

Keep learning languages!