On September 26^th, Europe is celebrating the European Day of Languages. It was first celebrated in 2001 at the initiative of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Anyone can take part : students, teachers, schools or universities. Many activities are organized such as writing e-books, creating quizzes, language cafés, or tournaments. There are different goals : encouraging language learning across Europe , helping people being more comfortable when travelling or just speaking new languages, making new friends or meeting people.

As a conclusion, and to understand the importance of languages better, do you know that there are between 6,000 and 7,000 languages in the world and about 225 indigenous languages in Europe, amazing isn’t it ? Really amazing isn’t it ? (adapted from the official EDL flyer)

Fun activities

Now that you know a bit more about that day, here are some fun activities you are invited to do : tongue twisters or « virelangues » in French. Are you able to read these sentences in different languages ?

• German -> Wenn Fliegen hinter Fliegen fliegen

• Spanish -> El que poco coco come, poco coco compra ; como poco coco como ;
  poco coco compro

• English -> She sells seashells by the seashore

• French -> Un chasseur sachant chasser doit savoir chasser sans son chien

Did you know that…

• There are different ways to say « Hahahaha » ?
  For example in Spanish, it’s « jajajaja » , in Thai it’s « 555 » because « five » is pronounced « ha » in Thai and in Japanese it’s « www » because « w » comes from « wara » – to laugh)

• Irish, Scottish or Gaelic have no single words for « yes »and « no » ? They use verbs to answer a question. The answer to « Did they go home ? » would be « (they) did go » or « (they) didn’t go ». (adapted from Another 20 things you might not know about the world of language)