European Day of Languages 2018

Throughout Europe, 800 million Europeans are represented in the Council of Europe’s 47 member states and all are encouraged to discover more languages at any age, as part of or alongside their studies. This stems from the Council of Europe’s conviction that linguistic diversity is a tool for achieving greater intercultural understanding and a key element in the rich cultural heritage of our continent. Therefore, the Council of Europe, in Strasbourg, promotes plurilingualism in the whole of Europe.

At the Council of Europe’s initiative, the European Day of Languages has been celebrated every year since 2001 on 26 September.
Mother Tongues will mark European Day of Languages with a week-long celebration of multilingualism, with events in Dún Laoghaire, Clones, Lucan, Dublin and Brussels.

Monday 24th September
How many languages are spoken in your classroom? Can you pronounce the longest Lithuanian word? Why do Italian, Romanian and Spanish speakers use the same words to say house? Is it true that Portuguese is the official language of Mozambique? Take part in this interactive session based on games and quizzes to learn about sounds, words and fun facts about the languages of the world!
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Tuesday 25th September
EuropeLanguage Explorers has been awarded the European Award for Languages! On 25th September Leargas will be hosting a day-long celebration of European Day of Languages. Keep an eye on our social media for more info on the day!
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Come and listen to a story in one, two, many languages, and sing your favourite childhood lullabies!
In this storytelling session, we’ll take your child through a rich journey of sound, movement and imagery, listening to award-winning children stories performed in several languages. The language of story is universal and young children instinctively follow narrative through gesture, intonation and visual cues from the illustrations. After reading the stories, our storytellers will engage the children in play-based activities to re-live and extend the narrative, learn new words and make connections with different languages, meanings and sounds.
Wednesday 26th September
How many languages are spoken in your classroom? Can you pronounce the longest Lithuanian word? Why do Italian, Romanian and Spanish speakers use the same words to say house? Is it true that Portuguese is the official language of Mozambique? Take part in this interactive session based on games and quizzes to learn about sounds, words and fun facts about the languages of the world!
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Wednesday 26th September
In this workshop, students will explore a world of languages using activities from the newly published Language Explorers Activity Book.
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Wednesday 26th September
Raising bilingual children in Ireland - talkRaising bilingual children in Ireland, dlr LexIcon
Why do some bilingual children prefer one language over the other? Is it true that bilingual children start speaking late? How can I help my child to develop two languages at the same time? How long will it take for my child to learn the school language? Is it too late to start speaking my mother tongue to my child? These and other questions will be addressed in this informative talk for parents who are raising bilingual or multilingual children. Parents will learn about bilingual language development and about some of the most common strategies to support their child’s linguistic development throughout childhood.  
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Thursday 27th September
EuropeMother Tongues’s founder Francesca La Morgia will take part in the conference on Multilingual Education and Cultural Expression, organised by the Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture in Brussels. La Morgia will join the roundtable on Strategies and successful practices for language teaching and learning in multilingual countries and the Panel exchange on learning three languages in school.
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Thursday 27th September  
Come and listen to a story in one, two, many languages, and sing your favourite childhood lullabies!
In this storytelling session, we’ll take your child through a rich journey of sound, movement and imagery, listening to award-winning children stories performed in several languages. The language of story is universal and young children instinctively follow narrative through gesture, intonation and visual cues from the illustrations. After reading the stories, our storytellers will engage the children in play-based activities to re-live and extend the narrative, learn new words and make connections with different languages, meanings and sounds.
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Friday 28th September
On Researchers’ Night young Language Explorers visiting Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork will be entertained with fun languages games based on the Language Explorers Activity Book.