Celebrate the European Day of Languages!

Did you know that there are about 225 indigenous languages in Europe - roughly 3 per cent of the world's total? Or that while the English language borrowed words and expressions from many other languages in the past, European languages are now borrowing many words from English? 

Date 2016-09-26 Author BIK team
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For all these language facts, and mostly for its rich language heritage, the Council of Europe and the European Union have jointly decided to celebrate the European Day of Languages (EDL) annually on 26 September, with the first edition taking place in 2001.
 
  • alert the public to the importance of language learning in order to increase plurilingualism and intercultural understanding.
  • promote the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe.
  • encourage lifelong language learning, both in and out of school.
Recognising European language values and bringing them to schools is a meaningful action that strives to further the positive traits of cultural diversity and contributes to creating more cohesive communities. EDL encourages the organisation and promotion of events that, through their creativity, can contribute to the transferability of European language values. For the 2016 edition, over 500 European events have been registered as participating, with a competition taking place for the ‘most innovative event'. An interactive map provides more detail. 
 
For the Insafe network, languages represent a key mechanism to reach out to children, parents, carers or teachers, and to ensure a clear and effective dissemination of our messages on navigating the online world safety. By facilitating access to a range of resources in multiple languages from across the European network of Safer Internet Centres (SICs), the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) portal aims to raise the awareness of both the online safety curious and online safety professionals, and increase the dissemination and use of such educational tools. 
 
On 26 September we invite you to celebrate the European Day of Languages with us by taking a ‘Tour of Europe' to find out more about fantastic resources, in multiple languages, on how to stay safe and responsible online!

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