Celebrating 20 years of linguistic and cultural diversity.

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 Plurilinguisme 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 September 26 - together with the European Commission. https://edl.ecml.at/Home/tabid/1455/language/en-GB/Default.aspx (From the EU official website)

Students of the German and French classes from Grade 5 and 6 of Athens College Elementary School participated in events commemorating this day. They discussed the importance of languages, and their function as an invaluable part of the world cultural heritage which we have a responsibility to preserve, cultivate and showcase.

Grade 5 students from the German classes designed T-shirts, adding their own messages and drawings about languages. This was a very fun and enriching activity for students, who expanded their knowledge and gave them a better understanding of the importance of learning languages.

Grade 5 students from the French classes came up with a creative way to send their own messages in a variety of European languages, by designing them on to Covid-19 masks. They achieved three goals through this: they became more aware of Europe’s linguistic diversity; they were incentivized to learn more foreign languages; and at the same time they promoted the use of protective masks, which keeps all of us safe both inside and outside the school.