Kyiv celebrates European Day of Languages on September 27

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Kyiv, September 22, 2015.  Under the EUNIC UKRAINE auspices, British Council in Ukraine, Goethe Institute in Ukraine, the Italian Cultural Institute in Kyiv, the Embassy of Spain in Kiev, the Polish Institute in Kyiv, the French Institute in Ukraine and the Czech Center in Kyiv invite everyone to join the European Day of Languages celebration on September 27. Events will take place in the premises of the British Council, the Goethe Institute and in the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. “The European Union is based on the ‘together in diversity’ principle. This diversity also has a language dimension meaning the ability to communicate in their language, but to learn other languages as well. Language is the first platform that helps convey thoughts and understand each other. It does not only ensure better understanding of others, but also better understanding themselves through contact with others […] and getting to know their identity, “said Jan Tombinski, EU Ambassador, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine.

“The main goal of the celebration is not only to show the culture of the countries involved in the initiative, but above all to talk about multicultural Europe. We must acquire knowledge not only at school but throughout our whole life in order to learn about everybody,” said Ewa Figel, Director of the Polish Institute in Kyiv.

The holiday program includes trial foreign language lessons, European training programs presentations, poetry readings, workshops, meetings, competitions, games (for example, drafting puzzle-map of Europe), European cinema screenings, folk dances master classes, European cuisine and a concert at the end of the day. Figel also said that there will be a special guided tour around places of Poles’ compact residence in Kyiv in the XIX-XX centuries. In addition, they will announce the winners of the First pocket-sized film contest, which received about 60 applications from all over Ukraine.

Representatives of culture institutions also reminded that they will actively participate in the “Go Global” program. This initiative plans to improve the knowledge of foreign languages ​​in Ukraine. “We – the British Council and our colleagues – closely cooperate with Ukraine’s Ministry of Education on developing the “Go Global” to understand the ways in which we can improve teaching foreign languages ​​at schools, universities, advance the foreign language knowledge among  the state officials who involved in negotiations with international organizations,” said Simon Williams, Director of the British Council in Ukraine. Susanne Becker, Deputy Director and Head of Language Department of the Goethe Institute in Ukraine, and Lucie Řehoříková, Director of the Czech Centre in Kiev, both mentioned that their institutions are already developing recommendations for German and Czech languages training programs ​​. “This is also a very important element [of our cooperation – editorial note.], which we will present at the meeting on September27,” said Figel.

The first European Day of Languages ​​was organized in 2001 by the European Council in the framework of the European Year of Languages ​​to draw public attention to languages spoken by different European nations, to disseminate cultural and linguistic diversity, encourage studying different languages ​​throughout life.