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By Judith Schilling
 "Ein Bier, bitte." "Posso avere un gelato, per favore?" "Je t'aime." "Gracias."
We are surrounded by languages but do we make the most
of this? Recent research suggests that up to 81% of British adults
regret not having learned another language, even just being able to ask
for a beer in German or an ice cream in Italy, telling your new girl
friend you love her in French or thanking a Spaniard in his own
language.
 The
European Day of Languages is celebrated annually all over Europe on 26
September. Its aim is to emphasise the importance of language learning,
increase awareness and appreciation of all languages and promote
cultural diversity.
To mark the day this year, the European Commission's
office in the UK is arranging an exhibition offering information on
language learning, different countries and cultures. St Pancras
Station, a communications hub between the UK and the rest of Europe,
will provide the backdrop to the celebrations.
You are invited to visit St Pancras Station (near the
main entrance) on 26 September to discover more about the languages you
are teaching or could be learning. This is your chance to find out
which courses are on offer at the French, Italian or Goethe institutes,
how to kick-start your Spanish, Polish or Dutch, or what great
destinations Slovakia and Turkey could be for your next holidays.
Find out more about the work of the European Union and
what's in it for you, talk to people from Oxford Cambridge and RSA
Examinations (OCR), the British Council and the National Centre for
Languages (CILT). With so many language and cultural institutes
assembled together for one day only, this is an opportunity not to be
missed.
See you at St Pancras!
To prepare the EDL event at your school, library, office, etc., please take advantage of the resources offered on http://www.cilt.org.uk/edl/resources.htm e.g. popular booklets like "Languages Take You Further" http://www.europe.org.uk/languages/ or "Passport to the European Union" http://www.europe.org.uk/passport/ .
By Judith Schilling
Judith
Schilling has been the Publications Manager at the Commission's London
Representation since July 2006. Prior to coming to London, she was instrumental to the EDL celebrations in Sweden, see photo above,
as well as the programme of seminars, fairs, lectures etc. for teachers
and librarians at the Stockholm representation. Before that, she
arranged selection procedures for scientific staff at the DG Research
in Brussels. She speaks English, German, Swedish, and French (although
recently neglected). Having graduated from the German Federal
Administrators College
in 1987 she worked in various German administrations, leaving the
German Foreign Service to join the European Commission in 1999. Judith.Schilling@ec.europa.eu
FUMSI articles by Judith Schilling »
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