With the summer heat already upon us and with almost ten weeks to go until 26 September, we are excited to inform you about developments for this year’s European Day of Languages (EDL): the new ideas, features, competitions, and initiatives.

This year, under the motto of “Say Yes to languages!” we will be seeking to encourage people from all backgrounds and all ages to open up their world a little more through learning languages. There have never been more possibilities available to get at least a taste of the impressive range of languages that are present on the continent of Europe!

A host of new features and resources are currently under development on the EDL website for this year’s Day. Here are just some examples that will be appearing on the EDL homepage over the course of the summer.

As a follow-up to “Lara's Language Journey Across Europe” which was produced in 2021 (and is currently available in 26 language versions), Lara will be taking on a new challenge and journey, this time to explore the world of regional and minority languages, many of which are likely to be unfamiliar to readers. The new brochure will aim to further highlight the diversity of the European linguistic landscape, and will present a selection of 30+ regional and minority languages (RMLs), such as Walloon, Meänkieli and Greenlandic – which did not feature in the original brochure.

Flushed with the success of the poster series, “20 things you may not know about languages”, a third poster in the series has been published this year – with the highly original title of “Another 20 things you may not know about the world of languages”!

There will also be two other posters coming up  that we hope will find their way onto many classroom walls by 26 September : “Say Yes to languages!” (this year’s slogan) and “Counting your way around Europe! – both illustrating the similarities and differences of Europe’s languages.

https://edl.ecml.at

A survey this year will focus on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the future of language learning – let us know your opinion: https://edl.ecml.at/poll.

To add to the rich palette of language games available, this year there are two new games on the EDL website:

• a brain game to test out your skills and your memory with the Latin and Greek alphabets;
• “How many languages do you recognize?”, where you can test your ability to correctly identify written  texts in up to 40 languages.

There will also be an updated version of the Secret agent’s language challenge app available from August, with a number of technical improvements and a new ‘identify the language’ feature. The app, which is in 31 languages thanks to the support of the National Relays and the European Commission, encourages users, aka secret agents, to take on a range of challenges, to rise up through the ranks and eventually become a ‘master secret agent’. Newly ‘qualified’ agents are able to reward themselves with a certificate testifying to their advanced skills! 
https://edl.ecml.at/app

The Word of the Year – In this new feature on the website we will be looking around Europe to showcase words that have been designated as words of the year by publishers and other media channels from different countries and representing different languages. These tend to reflect key events or changes (both positive and negative) which have occurred within a particular year.

https://edl.ecml.at/Facts/Wordoftheyear/tabid/3278/Default.aspx

Based on one of last year’s initiatives “In how many languages can you make someone laugh?”, we will be offering a selection of the (publishable!) jokes that were submitted. This may well lay claim to the title of the ‘greatest ever (or perhaps only!) Multilingual joke book’ to be published. For fans of Christmas cracker jokes – this is a must – coming soon...!

Last year we invited brave participants to submit recordings of their attempts at mastering tongue twisters in different languages. With hundreds of videos submitted we could only provide a small selection. See how they managed to get on!

https://edl.ecml.at/tonguetwisterchallenge 

There are also ideas for an EDL activity for anyone or any school, institute, association or business to run on or around 26 September to celebrate the 22^nd European Day of Languages!

https://edl.ecml.at/eventsuggestions

As ever, we welcome event organisers entering details of their activities into the EDL calendar.

We are also delighted to receive new ideas, promotional initiatives and volunteers who can help us to ensure that the content of EDL site can made available and updated in as wide a range of Europe’s languages as possible.

Languages in my classroom/school – Create a poster illustrating all the languages present in your classroom or school. For this initiative, targeted specifically at schools, the idea is to develop as creative a poster as possible, reflecting the languages which are present in your school or classroom. This can be the languages you are learning and/or the home languages or additional languages spoken by pupils. Send us a photo or pdf of the poster you create to be showcased on the EDL website.

There will be prizes for the top 5 most creative entries.

https://edl.ecml.at/languagesinmyclassroom

The beauty of languages – Every language has its intriguing expressions often with an interesting/amusing anecdote related to their use. For example “L’esprit de l’escalier” (literally ‘staircase wit’) relates to the common predicament of coming up with the perfect response to a comment when it is too late. It reputedly originates from a dinner party where the French philosopher, Denis Diderot, was literally left speechless by a remark made by one of the other guests present. It was only when he had left and was at the bottom of the stairs of his host’s house that he came to himself and could think of a suitable reply – unfortunately for him the other guests had already departed!

Can you come up with some of your favourite expressions in a particular language and give the back story/anecdote – explaining its meaning? If so, send us a short video of your favourite expression illustrating the ‘beauty of languages’! A selection of the videos will be featured on the EDL website.

https://edl.ecml.at/beautyoflanguages

There was again a huge response to the contest to design the 2023 EDL t-shirt – with over 2000 entries submitted. The artistic winning design was created by Alžbeta Šáleková from Slovakia. The t-shirt and a tote bag with the same design are now available for sale.

Designs can already be submitted here for the 2024 edition of the Day (with the contest closing on 31 December 2023).

The 2022 most innovative European Day of Languages’ event was also won by the Slovakian school – Gymnázium, Šrobárova 1, Košice – with the  series of events taking place in celebration of the ‘European Days of Languages at Šrobárova’.

The competition, with a small reward, will be organised again for 2023 (and is open from 20 September to 20 October). 

https://edl.ecml.at/edlevents