With the European Day of Languages almost upon us, there are a host of activities scheduled to take place, as well as a huge variety of new or updated resources, features, ideas and initiatives to help celebrate the occasion. Lots of exciting and creative events are foreseen all over Europe and beyond. Just have a look through the EDL calendar  (https://edl.ecml.at/edlcalendar) to find out what is happening close to you! The European Commission alone is involved in the coordination of over 70 events. See a selection of some of the events below! 

If you are involved in organising an event which does not yet feature in the calendar, please don’t forget to include it – no matter how big or small – and to promote it on social media by using the hashtags #coeEDL and #EuropeanDayofLanguages. The EDL calendar also allows event organisers to generate an official certificate of participation in the Day.

The ECML is running a series of posts promoting the Day on its dedicated EDL Facebook page and via X/Twitter.

Lara is 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 (available in English, French and Spanish by 26 September) will aim to further highlight the diversity of the European linguistic landscape, and will present a selection of 30+ lregional and minority languages (RMLs), such as Walloon, Meänkieli and Karaim which did not feature in the original brochure.

The brochure is a sequel to “Lara's Language Journey Across Europe” which was produced in 2021 (and is currently available in 26 language versions).

https://edl.ecml.at/languagejourney

A third poster in the series, “20 things you may not know about languages”, has been published this year.

Two  other new posters that we hope will find their way onto many classroom walls by 26 September are : “Counting your way around Europe!” and “Say Yes to languages!” (this year’s EDL slogan) – both illustrate the similarities and differences of Europe’s languages.

https://edl.ecml.at

This year’s survey focuses on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the future of language learning – let us know your opinion! The results of the poll will be announced on 26 September: https://edl.ecml.at/poll.

To add to the rich palette of language games on the EDL website, two new games have been developed:

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

These complement the series of other games on offer such as:

• “Where am I?” game – Identify which country is represented in a picture from the linguistic clues visible.
• “Which language is it?” game – The game tests the listener’s ability to identify individual languages (currently 36) through listening to conversations in everyday settings – ideal for sharpening your listening skills!

The updated version of the Secret agent’s language challenge app is now available for Android devices and iPhones. It includes a number of technical improvements as well as a new ‘identify the language’ feature. The app, which is in 31 languages thanks to the support of the EDL 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

This new feature showcases terms that have been designated as ‘words of the year’ by publishers and other media channels from different European 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/wordoftheyear

In how many languages can you make someone laugh? Following an extremely strict selection process (involving a jury of individuals who aren’t easy to please!) we ‘proudly’ present the results of this 2022 initiative – a multilingual joke book.  From the over 700 jokes that were submitted (not all of them publishable!) we have painstakingly whittled this down to the ‘créme de la crème’ of multilingual humour.

For fans of ‘Christmas cracker’ and ‘dad’  jokes – this is a must...

You are most welcome to continue to submit new and even funnier jokes with a multilingual element for Volume 2...!

https://edl.ecml.at/jokebook

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

Looking for last-minute ideas for an activity to celebrate the 22nd European Day of Languages? This section of the site contains ideas for EDL activities for anyone or any school, institute, association or business to run on or around 26 September.

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. Below are details of just a handful of this year’s events.

Graz language festival
Festival open to all, Graz, Austria, 22 September 2023
Language workshops, language city walks, competitions, treasure hunts, and many other activities will provide a fun and enjoyable opportunity to get to know the linguistic and cultural diversity. The musical and artistic programme will include songs, dances, plays and literature from all over the world.

European Commission online conference
"Teaching language skills at the heart of the European Education Area"
Online event, 26 September 2023,12:00-14:00 CEST
A panel discussion with experts on multilingualism, teachers and representatives of the Spanish presidency of the Council and the European Commission in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

European Day of Languages festival 2023, Trnava
Language festival, 26 September 2023, Trnava, Slovak Republic
The Faculty of Education of the University of Trnava in cooperation with the City of Trnava will organise this festival. The event will take place on Trnava's main square and will involve around 1 500 second-level primary school pupils along with the general public.

EDL Language Fair in the region of Porto
28 September 2023, Paredes, Portugal
EDL celebrations will travel to the North of Portugal, near Porto, in the town of Paredes. From 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., the language fair will feature information stands from various entities and a stage where different performances will take place.

Freunde zu Gast in Deutschland
26 September 2023, Sundern, Germany
20 Schulklassen aus ganz Europa treffen sich online in einer Videokonferenz zum Austausch von Sprache und Kultur – Realschule Sundern.

Festival des langues
7 October 2023, Orléans, France
Programme d’animations, y compris,  présentation des langues en 40 minutes, conférence sur "le multilinguisme dans le monde et à Orléans” et un concert multilingue offert par la Chorale des Régions.

Journée européenne des langues – Varna
26 September 2023, Varna, Bulgarie
Cette année, qui est la 9e édition à Varna, des stands mettront en avant les langues suivantes : le français, l'anglais, l'espagnol, le polonais, l'italien et l'allemand ; présentations par les équipes des différentes écoles de Varna à travers une variété d'activités interactives et des défis linguistiques.

European Language Cafe
26 September 2023, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
The Institut français Yogyakarta organises a "European Language Cafe" with native speakers of German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish and French! This event is open to all the European language learners.

Vi feirer Språk
Language classes, 26 September 2023, Bergen, Norway
Vi viser frem språkene vi har i klassen pluss fremmedspråkene vi lærer. På tvers av grupper og klasser blir det presentasjoner, plakater, konkurranser og quiz.

How many languages do we speak in our school?
Language Day, 26 September 2023, Senigallia, Italy
Students speak in their native languages, or in languages they have studied – with the number of languages spoken in the school being documented.

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. 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

The EDL t-shirt design contest for the 2024 European Day of Languages is open until 31 December 2023:
https://edl.ecml.at/tshirtcontest

The voting feature for the most innovative European Day of Languages’ event in 2023 will be open from will 20 September – 20 October, with a small prize for the event receiving the most votes.

https://edl.ecml.at/edlevents

As it is not always possible to send materials, particularly at short notice, event organisers and schools can also reproduce themselves a number of resources such as posters, postcards, images, banners, flyers and logos for social media and printing from the Downloads of the EDL website.

It is also possible to purchase a t-shirt with the 2023 EDL design from an external supplier.