European languages celebrated in Amman

AMMAN — Even if you only speak a few words, learning a foreign language is a great tool to get closer to each other and the European Day of Languages (EDL) is a fun event to take part in to sensitise people in this regard, said Maria Rosaria Papa, president of the Societa Dante Alighieri in Jordan.

Like every year since the establishment of the EDL in 2012, European cultural institutes such as the Societa Dante have been offering people the chance to celebrate the richness of languages through a variety of activities organised by the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) with the support of the EU. 

“The celebrations, which included drama, music, storytelling, quizzes and interactive games, aimed to bring EU-Jordanian relations closer through languages,” EUNIC Events and Communication Officer Tala Al Sayyed told The Jordan Times on Monday, voicing her happiness to see “an excellent turn out this year”, with a little over 800 people attending the event.

Divided into two age groups (10 to 15 years old in the morning and 15 years and above in the afternoon), the EDL witnessed the participation of EUNIC’s five cultural centres: The British Council, the Instituto Cervantes, the Institut Français (IFJ), the Goethe Institute and the Societa Dante Alighieri, as well as the embassies of Austria, Belgium, Greece, Romania and Sweden, in addition to Georgia, the guest country for this year.

"For the first time, we had 13 countries participating in the EDL this year, which is absolutely fantastic because it offered more versatile activities that were prepared by each country," Al Sayyed highlighted, adding “for instance, we got to organise quizzes for which each winner was picked for free language courses at the centres”. 

Representing the Italian Societa Dante, which has been participating in the event since 2012, Rosaria Papa said: “Every year, it is great fun for both the Dante Amman and visitors. With this year’s theme — cultural heritage — we presented some Italian intangible heritage like food, music and dance.

She told The Jordan Times that the wide variety of activities organised at the Haya Cultural Centre in Shmeisani aimed to “sensitise participants on the richness of European variety in languages and cultures”.

For the deputy director of the IFJ, Christel Potdevin, the event is “always a pleasure to participate in”.

“As one of the oldest language centres in the region [the IFJ was founded in 1963] the Institut Francais represents France, its culture and language. Thus, such events give the chance for those who learn French to practice the language while playing and listening to music,” she told The Jordan Times.

Potdevin highlighted the great advantages of speaking French, saying “French is one of the most spoken languages in Europe and the world, as it is spoken in each and every continent. It is an official language in various international agencies and NGOs worldwide and one can speak French all the way from Canada to Australia, going to Congo, Luxembourg, Morocco and Lebanon”.

Established by the Council of Europe in 2001 to encourage language-learning, the EDL is celebrated every year around the world to raise awareness of the importance of languages and their benefits for intercultural understanding, according to a statement by EUNIC.