Education staff spread the word
Released: 14 September 2007
Adult education staff from Wolverhampton City Council will help spread the word when the European Day of Languages comes to the Black Country next week.
On Friday 21 September, Wolverhampton will host a day-long programme of seminars and events for experts from across Europe and the general public at the city’s Light House complex. The activity-packed day aims to celebrate languages spoken throughout the continent and promote the learning of them.
There will be seminars, discussions and a networking lunch, followed by a celebration for schools, children and teachers during which pupils and staff from Deansfield High School will share their experience of visiting Budapest as part of a school exchange.
They will also explain how the school raised the funds to take 30 pupils on the five-day trip.
That is followed by a free European buffet, featuring traditional foods from across the region sponsored by the City Bar International Bistro before the evening concludes with a screening of smash hit German comedy Goodbye Lenin.
Set in 1990, the film tells the story of a young man who must prevent his fragile mother, who has just come out of a long coma, learning that her beloved East Germany has disappeared.
A Languages Café will run throughout the day in the bar where visitors will have the chance to try out a new language or brush up on a rusty one informally around the coffee table. In the café AES tutors will also demonstrate how to have fun learning a language with up-to-date computer programmes. A British Sign Language tutor will be on hand to do some finger spelling in a taster session.
The event, traditionally held in Brussels, will be staged at Light House in the City Centre on Friday, September 21.
Councillor Neville Patten, member champion for European and international affairs, said: “We are really privileged to host the event. It will see 500 people, including practitioners from the EU such as MEPs and commissioners and MPs and representatives from councils across the West Midlands, come to the Black Country.”
Though the main part of the day is invitation only, local people are encouraged to come along for the buffet, languages café and film show.
Councillor Patten added: “We hope to raise awareness among local people that they can learn lots of languages, mostly for free or at very little cost, at our partners across the city.
“We speak more than 80 languages here in Wolverhampton and it is one of our real strengths.”
The European Day of Languages is organised by West Midlands Regional Assembly, West Midlands in Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Ecotec, the British Council and Wolverhampton City Council.
Issued by the press office.