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2001 IS OFFICIALLY DESIGNATED the European Union Year of Languages and to give flesh to this proclamation the Commission and the Council of Europe have created a web site. The European Review picked up its mouse and browsed the site and we report back on our impressions. The home page presents a rather retro-sixties look with its coloured circles resembling nothing so much as a current advertisement for a well known discount airline. Each circle contains the word for one of the eleven official EU languages, not including the 'minor' and 'regional' ones (more on this later). As the user moves the mouse over the circles the image within them changes to a face and the word 'Hello' in the language concerned, while the title logo appears in the same language. Clicking on the 'English circle' brings you face to face with a pink animal who announces 'Hi, I am the European Year of Languages chameleon. I can change colour to adapt to each new environment I encounter. I have a very long and flexible tongue which can stretch to many different languages'. Links are divided into Information, Learning, Discussion, and Games and other links on this page (also in pink) include one to a special Eurobarometer survey on 'Europeans and Languages'. On one of the Information pages is a statement by Viviane Reding, the Education Commissioner, which stresses the maintenance of linguistic diversity and the desire to give everyone the opportunity of learning another language. The Learning pages include advice on how to choose the right method for learning a language while the Discussion pages include a forum on which users of the web site can post messages. It is 'threaded' into subjects. One of the messages complains that languages from outside the EU, such as Wolof and Quecha are not represented. The Games section has poetry online posted by authors which it invites users to translate
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The Eurobarometer report no.54, special survey on languages was researched in December last year. A previous report said that the U.K. was bottom of the language learning league (see Issue 11 page 9). Some of the findings of the current report are : 93% of parents say it is important that their children learn other European languages, 72% of Europeans believe that knowing foreign languages is / would be useful for them, 71% consider that everyone in the European Union should be able to speak one European language in addition to their mother tongue and 53% of Europeans say that they can speak at least one European language in addition to their mother tongue. Overall this is a fairly straightforward site which is a useful starting point for people thinking of taking up language learning. With total funding of €5.95 million supporting 185 projects it is to be hoped that the Year will give a big boost to European Languages. |
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The chameleon chosen as the symbol of the European Year of Languages | |||
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