I’ve just come across this short video about the Spanish language via Pinterest.

It explains how Spanish came to be, condensing 2000 years into 3 minutes and shows why Spanish is such an important world language. Well worth a watch, whether as a tool for promotion or persuasion or out of interest.

httpv://youtu.be/ACQX5nMl2wQ

Happy European Day of Languages.

Here’s an idea of what you might do if you hadn’t planned anything and want to do something!

This map was published on the Oxford Dictionaries blog last week for World Gratitude Day and features over 20 ways to say thank you from around the world.

Why not try out a few different ways to be grateful today.

And if that’s not enough,this site has more words, and even tells you if it’s formal or informal!

And here’s a video to help too!

httpv://youtu.be/xP_A_9A4NUw

I, amongst many many other people, used the extra day we have this year and blogged on Feb29th.net. Brainchild of @deputymitchell to get the world blogging in a simple and easy way, Feb29th.net has collected flags from 91 nations and been visited over 21,000 times. More importantly, thousands of people, young and old have added their post, however short, to the project. If you look at the tag cloud on the website, it’s great to see the size of the Under12 and 12-17 tags – the bigger the word, the more it appeared.

I read several posts and this one caught my eye. I hope “Harry Gardner” doesn’t mind me copying his blog post –  did ask him in the comments! Love that an under 12 has chosen to post so many reasons for language learning! I love number 6, and can tell you that you do need number 11 to learn a language (intensively especially!) as it doens’t just happen. Unfortunately.

My post is here.

Thank you to June da Silva for pointing this out via primarylanguages@mailtalk.ac.uk.

November 21st is World Hello Day on which people are encouraged to greet 10 people to demonstrate the importance of personal communication in maintaining peace.

  World Hello Day was begun in response to the conflict between Egypt and Israel in the Fall of 1973.  Since then, World Hello Day has been observed by people in 180 countries.

    People around the world use the occasion of World Hello Day as an opportunity to express their concern for world peace.  Beginning with a simple greeting on World Hello Day, their activities send a message to leaders, encouraging them to use communication rather than force to settle conflicts.

    As a global event World Hello Day joins local participation in a global expression of peace.  The World Hello Day web site address is http://www.worldhelloday.org.

As June says in her email, what an opportunity to promote communication in other languages too. I will be attempting to greet 10 people in Swiss German and / or their native language. I’m sure I can find 10 people who speak 10 different languages at home amongst my boys’ new classmates and parents…

www.ipl.org/div/hello will help me in my task as will http://www.digitaldialects.com/ 

And how about these lovely song?

httpv://youtu.be/kjwkMmdqmH4

Just discovered the following via Linguascope’s Facebook page.

To celebrate the second Linguascope Conference in Brighton we have decided to create a series of awards aimed at rewarding and highlighting outstanding achievements by individuals, companies and organisations involved in the field of Modern Foreign Languages.
The categories are as follows:
Language Teacher of the Year
This award aims at rewarding excellence and encouraging best practice in Language teaching.

Language Company of the Year
The award is aimed at rewarding a company for its outstanding contribution and service to the Foreign Language Teaching Community.

Language Product of the Year
This award aims at highlighting a product that is considered outstanding or innovative in the field of Languages.

Language College of the Year
This award is aimed at rewarding the College that has fostered outstanding achievement, elevated standards of good practice and has contributed to the local community.

Language Organisation of the Year
This award is aimed at rewarding an organisation that has raised the profile of Languages in the UK.

Language Speaker of the Year
This award is aimed at rewarding the speaker who has contributed innovative and inspiring ideas within the Language conference circuit.

Language Personality of the Year
This award is aimed at recognising the contribution of an individual in helping to raise the profile of Languages.

Language Blogger of the Year
This award is aimed at rewarding the most interesting and helpful blog in the field of Modern Foreign Languages.

To nominate someone is very easy and FREE! Just click on the relevant award, then download and fill in the form, making sure that all fields are completed. Then, fax or post it back to us (Linguascope) using the details below.
All nominations must be made via fax or post and submitted by the end of March 2011. The finalists will be announced at the end of May 2011. The Awards will be presented at the Linguascope Conference in Brighton on July 1st and 2nd 2011 at the Thistle Hotel. The VIP Guest Speaker for the event will be the Comedian John Moloney.
In order to keep the selection impartial we have appointed an independent panel of judges with extensive knowledge in the field of education and Languages.

So, get nominating! There are lots of great language ‘professionals’ out there who deserve a pat on the back!

Following on from my previous post, here are clips from the same series in French and German.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fdPfginDpc

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XWl6cxH4Ew

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZjE2Nq5xKk

I’ve just been reminded of these lovely videos that were part of a campaign to promote language learning.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpSNq8vsXO0

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htoXVjs3N5A

I take my job as a parent very seriously and when I heard that Isaac would be learning German, I decided to prepare him adequately.

Firstly, we looked at the importance of language learning.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmOTpIVxji8

Then we looked at some numbers.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJa7TAnR9SA

Tonight we’ll be working on some instructions.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD5P7RsC9TI

When I said i take my job as a Mum seriously, that doesn’t mean I’m always serious! ;o)

People often ask me what eTwinning is all about, and, as an eTwinning Ambassador, I try to explain.  The eTwinning experience is tricky to put into words until you’ve experienced it, so this video is just the ticket.

It has no words and is therefore useable in any country, and it says a lot about what eTwinning can do for you.

As Alexander Meerkat would say ‘Simples!’

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj58uA4cjrQ&w=425&h=350]