Celebration of the European Day of Languages at D'Alessandro-Vocino School
A wall of words to celebrate this event in the same time in Spain, Greece and Italy.
Throughout Europe, 800 million Europeans, represented by the Council of Europe with 47 member states, are encouraged to learn more languages, at any age, in and out of school. In the belief that linguistic diversity is a tool to achieve a better intercultural understanding and a key element in the rich cultural heritage of our continent, the Council of Europe promotes pluralism throughout Europe.
Thanks to the initiative of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, the European Day of Languages has been celebrated on 26th September each year since 2001. At D'Alessandro-Vocino works started on 24th September with the preparation of the flags and the posters. Then students chose their favourite words to write on the briks of the wall.
On the 26th September, the students of the third classes gathered in the music lab with their teachers and the Head teacher to celebrate this important event. The Head teacher stressed the fundamental importance of learning foreign languages today in one's professional growth, above all in relation to the strong globalization of the last years. Knowing at least a foreign language is not only fundamental for your work, but also for your professional updating, for travelling, or simply to communicate with other people, in an increasingly interconnected society. More and more companies are giving importance to the knowledge of a foreign language. You can have better opportunities to find a good job.
The celebration started with the students singing the European National Anthem and the description of the European flag with 12 stars which represent the ideals of unity, solidarity and harmony among the peoples of Europe. Then the National Antems of the three Partnership Countries followed. Students learned some interesting facts about the three flags painted over the big tongues. The coat of arms on the Spanish flag has four quadrants, each of them represents one of the four kingdoms that were reunited to form the first true Spain in the fifteenth century: Castile, León, Aragon, and finally Navarre. The pomegranate fruit represents the ancient Moor kingdom of Granada. The colors blue and white of the Greek flag, want to symbolize the sea and the white foam of the waves that break on the Greek coasts of the Aegean Sea. The white cross on a blue background symbolizes the devotion of the Greek people towards the Orthodox Church.
The Greek flag, in the big tongue, with nine horizontal stripes of the same size and in alternate colors, blue (cyan) and white.
In the Italian flag, green recalls meadows, white the perennial snows, and red is a tribute to soldiers who died in many troubled wars.
The Spanish flag is divided into three horizontal bands: red, yellow and red, with the yellow part twice the size of the red ones.
After the National Anthems, some students told their favourite European word, explaining why they like it, then they wrote it on a brick that was placed to form a wall with all the favourite words written in different colours.
We like to think of the wall like a symbol of friendship, with the bricks very close, each of them supports the other ones and if you take away one brick, the wall crashes. So each brick is absolutely necessary.
The celebration ended with the song "We are the world" sang by the students, after that all children signed the poster as a memory of this fantastic activity shared by our Spanish and Greek friends in their own countries.
At the end of the celebration, the wall was placed in the hall of the school, together with the posters, to create the Erasmus+ corner visible to parents and other stakeholders.
