People around the world celebrate the European Day of Languages on Sepember 26 every year. Its a sort of linguistic diversity within which learning lanaguges is available for the young as well as the old.

It was the Council of Europe that gave the initiative to start celebrating the European Day of Languages. It has been celebrated every year since, so this year is special because it represents its 15th anniversary.

The specific aims of the Day are:

1 stress the importance of lanaguge learning,

2 promote the linguistic as well as the cultural diversity of Europe, and

3 encourage lifelong language learning.

How important is the EDL is best said by the Council of Europe Secretary General Mr T. Jagland: 'Hundreds of events have been organized by schools, universities and cultural establishments to mark the day. I would like to send my best wishes to all those taking part.'

One such event was organized in our school as well. In order to show the linguistic beauty and diversity of our region (by which I mean the Balkans) our pupils read several poems written by famous children's poets from the ex Yugoslavian territories. So Vedran Višnić read Grigor Vitez's poem Pjesma za svu djecu svijeta while Ema Konjević introduced us to a Bosian poet Muhidin Šarić and his Šta ko želi after which Morana Konjević read beautiful verses from Ala je lep ovaj svet by a famous Serbian poet Jovan Jovanović Zmaj. Valentina Alinčić, Mirjam Golik, Roberta Vučinić and Vanja Vučinić read Dr Seuss' poem Oh, The Places You'll Go. That poem had an interesting follow-up activities for the younger pupils including the maze and making their own wish lists. The EDL programme was hosted by Ema Lešnjaković.

In the spirit of the EDL, remember:

You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you speak just one language, you only live once. So try to learn as many languages as possible. Some will seem easier than others. Be persistant! Be brave! Try a new language!