European Day of Languages at the VMU Institute of Foreign Languages: “Through Europe with Languages”
This year, the European Day of Languages was celebrated for the 25th time on September 26th. Traditionally, the celebration was also held at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU), inviting schoolchildren and the entire VMU community to participate. The goal of the European Day of Languages is to draw attention to linguistic and cultural diversity, encourage language learning, and foster respect for languages. We were delighted that this year’s celebration included students from the Transform4Europe alliance universities—of which VMU is a member—from Poland, France, Germany, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Portugal.
The event attracted a large number of participants: over 300 students from 9 schools (KTU Engineering Lyceum, S. Darius and S. Girėnas Gymnasium, VMU Ugnė Karvelis Gymnasium, Kaunas Juozas Grušas Art Gymnasium, Valdas Adamkus Gymnasium, Ariogala Gymnasium of Raseiniai District, Garliava Juozas Lukša Gymnasium of Kaunas District, Erudito Lyceum, and VMU “Rasa” Gymnasium), as well as VMU students and lecturers.
At the beginning of the celebration, the Director of the Institute of Foreign Languages, Dr. Teresė Ringailienė, gave a welcome speech and encouraged everyone to cherish and learn languages, with a special emphasis on their mother tongue.
The “Language Carousel” activity, organised by the visiting international students, offered participants the opportunity to learn various words and phrases in nine foreign languages. The participants were later able to test their knowledge in the “Test What You Learned at the Language Carousel” game, where the 1st to 3rd place winners were awarded prizes. Additionally, there were Italian language and Lithuanian Sign Language workshops.
The event was crowned by the concert “Musical Kaleidoscope of Languages,” during which students from the VMU Academy of Music performed songs in all 12 languages of the Transform4Europe alliance.
