Thanks to everyone who took part in yesterday’s blogging day. Here’s a link to the final Storify showing all the blogs I could find. There was fantastic variety, both in languages and topics, and it has brought some exciting blogs to my attention that I wouldn’t have found otherwise! Please leave a comment if there is someone I have missed out.
It was a joy to celebrate the multilingual web with you. Until next year!
And here, just a teensy bit late, is my guest post for Multilingual Blogging Day from my translator colleague John:
Last year I wrote about my love affair with languages for Multilingual Blogging Day; this year I set myself the challenge of writing about one week in my work: five days in five languages.
Dydd Llun, 26 Mawrth 2012
Pob nawr ac yn y man rwy’n cael y cyfle yn rhinwedd fy swydd i i fynd yn ôl i Gymru, sydd wastad yn gret. Er fy mod i ddim wedi byw yng Nghymru ers gadael coleg rhyw 14 yn ôl, Cymro fyddaf i am byth! Y tro yma, rydw i wedi dod yr holl ffordd yn ôl i Geredigion, fy nghartref i , i siarad a myfyrwyr ym mhrifysgol Aberystwyth am yrfaoedd fel cyfiethydd neu cyfiethydd ar y pryd yn sefydliadau’r Undeb Ewropeaidd. Anodd i gredu ond mae’n boeth ac yn braf iawn yma heddi. Wrth yrru heibio’r coleg rwy’n gweld bod llawer o’r myfyrwyr ar eu ffordd nôl o’r traeth! Rwy’n dechrau becso bydd neb yn troi lan i fy nghyflwyniad i. Sut alla i gystadlu gyda’r haul, yn enwedig yn rhywle ble mae’n bwrw glaw siwt gymaint?! Yn ffodus, mae yna digon o ddiddordeb mewn gyrfaoedd Ewropeaidd ymhlith myfyrwyr yr adran ieithoedd modern ac nid oes rhaid siarad mewn neuadd ddarlithio wag.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rXCmHhihDI
Terça-feira, 27 de março de 2012
Depois da viagem de cinco horas em comboio de Aberystwyth a Londres, passo duas horas no escritório antes de voltar a sair para apanhar o metro em direção a uma escola no norte de Londres, para a final regional do concurso ‘Foreign Language Spelling Bee’. É um concurso para alunos de 11 e 12 anos, que têm de aprender e saber soletrar em voz alta uma série de palavras em francês, alemão ou espanhol. As crianças são incríveis – acho que eu estou mais nervoso do que eles ! Em Londres fala-se mais de 300 línguas, por isso não me surpreende ver que alguns dos melhores soletradores não falam inglês (nem francês, alemão ou espanhol) em casa. Os benefícios do bilinguismo são claros!
https://www.routesintolanguages.ac.uk/videos/2678
Środa, 28 marca 2012
Dzień w biurze. Wreszcie mam czas, żeby odpowiedzieć na e-maile! Muszę też napisać raport z warsztatu dla tłumaczy, który zorganizowałem ze stowarzyszeniem tłumaczy w Londynie. Ważne dla mnie jest też, aby na bieżąco informować mojego szefa w Brukseli, co robię. Również co środę mam wideokonferencję z kolegami i koleżankami w Brukseli, Paryżu, Berlinie, Wiedniu i Hadze. Możemy wymieniać się pomysłami i doświadczeniami, a także dowiedzieć się, co się dzieje w siedzibie w Brukseli.
Jueves, 29 marzo 2012
Empiezo el dia en un lugar fuera de lo común: un estudio de grabación en Hackney, Londres. Cantantes como Adele y Rihanna han grabado sus discos aquí, pero yo no voy a cantar – gracias a Dios! Estoy en el estudio con un grupo de jóvenes y ellos sí que van a cantar. Han ganado un concurso organizado por el Club de Fútbol Arsenal en el que tuvieron que escribir las letras en francés, castellano, italiano, alemán y griego para una canción sobre los Juegos Olímpicos que se celebran este verano en Londres. Para casi todos ellos, es la primera vez que se encuentran en un estudio de grabación pero no tienen miedo. Después de unos ejercicios para calentar las cuerdas vocales, cantan como profesionales y ni siquiera tienen problemas con las letras en lenguas extranjeras. Quizás puedan representar al Reino Unido el año que viene en el Festival de Eurovisión!
http://www.arsenaldoubleclub.co.uk/fun-zone/competition/
Vendredi, 30 mars 2012
Aujourd’hui, je suis à Manchester pour une conférence rassemblant des professeurs de langues. Je travaille sur notre stand où nous offrons des publications et des livres gratuits dans plusieurs langues et, bien sûr, les toujours très populaires posters et cartes de l’Europe. Il doit y avoir au moins une de nos cartes ou affiches sur les murs de presque chacune des écoles du Royaume-Uni! Je dois aussi m’exprimer pendant la conférence pour donner aux professeurs des informations sur le concours de traduction pour les élèves de 17 ans organisé par la Commission européenne – Juvenes Translatores. Heureusement, je partage le pupitre avec quelques professeurs qui présentent d’autres projets visant eux aussi à encourager les jeunes à apprendre les langues étrangères, ce qui est un vrai défi dans un pays où, selon un récent sondage, seulement 39 % de la population est capable de tenir une conversation dans au moins une langue étrangère.
http://ec.europa.eu/translatores/index_en.htm
I promised to publish the list for European Multilingual Blogging Day once we had thirty sign ups, which we now have. So here we go!
European Union 2.0 by @tonybxl EN-FR
Juan Luis Postcardwala by @juanluissays EN-ES
Βιβλία και Ξερό Ψωμί (Vivlia ke Xero Psomi) by @annabooklover EL
Dick Nieuwenhuis Blog by @dicknieuwenhuis NL, EN – EN
Drawing Discipline by @secretenvelope EN – ES, EN
ingridnavarrett by @ingridyo57 EN – ES
Euonym – Social Media meets the EU by @euonymblog EN – FR, DE
A Hobbit’s Great Adventure EN – FR, NL, EE
Encrypted File Storage by @neeboCloud EN
Teaching Frenzy EN – ES
MULTILINGUAL CAFE EN – ?
Beyond Borders by @mariosorg EN – DE
A Brit Abroad EN – FR, ES, RU
Cerveja e Salsicha by @CervejaSalsicha PT – EN, DE
Nette Hargreaves by @Nette Hargreaves EN – DE
The Wurst Is Yet To Come by @chris_pegg EN – DE (Great name Chris!)
Charlotte’s (World Wide) Web by @luna_moonsilver EN – DE, ZH
The Interpreter Diaries by @InterpDiaries EN – FR, ES, PT
Mon enfant trilingue by @juli_b_59 FR
In my words by @tulkur EN – SV
Linguis Europae by @eucenter EN, FR, ES, IT – DE, HU
Rhetorik-Blog by @HansHuett DE – EN
Workingberlinmum by @workberlinmum EN – DE
Sprachenlernen24 DE – FR, IT, RO, LT, NO, EL
Hecticophilia by @JesseLili FR – EN
AJ Reads by @alainnjj EN – EN, FR, ES, DE, IT
6 hours ahead by @MarthaToulouse EN – ES
Erasmus Life EN – FR
Tubblog – News and Advice for SMB IT Companies by @tubblog EN – DE
Élet Manchesterben HU – EN
Thirdyearabroad.com by @thirdyearabroad EN-IT
The Football League Blog by @FootyLeagueBlog EN – FR, Welsh
Fecking Off to France (Because I’m a Bad Friend) by @lalalalarousse EN – EN, FR, Occitan (that’s a first!)
TheAmateurParisienne by @rosie_welch EN – FR
SOCLAS blog EN – EN, FR, ES, DE, IT
I-R-Charles Oben by @CharlesOben EN – FR
Brusselswatch by @Brusselswatch EN – ES
SprachenNetz by @SprachenNetz DE – EN
LEONARDO: Adventures in Hungary EN – EN, HU
LEONARDO in France EN – EN, FR
Redmamy’s Daf Blog by @redmamy DE – DE
Neelie Kroes by @neeliekroesEU EN, NL – tbd
MidnightCookie PL – EN
Growing a library by @bumsonseats EN – DE
La Oreja de Europa by @MacarenaRG ES – EN, FR
In The Midst Of This Madness EN – FR, DE, IT
Eva en Europa by @evaeuropa EN, ES – EN, ES
Juvenes Translatores blog by @translatores EN – DE
Raya naplója HU – EN, FR, ES
I’ve created a graphic, which you are welcome to use with your blog entries on the 14th:
Wasn’t it wonderful? This great British summer of sport and culture and more? I played my own very small part in it, as a volunteer during the Olympics. I didn’t get to stand with a big pink foam hand – rather I was in the Athletes’ Village, helping with transport information.
But now it’s over and we have to get back to normality. We’ve got a lot coming up including the European Day of Languages, the Mock Council simulation day (and here’s an interesting paper on the value of simulations as a teaching aid) and Single Market Week, marking 20 years of the single market.
12-16 November is Internet Week Europe, a festival of digitalness around the Lovie awards which recognise the best of the web in English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. This isn’t organised by the Commission or EU, but obviously the idea of the multilingual web is interesting and so I thought it would be good to do European Multilingual Blogging Day 2012 in association with them. Hopefully it’ll be the biggest and best yet! If you’re interested in taking part, sign-up with the form, so that I can curate all the different entries. On 14 November, write your blog in a different language, or get a guest blogger in to do so. Write about whatever you want, though if you’re not sure where to start, maybe something about what languages mean to you might be a good place to start. I hope we’ll get lots of you taking part!
My friends will know that I’ve been having a bit of a hard time recently and am feeling quite unsettled about my life. Whether it’s chicken or egg, I don’t know, but this feeling of unease has also applied to my job. Maybe it’s unsurprising given I have worked for the Commission for 18 years. But then sometimes a day comes along that makes you think, my job rocks. Not only is it interesting and varied and intellectually challenging, but I am also part of something that is actually helping people and changing attitudes. And that day was yesterday.
It all started at Arsenal Emirates Stadium, where the kids involved in the Arsenal Double Club Olympic Song, Together in the Language of Sport, were putting together the video. The Double Club is a project that we have been involved in for several years, which uses football to help kids engage with foreign languages. Working with the Goethe Institut in particular, a song was written and schools were invited to take part in a competition where they wrote verses along the Olympic theme in 5 different languages (Spanish, French, Italian, German and Greek) and an English chorus. They recorded the song, and then yesterday 350 kids came to Arsenal to do the video. It was lovely seeing all these kids singing with great gusto in different languages. As a language junkie, I also loved learning the chorus in British Sign Language. Whenever I meet a deaf person now I’ll be able to have a great conversation, as long as it involves the phrases “there’s no losing, only winning” and “all together in the language of sport”. Here’s a brief taster of the video, which will be released officially on 18 July. Be warned – the song is a complete earworm that you’ll be humming for the rest of the day.
Then that evening I headed to the Royal Opera House for an event the like of which I’m sure that august venue has never seen. It was called With1voice and was a one-night festival with performers who are or have been homeless. There were two rooms, one more acoustic, with individual performers, poets, films and then a mainstage, with bands, choirs and theatre groups. It all came to a head with Streetwise Opera blasting out O Sole Mio. It was an astonishing evening, and really challenged my preconceptions of homelessness. It really made me realise that but for a few quirks of fate, that could be me, you, anyone. I think of all the acts I saw, the one that affected me most was Veteran Voices, based in Aldershot. Two of the former soldiers read poems they had written. They weren’t the greatest poetry ever written (and I know, because I write bad poetry myself), but these quite buttoned-up men, trained to be emotionless and direct, writing about what has happened to them in a very matter-of-fact way, but with the pain and hurt leaking out of the seams was so very moving. How has it come to this, that men who offered their lives to protect us are living in sheltered accommodation?
This was part of the London 2012 festival/Cultural Olympiad and the first time that homeless people have had a voice during the Olympics. There’s a petition to sign, if you’d like it to be a regular part. And an article in the Society Guardian to get another point of view of the night.
Some of the acts and films showcased:
Over the last few weeks I feel I have hardly had a chance to draw breath and though at various times I’ve thought “I’ll blog about that”, events always passed me by. I’ve got a bit of time now at the end of the last day before I head off on a couple of weeks leave, so I’ll try to remember some of the points I was going to make.
I was in Brussels for a few days at the start of what will be known as the March Marathon, and one of the reasons was to do a workshop (well, 2, but they were the same) on using social media for Europe Direct Information Centres. While they receive some funding from the Commission for their information activities, they are individual organisations, and their form ranges from NGOs or Community interest companies, to library services or regional government. So their needs vary and their flexibility to act independently does too. I did a presentation, then asked Europe Direct Leeds to show what they do, then gave them some time to discuss in small groups, share their own experiences, then a few of those in the room showed what they were doing. It was interesting to see how differently they were using the same tools, but there were enough ideas to share, and I’ve already nicked one from Europe Direct Ulm, using the Timeline feature on Facebook to show EU milestones. I was a bit worried about the pedagogical side of running a workshop, but the feedback has been good, so I think I got away with it 
I then headed back to the UK to do a careers talk at Leicester University. This was a repeat invite (always a compliment to be asked back) and this time instead of just the Modern Languages Department, it was advertised across the university. There were about 60 students there I think and after my presentation, there were lots of lively questions. I’m always slightly perplexed at these events by the weight of interest among the students on internships, rather than the full-time, long-term career prospects offered by applying for the concours. I wonder why that is. It could be that they aren’t interested in the EU as a long-term career, but see EU knowledge as important for other things. Or it could be that they are so fixated on internships as a route into work they miss the turning for the work itself. Frankly it feels a bit more like the latter, though I’d be happy to be corrected on that.
The next day was a Saturday and just to add to the madness of those few weeks, it was the second of my two Open University tutorials. I’ve enjoyed the creative writing course, but I don’t think you’ll be reading my name in the Booker Prize longlist any time soon…
Then on the Sunday it was off to Manchester for the Apeldoorn conference, which brings together Dutch and UK people from across business and society. The theme this time was Higher Education at the Heart of Growth and we had some excellent speakers, including the Universities Minister, David Willetts. Apeldoorn is really great for the people you meet, on your own “side” as much as from over the North Sea, with some really useful contacts made for the future. I also had a #technologywin: with the purchase of one little VGA adaptor I was able to present the conclusions of the workshop for which I was rapporteur direct from my iPad. Just a further example of how my iPad has become the kernel of a mobile office as far as I’m concerned.
The day after I got back from Manchester it was off to Birmingham for the Education Show. Our stall was pretty mobbed, with the Passport to the European Union and Languages Take You Further publications particularly popular. Thousands of people passed through our stall over the three days, and not one was critical or hostile in any way, in fact they were on the whole delighted with the support, particularly for the languages. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the introduction of languages in primary schools, it seems pretty clear that there are many teachers who feel a bit lost and are glad to have ideas of what to do. Obviously we provide pretty bland material, click the links to see them for yourself, and it’s completely up to teachers how they want to use them in their classrooms.
I’ve been back in London since then, but out at some really interesting events. I Storified the Westminster Media Forum event on press regulation. I chaired a fascinating afternoon linked to the European Year of Active Ageing, in which the Greater London Forum for Older People got about 120 of their members together to hear about the cooperation that Enfield over-50s Forum has been doing with twin towns in France and Germany. I was roped in the afternoon before to chair the event as the chair dropped out, and I’m very glad I did, as it was fascinating. One thing that came out very clearly was the strength of attachment to the Freedom Pass. Many older people see it as a lifeline, getting them out of the house and allowing them to have a social life, thereby keeping them healthy both physically and mentally. Mess with it at your peril, Mayor of London, whoever you end up being.
The final noteworthy events took place on the same day. I was representing the office at the British Academy event on the value of a year abroad, and you can read my tweets about it by searching the #yrabroad hashtag. There was a lot of talk about the usefulness of social media in getting students interested in a year abroad, but precious little social media going on at the event. Lizzie Fane at Third Year Abroad is an honourable exception in terms of her use of social media, but I have to admit that there was probably an age thing going on, which is as worrying in its own way. 100% of the students that took part in Lizzie’s graduate survey said their time spent abroad during their degree had been worth it, but the average age in the room of people talking about the policy aspects must have been pushing 50 plus.
While I was at the British Academy, and mainly during the lunch break, I took part in a Q&A on the Guardian Voluntary Sector Network about how charities can access EU funding. The Q&A is here and the best bits summed up here. The Guardian does these Q&As very well; I’ve previously done one on languages for careers and there was another on a similar theme this week.
Anyway, after all that and judging the UACES/ThomsonReuters Reporting Europe Prize, I think I’ve earned my two weeks away. So I’m off. Have a great Easter, everyone.
Notre jour du blogging multilingue est là, et comme je suis encore une fois en voyage, j’ai invité mon collègue traducteur John d’écrire quelque-chose cette année. Voilà sa contribution, et vous trouverez aussi des autres contributions dans les commentaires des postes anterieurs.
I ddathlu’r Diwrnod Ewropeaidd ar gyfer Ieithoedd, rydym yn gobeithio bydd pobol o bob cwr Ewrop a thu hwnt yn cymryd rhan heddiw mewn yr ail Diwrnod Blogio Amlieithog. Fel Cymro, rhaid i mi ddechrau fy mlog i yn y Gymraeg. Ond mae’n rhaid cyfaddef nid ydywf wedi ysgrifennu llawer yn y Gymraeg esr gadael ysgol – digon o siarad wrth gwrs on dim llawer o ysgrifennu, felly ymddiheuraf nawr am unrhyw camgymeridadau. Yn ystod y deunaw blynedd diwethaf, rydw i wedi cael y cyfle i ddysgu sawl iaith yn y prifysgol a trwy fy ngwaith i fel cyfieithydd (yn gwiethio mewn i Saesneg a nid Cymraeg), ond pan roeddwn i yn byw ar y cyfandir, doedd dim teimlad yn debyg i gyrraedd adre a slipio nol mewn i’r Gymraeg a clywed yr hen iaith yn cael ei siarad o amgylch y dre. Gyda’r Cymraeg a’r Cymry mae fy nghalon wedi bod erioed.
Yo diría que mi gran aventura con el castellano comenzó cuando llegué a España por primera vez como estudiante Erasmus en los años noventa y, lamentablemente, dejé atrás a mi primera lengua extranjera, el francés. La lengua francesa llegó a ser la amante desdeñada por la que sigo sintiendo algo pero no sé exactamente qué: una mezcla de vergüenza, culpa y añoranza, por lo que fue y por lo que podría haber sido. Además, a través de mi historia con la lengua de Cervantes, Neruda, Almodóvar y Shakira, he conocido, flirteado y lo he pasado bien con el catalán y el portugués, pero siempre permanecí fiel a la lengua española, una lengua encantadora, con su jota, su erre y su zeta, tan parecidas a los sonidos de las letras ‘ch’ ‘r’ y ‘th’ en galés, pero capaces de producir palabras como juerga, corazón y zorro.
Moja relacja z językiem polskim przypomina natomiast zaaranżowane małżeństwo. Kiedy zacząłem pracować jako tłumacz w Komisji Europejskiej w kwietniu 2005, było to krótko po rozszerzeniu UE na wschód i zachęcano wszystkich tłumaczy w departamencie angielskim do uczenia się języków „nowych” krajów. Co za różnica, czy to język polski, czeski, słoweński czy węgierski? Wydawało mi się, że wszystkie są bardzo trudne. Mimo że nie potrafiłem zliczyć do pięciu, kiedy moje polskie koleżanki próbowały nauczyć mnie liczyć do dziesięciu – wymowa polska była niewiarygodnie trudna w prównaniu z językami romańskimi – za namową polskich kolegów i koleżanek, czy może raczej swatów i swatek, wybrałem polski. Moja relacja z językiem polskim to walka. Przypadki i deklinacja? To z pewnością potencjalne przyczyny rozwodu! Teraz mogę powiedzieć, że to co czuję to prawie miłość, nie wiem jednak czy to uczucie jest odwzajemnione. Język polski, podobnie jak Polki, które znam, jest bardzo wymagający! Mogę przynajmniej powiedzieć, że moja relacja z językiem polskim jest prostsza niż moja relacja z językiem litewskim – ta ostatnia to prawdziwy tragiczny romans! Ale to temat innego blogu.
After we all had so much fun with it last year, who’s up for a 2nd Day of Multilingual Blogging? Again, the date would be 26 September and the idea would be to write your blog in a language you don’t usually use. For some this might mean writing it in their native language because they usually blog in another, or for those like me that are lucky to blog in their native language, we’ll write in another one. Being able to communicate in more than one language is a joy and a privilege and we should celebrate it for at least one day a year!
Sign up below if you’re interested or on the Facebook page for the event, and spread the word on Twitter with the #babel2 hashtag.
I was part of an event at the Foreign Office yesterday which brought University Vice-Chancellors, department heads and career advisers together to talk to them about the EU as a potential career for their students. It was heartening, if surreal, to sit a foot or two away from William Hague as he said “the EU is vital to the UK’s interests”. This government has really thrown itself behind this issue, and as far as these things matter, the fact that the Foreign Secretary came along the day before the strategic defence review and two days before the comprehensive spending review is impressive.
We kicked off with a film of students talking about what they knew (or perhaps more accurately didn’t know) about the opportunities that exist to work for the EU.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlGcxkuUcN4]
Then Simon Fraser, the top civil servant at the FCO, who did two stints in Brussels, talked very personally about what he had got out of it.
Many of the questions in the first part focused on the teaching of foreign languages in British schools and universities, something regulars will know I write about alot. I was then asked to be one of two case studies, just an example of what working in the EU can lead you to do, where I repeated pretty much what I have said on this blog before. There was, to coin a phrase, a lot of love in the room, and I was inundated at the end by requests to come and talk to students at this or that university. There is such a thing as overexposure (!), so we’re thinking of a sort of “Back to College” scheme, where EU officials who come back to the UK every now and then make themselves available to talk at their old university, or maybe the university in their hometown. Let’s see if we can make that work.
In the meantime, if you’re interested in finding out more, check out the Foreign Office site or the EU careers site.
Finalement, on y est: la journée du blogging multilingue. Une idée qui m’est venue après une discussion sur Twitter si l’Euroblogosphere est trop anglophone. Il m’était clair que même si la plupart des Euroblogs sont écrits en Anglais, les écrivains eux-mêmes sont de plusieurs nationalités et langues maternelles: Ralf Grahn étant finlandais, Europasionaria espagnole, Julien Frisch allemand etc. Et aussi, ceux qui sont bien britanniques ou anglophone, comme moi, sont pas necessairement incapable d’écrire dans une autre langue (ou langues!).
Je suis impressionée par le succes qu’on a connu jusqu’ici, étant donné que cette initiative a été lancé un peu “bouche à l’oreille”. De ce point de vue, il s’agit aussi d’une experimentation des pouvoirs des médias sociaux.
Ich hoffe, wie können diesen Initiativ im nächsten Jahr nochmals machen, mit viel mehr Mitmachern/innen. Ohne zu “offiziel” zu werden : wir sind nach wie vor bloggers! Und ich werde versuchen zu Hause oder im Büro zu sein: ich bin im Moment in Manchester bei dem Parteiconferenz der britischen Partei der Arbeit, und ich muß alles auf ein iPad schreiben – nicht einfach, kann ich euch sagen!
Claro, lo que escribo no es perfecto. Pero es importante que communicamos. Y las lenguas son muy importante para communicar. Hablar con una persona en su lengua muestra cómo estamos abierto a las nuevas experiencias, nuevos modos de hacer, nuevas amistades!
Slechts een klein beetje op een ander taal te kunnen zeggen of schrijfen is beter als niets, denk je niet?!
*This post is part of the Day of Multilingual Blogging on 26 September, to mark the European Day of Languages.*