In 2001, the European Commission has established the European Day of Languages to be celebrated on the 26th of September each year. And today I managed to attend this event in Bucharest for the first time, as for the past years I never seemed to make it, for one reason or another.
How was the event organized? In the yard of a famous Bucharest museum, several stands of the various European Cultural Institutes with a headquarter in our city, were waiting for their numerous visitors. The participating countries were: Germany, Turkey, Belgium, Great Britain, Portugal, Greece, Austria, France, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic, Spain, and of course the Representation of the European Commission in Bucharest.
Each of the presenting countries made guests complete a task. This could be a cultural quiz, to verify your general knowledge about a specific nation, guessing famous landmarks from pictures and placing them on the country's map, matching fragments of literary texts with titles of literary works, memorizing games based on factual information on a specific city, or matching the meaning of certain words between Romanian and the host country's language.
What did I learn today?
.... Germans are not a hard nation to figure out. I scored 6 out of 10 questions from the cultural quiz of the Goethe Institut. So far so good, given the fact that I just started learning their not-so-easy language!
.... Turkey is an amazing country, with spectacular landmarks. I really wish them more peaceful times ahead, so that everyone can relax and enjoy this country's beauties.
.... I still know my English children's literature pretty well. Not one single mistake! And the Earl Grey tea I was offered crowned (ha!) my success.
.... Portugal is a country that I'd like to visit in the near future. And for my seaside holiday in Algarve (nothing more, nothing less) I will need: chinelos, guarda-sol, toalha da praia and fato de banho. All clear, right? :)
... Greeks are even easier to figure out. From their 10-question quiz, I only got 1 wrong. And I got myself a map of Greece, in honour of my next travel destination (hint, hint!) :)
.... I was warned that the quiz about Paris was difficult. But I got it right from the first time. And surprise: my French was not as 'imparfaite' as I thought!
.... thanks to the Istituto Italiano di Cultura and their landmarks pictures, I found out even how Caserta looks like (one city I knew almost nothing about, apart from the fact that it's in Campania). They organize free movie evenings once a week, and the guy hosting the stand was really nice and cool. And Sicilian. ;)
.... Hungary is a paradise of thermal water spas. Which sounds interesting! Brochure: taken. Koszonom szepen!
.... Czech and Romanian have several similar words. Only the spelling can be tricky. But, with a bit of Staropramen beer, you might even become fluent!
.... Polish and Romanian instead are sharing some pairs of homonyms. That is, words spelled and pronounced the same way, but which have different meanings in each language. For example, Romanian word 'pas', meaning 'step', in Polish means 'belt'. Or 'obraz' means 'cheek' in Romanian, and 'picture' in Polish. Not to mention that I came with 2 big brochures about Polish cities and touristic attractions. Time to consider another trip! :)
.... switching languages may not be as difficult as one might think, but you might need an extra bit of concentration. Today I spoke English, French, Italian and Spanish with the relevant stands in a matter of minutes. And it was not difficult at all. On the contrary: it was actually fun.
EDL is one of those events which are both fun and educational, and it doesn't last too long to visit each stand. Therefore, it is easy to squeeze between other commitments during the day. My only advice is not to lose your patience with the other visitors, as it is a pretty crowded event, including also families with children. But this demonstrates that people are up for some higher-level activities, not just watching reality shows on TV. And this can only make me happy!
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