celebrating EDL

students' essays
--- corrected versions ---

notes: 

- to do a mural, not to make..

- habits = costumes

- custom = hábito

- customs = alfândega

- costume = fato (roupa)

Francisco Afonso,  12º E, n.º 10
Suggestions for the EDL

For the European Day of Languages we should make a big cake with many words in various languages and sell it at school, with some flags around us or distributed by us while playing music from different European countries.

I think that shouldn’t be an activity requiring much interaction with other people, because maybe many of us would feel embarrassed or shy doing it.

But I do (*) think it is important to celebrate a European day of languages: we will need to do some research, thus getting to know other countries better, as well as something about the languages spoken in Europe.

(*) in this sentence, the verb ‘do’ emphasizes the idea (I do think… = acho mesmo…)

Ruben Tavares, 12.º D ,  n.º 18
What's EDL?

Every 26th. September the European Community celebrates the European Day of Languages to raise awareness to the linguistic diversity and riches in Europe.

As in the rest of the continent, in Portugal we also celebrate this day, specifically in schools. In our class we don’t have many ideas about what could be done, though some have been put forward: a parade, flags, saluting people, a musical, a mural and music.

I personally don’t enjoy this kind of things, but to celebrate the European Day of Languages I can give some suggestions, for example: to make a video where we all speak all the European languages; to write a few words on a fly and give it to people. Or, who knows, create a page on Facebook about the EDL.

Inês Cardoso, 12.º E ,  n.º 18

I have no idea if my suggestion will sound awful or out of place but this is the only one I’ve got so far. Each one of us could represent a citizen from a different country, search about the culture of the country we’re supposed to be from and present it o the class. It could be done individually or in group.

In my opinion it’d be nice, because some of us don’t really know a lot about the culture of other European countries besides Spain or England and this would be a nice way to interact with my classmates.

João Nunes, 12.º E ,  n.º 15
European Day of Languages

The EDL is a day that consists in celebrating the existence of different languages around Europe. The EDL has the purpose of appealing for diversity and celebrate it, therefore I believe we should create a short story about each of these languages.

Moreover, this story would include all the different accents and linguistic varieties and be performed by some of the students in this class. Nevertheless, only the students who offered to perform would do it, while the others would write the story.

EDL is an important day and I consider this a good way to celebrate our diversity. 

Andreia Lopes, 12.º D ,  n.º 6

For the European Day of Languages, we could dress up in traditional clothes from different European countries while playing music from those countries.

Ellie Lopes, 12.º E ,  n.º 26
Suggestions for the celebration

To celebrate this day we can use some flags with a few words in a different language.

We can do a musical too: each one of us would sing a song in a different language.  

We can also do an exhibition or a mural with pictures of European countries or even a play showing the different cultural aspects of those countries.

Milton Barreiro, 12º D, n.º 16
Suggestions for the European Day of Languages (EDL) – September 26th.

The European Union (EU) has always made sure that its diversity of cultures, habits, traditions and (of course) languages was preserved. With that intention in mind several projects and have been carried out in order to celebrate the EU’s diversity, one of them being the European Day of Languages (EDL).

EDL’s aim is to make sure that everyone in the EU is aware of the linguistic diversity that the EU possesses.

In order to celebrate it my suggestion is that, for one day, we behave as if we were citizens of another European country.

André Gonçalves,  12º D, n.º 4
Suggestions for the European Day of Languages

The celebration of the European Day of Languages is usually not a very appealing subject to the students. However, that could be changed if we had chosen one of the options some of us had suggested. When the teacher asked if we wanted to do a parade and we refused, we were only refusing that particular option, because there were some nice ideas written on the board. There was one that could be interesting: doing a mural. We could use some wall from school or do a big poster to be shown somewhere in our school. The mural could have quotes written in different languages.

Tiago Rodrigues,  12º E, n.º 24

In my opinion, a good idea for the celebration of the European Day of Languages on September 26 would be doing a mural, writing some words in different European languages with the flags of those countries. We could also write there the names of different people, such as artists who sing in their own country, their own language. We could search and find out about important writers too. People, who, like Luís de Camões, make works of art using the riches of their mother tongue.


Doinita Druta,  12º E, n.º 9
European Day of Languages

The European Day of Languages takes place on September 26, which will happen next week.

To celebrate this day our teacher told us to come up with suggestions that could make this day more meaningful for us.

At this moment I have no idea about what we could do, but some of my classmates suggested creating a song. I thought it's a very good idea, we could write something which involves many different languages. Such a thing will be hard to do having so little time, but we could give it a try.

Doing a mural with messages in different languages is another option. We could search for words with the same meaning in different languages. There are various things that could be interesting, all we need is time.

Mónica Teixeira,  12º D, n.º 17

I think we could do a written work where we’d put some information about other countries: how they salute people, how they live, their origins, their habits, what they eat.
I think the European Day of Languages is important because it shows us the different types of languages spoken by people around Europe and it is really relevant to celebrate this day because most of us don’t realise there’s such a huge linguistic diversity in Europe. In fact, many people don’t even know which countries make part of the European Union.


Olga Klimova,  12º E, n.º 19

For this day we could read some story from countries that make part of the UE. Something where we could learn about how they celebrate the European Day of Languages, some aspects of their history, interesting events which have taken place in those countries.
Another suggestion is we wore some outfits that are typical and representative of those countries. We could learn and perform some traditional dances too.