Lara's language journey across Europe

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The languages you will encounter over the following pages reflect the diversity of the cultures and traditions which exist side by side on our continent. Some of the around 225 languages which are native to Europe are spoken by millions and others, that are only spoken by a handful of people, are, sadly, close to dying out.

During this short journey, you will discover lots of similarities. European languages largely fall into three main categories: Slavic, Romance and Germanic, the languages within each group have the same roots – however, over centuries they have developed in their own distinct directions. You will also find out about their differences: the variety of alphabets (such as Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Armenian and Georgian), often using artistic scripts; how they deal with creating words for new inventions and their sometimes mysterious origins. All have a unique identity and their own story to tell!

How do these languages sound?

Guide for teachers


How to use the book in class - a few ideas:

  • Check the different versions of the book that are available here.
  • There are 2 sets of stickers available:
    • Main story stickers: Where do the stickers belong to in the book? Either print the stickers on a sticker paper or simply print them on a regular paper so students can cut them and glue them into the book.
    • Rounded speech bubble stickers: some of those are availble through your relay. Otherwise simply print them on an A3 paper and have students write them into the book.
  • Where are the languages in the book being spoken?
  • Can you find similarities between the languages
  • Check out the interesting facts in the main story and work with those.
  • Which languages are similar to yours? Explore the language tree on page 51. You can also print the language tree as a poster and put it on the classroom wall.
  • Make a list for the number of mother tongue speakers from small to big.
  • Have the students find out similarities in the words in the speech bubbles: e.g. Can you see which "yes" and "no" are similar?
  • ...

How did YOU use it? Let us know any good ideas!

 
I will print the book without the information. I will give the information to the students and they will have to stick it in the correct language. Then will colour it and hang it on any school wall. At the entrance of the school we will place the cover of the book and the tree of languages to encourage families, teachers and students to find all languages around the school. I will also ask my students to think a word which languages represent for them (tolerance, culture, respect, learning, etc.) and place them also all around the school.

COLLEGI SANT BONAVENTURA, Spain
 
I'm asking each student to work with the CANVA app and make a poster about a European country of their choice, discover its flag, map and currency. Then students must translate using Google, a few useful words for a tourist visiting that country. Finally the students must pronounce and record those words.

Anabela Brito, Portugal
 
I have printed out the pages of the book and put them on the wall all over the school. The students can read about different languages, they can also scan QR code and explore the languages themselves.

Mateja Sukič Kuzma, Slovenia
 
J'enseigne le "FLE" aux élèves allophones nouvellement arrivés au collège. Ils vont chercher les pays, y associer les langues et nous allons créer de nouveaux posters avec les leurs.

Marie, France
 
I have erased some of the languages in the family language trees and I am going to ask them to fill in with the missing languages that I will give them. Then I will ask which language they would like to explore more and thn I will challenge them to learn the basics of this language from the handbook and read the text. Finally, they will make posters in groups and/or record words of these languages

Maria, Greece
 

Versions of the first book

1

The complete book, available in many languages (see above)

 

 

2

In this version the main story is missing. The main story is in a separate pdf and can be printed on regular office stickers. Students can then find out to which language the parts of the story belong to.

3

Book without main story and without speech bubbles. In this version students can do all of the above plus work on the speech bubbles, either by filling them in or by using the speech bubble stickers