Language United

Language  United arose  from identification  of the dangers of xenophobia,  intolerance and discrimination arising in Europe, and brings together 10 countries and 10 partners committed to work on new ideas and create future language-based projects which will bring nations closer and tend to “Unite”. The aim of Language United is to deconstruct the process of differentiation and separation, help communities overcome stereotypes and develop further tools that bring people together throughout  the Europe. With Language United we want to show the people that all EU languages are intertwined and that after centuries of language evolvement there are so many roots that bind us all.

The  exchange  of experiences  and opinions in  sustainable educational  work will support an international  and intercultural understanding for  a civic and democratic society. With this project we want to offer seminar space for persons who are youth workers and start a debate about  the social conditions in Europe, which represents a frame for our work as trainers, teachers, youth workers and learn what influences us and also our target groups.

During  the seminar,  we will put the  focus on languages,  especially on two points. First,  we should recognize that our own languages  are different, but influenced by other cultures  for centuries. So, in all languages we can find words which are  in origin from another country in Europe or even another continent. For example, in German language we can discover the origin of  words from Arabian countries, from France, Italy, Malaysia, Greece etc. But most people don’t recognize how multicultural  languages actually are. Interesting will be to “see” the European history behind the words or languages and also to discover  common European traditions, heritage and the reciprocally influence from European countries and to recognize that we are much more united, much more that we are aware. 

Prosperous trade, for example around the Baltic Sea (with the Hanse) or along the “Silk road” brought exotic goods to Europe. But  this brought not only Merchants but also Scholars and with them ideas, religion and Cultures from the East to the West  and the other way around, producing an exchange of experiences and knowledge. Migration of people, for example that of Germanic  and Slavic people into Europe from the 2nd to the 11th centuries, the Crusades in the middle Ages or military conflicts in Europe or other regions in the world clearly left its mark. During this process which never ends, all languages where influenced and this means new words were created or words  from other countries started being used in everyday life. Of course, big influence of Greece was felt in all our cultures and languages so we decided to meet in Thessaloniki.

Secondly, we will see and discuss that languages also show the values and thinking pattern of people  and societies. We can recognize that language shows how we see the world and also that the same word could have different meanings from different point of views. How we use our language,  which words we use for example to describe situations and show our values which are characterized personal, cultural and social. Our language is a part of our Identity and gives us a sense of belonging to a group of persons, nationality or culture.

This seminar will tackle issues such as: solidarity, intercultural dialogue, languages and barriers, history, anti-discrimination, conflict management, European citizenship, peace and conflict and Non-formal Education. Additionally, we will discuss our experiences with hate speech and what this means for us and our work with young people. For fruitful and successful discussions, each organization will bring some material with them, which we can use in the workshops, in order to create ideas for new Projects and/or new methods.

This seminar will have three goals:

• To exchange  information, expertise  and experiences to create  mutual understanding on values, principals and intercultural approach.
• To develop a solid cooperation among European project partners for to promote transnational youth exchanges and intercultural dialogue.
• To create new projects and methods, notably concerning the main topic.

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