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European Year of Languages 2001
As well as Birmingham’s Year of Europe, 2001 is also the European Year of Languages (EYL). This is a Europe-wide celebration across 45 countries, coordinated in UK by the Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (CILT) in London (telephone 020 7379 5101).

Birmingham Comenius Centre is fully involved in EYL. There will, therefore, be many occasions when the two years become one for us in Birmingham. One example is the Languages Challenge for Key Stage 2, inviting schools to produce a performance in one or more languages other than English, performed on Comenius EYL Day, Friday 29 June. Similar events will be taking place at Comenius Centres around the country on the same day.

Europe Day was Wednesday 9 May, and many institutions were involved. Wednesday 26 September is European Day of Languages.

For further details of Comenius activities, please contact the Coordinator (Paul Nutt):

Tel: 0121 303 8139/46      E-mail:  paul_nutt@birmingham.gov.uk

October events
The major collaboration of the year will take place on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 October. There will be three strands:

A two-day pan-European languages conference at the ICC, Birmingham, hosted by CILT;

A parallel festival, organised by Birmingham’s Year of Europe at the same venue, celebrating the linguistic and cultural diversity of our City;

A European Young People’s Parliament, video-conferencing with 4 other European Countries, managed by Birmingham from Millennium Point.

For further details of Birmingham’s Year of Europe, please contact the Coordinator (Linda Cottrell):

Tel:  0121 303 1160         E-mail: linda_cottrell@birmingham.gov.uk