Agenda overview

Throughout Europe, 800 million Europeans are represented in the Council of Europe’s 47 member states and all are encouraged to discover more languages at any age, as part of or alongside their studies. This stems from the Council of Europe’s conviction that linguistic diversity is a tool for achieving greater intercultural understanding and a key element in the rich cultural heritage of our continent. Therefore, the Council of Europe, in Strasbourg, promotes plurilingualism in the whole of Europe.

At the Council of Europe’s initiative, the European Day of Languages has been celebrated every year since 2001 on 26 September. This year we are inviting everyone to participate in a language challenge around the European Day of Languages!

So if you want to learn some Frisian…. just go ahead!

For more info, visit the website.

The first Transpoesie 2019 evening, scheduled on the European Day of Languages, opens the 9th edition of the international contemporary poetry festival!

The invited poets will read from their works in their mother tongue – Czech, Basque, Frisian, Dutch and Slovenian. If you don’t understand those languages, don’t worry, translations will be screened simultaneously during the reading (in Dutch, English and/or French). Elmar Kuiper is the poet that represents Fryslân this year for the Transpoesie Project.

Location: Muntpunt 6, Brussel

The province of Fryslân organises their annual Fryslân Day at the European Union on Wednesday 9 October. The day fits into the European week of Regions and Cities. The day is dedicated to the value of minority languages in the European context.

The province wants to present Fryslân to a broad, international audience  that day. It will be the third time that the Fryslân Day will be organised in Brussels. The evening before there is a network reception organized by the SNN (Coalition of the Northern Netherlands), as part of the European week of Regions and Cities.

Representatives of Afûk will also be present at the Fryslân Day.

A two-day international conference in Edinburgh co-organised by the Basque Institute Etxepare and the University of Edinburgh. Its aims are to exchange knowledge and promote collaboration between academics and professionals working on minority-language media. For more information, go to the website of the University of Edinburgh.

Frankfurter Buchmesse is the most important marketplace worldwide for printed and digital content and a great social and cultural event. In October, publishing experts, writers, players from the creative industry and culture enthusiasts from across the world will meet here to network, discuss, negotiate, make decisions, to marvel and celebrate. Frankfurt becomes the worldwide hub of the media and publishing industry in October, with ground-breaking contracts, innovative technologies and world literature you can touch.

The theme of the 8th edition of DRONGO language festival is ‘The impact of language’. At DRONGO language festival 2019, it is not only about what language is, but also about what language does. As a means for development and as a source of entertainment, as a cause of inequality and as a result of fantasy. The 8th festival takes place in the Elinor Ostrom building of the Radboud University of Nijmegen on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 October. Read more about it at www.drongofestival.nl.