In collaboration with the office of the Region of Southern Jutland-Schleswig, the Danish embassy in Berlin is arranging a conference on Danish and German as neighbour languages.
The conference will illustrate the advantages of language skills through positive examples from individuals from Denmark and Germany who have had the benefit of these intercultural competences.
Different lectures will aim at enforcing the investment in teaching neighbour languages, and will also address the advantages of an early and binding start to teaching foreign and neighbour languages in school.
Learning foreign languages has been an important topic in Europe and the European Union for a long time. The Union would like to give the citizens a chance to learn two languages besides their mother tongue from an early age, create a friendlier society where different groups and individuals are in a constant dialogue with each other, and use languages to make people more attractive as a workforce and strengthen the ability to compete.
The different countries are therefore encouraged to take initiatives in the field of languages.
First and foremost, the English language has a dominant role as an international form of communication, but the neighbour languages are emphasised on a European level as well.
It has been stressed that knowledge of languages has special significance in borderlands.
Organized in cooporation with the Danish Embassy Germany, Per Erik Veng, E-mail: beramb@um.dk