At the end of March 2022, the Languages and Intercultural Dialogue Office at the College of Europe in Natolin organised a second edition of linguo-cultural workshops to showcase the inextricable relationship between culture and language. We invite you to read more about the first edition which took place during the month of November 2021 through this link.
“Cuántas langues credi falar?” Mutual (non)comprehension between romance languages: tips and traps
Monday, 28 March 2022
This workshop focused on broadly understood linguistics, particularly interlinguistics and confrontative linguistics. It focused on the morphology of the largest Romance languages and discuss the forms characteristic of a given language and compare them to forms of other languages keeping in mind their evolution from Latin.
Romance languages have many common features, which means that the degree of mutual understanding between their native speakers is relatively high. Nevertheless, despite the common ancestor, Latin, their separate development has resulted in grammatical solutions peculiar to each of these languages. Often the same mechanisms ceased to be used in one language at a certain time and became the most frequently used solution in others. The workshop's main aim was to highlight the similarities and differences between the forms of the discussed languages to organize their systematic similarity or lack thereof.
The workshop was conducted by the Spanish language professor Maciej JASKOT at the College of Europe in Natolin, a linguist and Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Catalan speaker.
Turning Turk. About the complexity of Turkish culture
Tuesday, 29 March 2022
Turkish culture is more complex than that shaped by your thought-based stereotypes. Turkic nomad tribes on the move from Central Asia to Asia Minor were successful in invading and syncretizing the cultures they met on their way and thus created an amalgam of different cultural elements. This has been preserved within rites, customs, and daily habits. This workshop introduced some words from this melodic, logical tongue, one of the Turkic families of languages that 170 million people speak in the world.
The workshop was run by Prof. Agnieszka AYSEN KAIM, a graduate of Oriental studies, a translator, academic teacher, and storyteller. She chose Oriental studies because of her Turkish descent. She translates because it is the fastest way of moving between the two cultures; she tells stories and teaches to shed light on the complexity of both cultures, their values and traditions, and personal stories.
English as a Lingua Franca – pronunciation features that matter
Thursday, 31 March 2022
The exact number of non-native speakers of English is hard to estimate, but it has long exceeded the number of those regarded as its native speakers. This has led to more research into how non-native speakers use English to communicate with other non-native speakers.
English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) is a theoretical construct that has caused a whole spectrum of reactions both in the academic world as well as among teaching practitioners – from enthusiasm to vehement criticism. The workshop focused on what ELF has to offer to promote intercultural intelligibility through its research on pronunciation. lt looked at the features of the latter that constitute the so-called Lingua Franca Core and practise those aspects of pronunciation that promote intelligibility in a world where English is not necessarily seen as a conveyor of any one particular culture.
Professor Mateusz BYRSKI, the English language professor at the College of Europe in Natolin, ran the workshop. Mr BYRSKI graduated from St. Stephen’s College in New Delhi, India. He has worked as a teacher in Poland, Australia, and the United Kingdom. He has had the privilege of working with students hailing from many cultural backgrounds since he started teaching in 1997.