[EDLING:288] Children Draw on Multilingualism

[Francis M. Hult]

Children Draw on Multilingualism

http://www.eurolang.net/

Peter Josika in Biel/ Bienne 8/16/2004

The bilingual Swiss city of Biel/Bienne in conjunction with the Biel/Bienne
based “Forum for Bilingualism” and the Network of Bi- and Multilingual
Municipalities of Europe organised a competition called “Children draw
multilingualism” in which schools from bi- and multilingual towns across
Europe were invited to participate.

The theme of the project was for children aged 8 to12 to express thoughts and
feelings on the multilingual identity of their hometown or region in the form
of a drawing and face the challenge of dealing with their multilingual
environment in a creative way.

Each participating city preselected five drawings in a preliminary contest.
The drawings were then sent to the organiser to be scanned and uploaded onto
the web. The three winners were finally selected by a jury consisting of two
members from each participating city.

Thirteen municipalities from across Europe accepted the invitation by the
organiser. They were the towns of Bad Radkersburg/Radgona in Austria,
Bautzen/Budyšin and Flensburg/Flensborg in Germany, Biel/Bienne and
Murten/Morat in Switzerland, the city of Český Těšín/Czeski Cieszyn in the
Czech Republic, Helsinki/Helsingfors in Finland, Miercurea-Ciuk/Csikszereda in
Transylvania-Romania, Strasbourg/Strassburg in Alsace- France, Strzelce
Opolskie/Grossstrehlitz in Silesia-Poland, Vigo in Galicia-Spain, the Italian
town of Trieste/Tršt as well as the capital of Luxembourg, the city of
Luxembourg/Lëtzebuerg/Luxemburg.

A twelve year old student of the “Hebelschule”-School in Flensburg/Flensborg
won the first price with a collage made of newspaper strips and drawn lips.
Second place went to a twelve year old boy of Bautzen/Budyšin for his drawing
titled “The dream of peace”. A painting from Luxembourg/Lëtzebuerg/Luxemburg
called "Everyone is part of it” came third.

The winner will receive a cheque worth EUR 400 and a certificate at a ceremony
at Flensburg/Flensborg on September 1. Second and third prices will receive
cheques worth EUR 200 and EUR 100 respectively as well as certificates.

Scans of all drawings can now be viewed on the homepage of the Forum for
Bilingualism at www.bilinguisme.ch/competition-wettbewerb/. The originals will
be exhibited at the Flensburg/Flensborg children’s museum (Kindermuseum
Flensburg) from September 2 for about three weeks and will then move to the
municipal library of Biel/Bienne (Stadtbibliothek Biel/ Bibliothèque de la
Ville de Bienne) until early in November. Exhibitions in other cities that
have already expressed interest are likely to follow.

The organisers thanked all participants, including mayors, councillors,
headmasters, teachers and, most importantly, hundreds of children, for their
great effort in making the competition a major success. They hope that similar
future projects will continue to strengthen cooperation between bi- and
multilingual towns and to further promote the linguistic diversity of Europe
on a municipal level. (Eurolang)

Links

Website of the competition: www.bilinguisme.ch/competition-wettbewerb/ (in
English, German and French)

Forum for Bilingualism, Biel/Bienne www.bilinguisme.ch/ (in German and French)