Dun Karm Scerri Primary School in Naxxar and Sir Adrian Dingli Girls' Junior Lyceum, Pembroke, organised separate activities recently to celebrate the European Day of Languages.

The Pembroke school, which forms part of St Claire's College, held a special assembly and conducted visits to various language and cultural centres, while at the Naxxar primary, all Year 5 pupils researched how to spell and pronounce words like 'good morning' and 'welcome' in the languages of the 27 EU member countries, and put up visual material in the school's foyer.

During the Pembroke school assembly, foreign students attending the school read messages in their native language, including Serbian, Romanian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Russian, which they subsequently translated into Maltese.

This is the second year that Joseph Salamone and Chris Giordano, co-ordinator and teacher of Maltese respectively, are running a project that enables foreign students to learn Maltese so that they can better integrate with local students.

Teachers of English also conducted a quiz between Form 1 and 2 students about English literature and culture. Later, Form 2 students, accompanied by their foreign language teachers, visited the Italian Cultural Institute, the Spanish-Maltese Cultural Circle, the German-Maltese Circle and the Alliance Francaise.