Bringing down the language barrier

Brussels is a melting pot. We all know that. But do we ever stop to consider the variety of backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures and languages spoken in the city considered to be Europe’s capital? Hardly.

The number is 23. As in 23 official languages. It’s a translator’s heaven – if there ever was one. And I was witness to this proliferation of spoken tongues most recently during an award ceremony held at the European Commission’s Berlaymont building to commemorate the winners of the aptly-titled Tongue Stories.

A project and initiative of the European Commission’s Multilingualism Unit, this competition was open to all EU member states and aimed “to demonstrate, through interesting and amusing anecdotes, how many different ways people can benefit from foreign language knowledge, and to inspire people to learn foreign languages”.

Participants needn’t be poets or great literary writers, they just had to share their language-related stories. So much so, prospective participants were asked to send in a contribution in any of the 23 official languages of the European Union, namely: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish. The content of their contribution could then refer to any other language. Competitors could choose to submit their testimonials in one of the following formats: video, audio, text or illustration.

Out of the three Maltese participants, mother of three from Rabat Therese Pace was selected as finalist and national winner in the Tongue Stories event for her contribution titled Polo or pollo? Ms Pace is both a poet and a writer who has published works in three languages – namely Maltese, English and Italian. She has been active in the literary field for well over 20 years. Her poems have been published in an anthology in Maltese titled Arpeġġi (2003), earning the first prize by the National Book Council in 2004, among other achievements.

Out of all the national winners (28), three were then selected as European champions – these were: Norbert Kiss (Hungary), Sandra Costa (Portugal) and Marie-France Detremmerie (Belgium) who walked away with an iPad 2 in addition to the award received by the other national finalists.

Throughout the award ceremony, what strongly emerged was the “power” of languages. Knowledge of a language can be a binding agent. Well, as much as it can be a barrier. And that is why the proverbial “they” say that languages open doors.

Whether it is the key to a job, a relationship or simply to better oneself and one’s knowledge of a foreign country and its culture, languages are at the heart and root of effective communication. So why abstain or procrastinate? Learning, like teaching, grants an experience unlike any other. So why not embrace studentship and life-long learning?

Polo or pollo? By Therese Pace

I was sitting at this restaurant table with my family when a group of Italians came in and occupied the table next to ours.

One guy, in his wonderful accent, asked the restaurant owner for pollo and in no time the man returned to the table with a package of polo peppermint circles. The Italian guy was offended and in vain reiterated that he ordered no polo candy because the owner did not understand Italian and insisted that since he had ordered it, he should pay for it. Maltese and Italian adjectives flew from one side to the other in a dangerous way. I understand and can speak the Italian language quite well, and so, seeing the funny side of it but at the same time realising what was bound to happen since both men thought they were in the right, I immediately went to the rescue. I explained courteously to the Italian man that the restaurant owner meant no offence since he hadn’t understood the order in the first place.

Then to play down the issue and calm the situation, I opened both arms in the shape of wings and acted the chicken, showing the owner what the Italian meant. This brought about profuse laughter from both sides and all was settled when they shook hands and the owner hurried to the kitchen and soon came back with a magnificent smelling lemon chicken on a plate which the Italian man devoured in no time. If I hadn’t understood Italian and intervened, they could easily have come to blows.

This shows how learning languages helps you avoid unpleasant situations.

Ms Baldacchino travelled to Brussels courtesy of the European Commission.