Here’s an event that makes me — the "International Man of Inaction" — very happy. Birdie Newcomb sent out information on an interesting language festival coming up next Wednesday, September 26:
Belle Isle is hosting a Festival of European Languages, September 26,
from 8am to 2pm SLT, celebrating cultural diversity. The centerpiece of
the Festival is a huge map of Europe, which gives visitors landmarks to
a number of language/cultural sites (including Esperanto and Basque).
Which ones you get depend on where you happen to be standing on the
map. Birdie Newcomb, one of the organizers of the Festival, calls this
the "Eavesdrop School of Languages" approach, encouraging students or
the curious to go beyond the classroom, encountering real people in
situations where one may overhear conversations, and, eventually,
participate in another language.
There will also be talks about language, a fashion show of traditional European costumes, ethnic music, dancing and vendors selling various ed-tech and multilingual tools. I might stop by just to get something better than the decent but somewhat clunky Babbler HUD that I use on almost a daily basis.
With the huge influx of French, Germans, Spaniards, Portuguese and English citizens into SL, this seems like a great way to celebrate Second Life’s growing diversity. Now we need more events that celebrate Brazilian and Japanese cultures for outsiders to appreciate.
The Festival schedule runs from 4-10pm
GMT (8am to 2pm SLT), so Euros and Yankees can all get in on the action (sorry folks in Asia). That’s all at Belle Isle (teleport SLURL). More information after the jump…
Festival of European Languages
Belle Isle is hosting a Festival of European Languages, September 26,
from 8am to 2pm SLT, celebrating cultural diversity. The centerpiece of
the Festival is a huge map of Europe, which gives visitors landmarks to
a number of language/cultural sites (including Esperanto and Basque).
Which ones you get depend on where you happen to be standing on the
map. Birdie Newcomb, one of the organizers of the Festival, calls this
the "Eavesdrop School of Languages" approach, encouraging students or
the curious to go beyond the classroom, encountering real people in
situations where one may overhear conversations, and, eventually,
participate in another language.
tools hold forth at Belle Isle’s Harbor Theater. At the Pavilion and
the Events center, one can see activities celebrating cultural
uniquenesses – ethnic music, dancing, and, at 6pm GMT, a fashion show
of traditional costumes and SL designer styles. At the vendor booths
around the grounds, one might find language courses, edtech tools,
multi-lingual translators,
GMT (8am to 2pm SLT), so that Europe and America can both join in. The
SLURL is (Belle Isle, 128, 128, 25). For more information, IM Festival
organizers Maxie
- 8am SLT (4pm London) Welcome
- 9am/5pm Russian/Baltic states/Finnish
- 10am/6pm Eastern Europe/Greek
- 11am/7pm Italian/German/Scandinavian
- 12 noon/8pm French/Belgian/Dutch/
- 1pm/9pm English/Spanish/Portuguese