Celebrating languages at Worth

It was great to be able to celebrate the European Day of Languages at Worth on Monday with pupils taking part in a variety of activities and discussions during lessons.

With pupils from 28 different countries currently at the School, we are very fortunate to study, work and live alongside people whose native language is not the same as our own. Each member of the Worth community brings a life of different experiences and perspectives from which we can all learn.

The Modern Languages Department at Worth delivers the teaching of French, German, Spanish and Italian. We aim to engender in our pupils an enthusiasm for the language and culture of the country concerned.

The European Day of Languages is an annual celebration which takes place each year on 26 September and involves millions of people across 46 countries.

Interesting facts about languages

• More than 300 languages are spoken in the United States.
• Papua New Guinea is the country with the highest number of languages in the world. It has 841 languages but it is predicted that 40 of these languages are to become extinct as only a few people speak them.
• Sumerian is the oldest written language dating back to 3500 BC followed by Egyptian dating back to 3300BC.
• Dutch has contributed many words to English including yacht, easel, cookie and freight.
• Nigeria has more English speakers than the UK. Nigeria has approximately 90 million English speakers as compared to the UK which has approximately 60 million.
• Asia has the most languages with more than 2300 languages spoken.
• The unclassified Busuu language is spoken in the Southern Bantoid of Cameroon – but only by eight people.
• By the age of 21 you will have spoken 50 million words.