The Language Festival Association is hosting a free language festival on Saturday, 15 July 2017, at Gladesville Road Community Centre, Hunters Hill.
The purpose of this language festival is to promote awareness of language diversity, by providing “tasters” of multiple languages and cultures in a fun environment.
A highlight will be a fascinating presentation by Australian linguist, Dr Gregory Cooper, on ‘Accents and Pronunciation’. In the early 1980s Dr Cooper travelled to remote north-western Pakistan to study an as-yet unwritten language. Just by interacting directly with the native speakers, he was able to learn the language (Kalashamondr), create a system of writing for it and teach it to the Kalasha people, who are now recording and publishing their own stories and songs.
Also presented will be Esperanto, the world’s most successful international language. Apart from its role in neutral and equitable communication, Esperanto can also be useful as a “springboard language”: Because its simple rules have virtually no exceptions, and because its grammatical structure is always clear, starting with Esperanto can give one the confidence and solid grounding that are so important in language learning.
Also at the festival will be sessions on Kalashamondr, Tamil, Bangla, German, Ukrainian, Russian and more.
The festival will be held at Gladesville Road Community Centre, 44 Gladesville Rd, Hunters Hill, from 12 noon to 4 pm.
For more information, visit languagefestival.org.
Image: Dr Gregory Cooper, linguist