The EAQUALS organisation celebrated its 20th anniversary November 11-12 in the beautiful city of Trieste.
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This week we launched the new book developed by Instituto Cervantes and the British Council, Word for Word / Palabra por Palabra. The launch was held in Madrid in the imposing 19th century halls of the former Banco Central, which is now the headquarters of Instituto Cervantes.
Over 100 people attended the event, which included a panel discussion on the role and future of the English and Spanish languages.
The discussion panel, chaired by Maria Jose Ferrari and yours truly, included well-known UK experts on language learning and teaching such as Arlene Gilpin and Teresa Tinsley (formerly of CILT) and Spanish language experts such as Angel Lopez Garcia and Ignacio Ahumada.
This week we are privileged to host the annual EFNIL conference at Spring Gardens, our headquarters off Trafalgar Square.
EFNIL is the European Federation of National Institutes of Language – the institutions which promote and protect the use of national languages in the European Union. These organisations, such as the Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Dansk Sprognævn, Foras na Gaeilge and Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France, work hard to support teachers and learners in their countries, creating new research, publishing and disseminating new theory and practice, providing educational resources etc.
EFNIL ‘s mission is to provide “a forum for these institutions to exchange information about their work and to gather and publish information about language use and language policy within the European Union. In addition, the Federation encourages the study of the official European languages and a coordinated approach towards mother-tongue and foreign-language learning, as a means of promoting linguistic and cultural diversity within the European Union.”
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Autumn is the best time to visit the other Cambridge – the Harvard one – and I’m here on the day that the boat race called ‘Head of the Charles’ is taking place outside my window.
This week I am fortunate enough to be attending a management training course at Harvard Business School, on the subject of Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR.
The surroundings are impressive – historic Harvard Square, walks along the Charles River into the quaint centre of Cambridge – Boston’s sister city across the river.
The accommodation is basic – an upgraded student dorm room – but the food is more corporate than canteen, and the Federal architecture of the low rise campus is very calm and soothing.
The real reason to be there is to share in the unparalleled knowledge of the world of business which HBS provides. A wealth of global experts – like Michael Porter, the world’s leading authority on creating competitive advantage – stalk the hallowed halls.
I’m here to learn about building partnerships with corporates and NGOs, around the concept of investing in the creation of social benefits to parallel business benefits.
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At the weekend I went to Liverpool to speak at the EnglishUK North conference, held at a stunningly designed language school called LILA* – which I assume stands for the Liverpool International Language Academy.
The conference was excellent, with a wide range of speakers from the local to the global like Jeremy Harmer, and a great audience of about 120 teachers from across the North.
Being originally from the North, I found it very heartening that ELT is developing so much outside the centres in the South and South-east, and finally students overseas (and especially their agents) are realising the benefits of moving further afield than the traditional and very overcrowded centres like Cambridge and Oxford.
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