LOOKING FOR COMMON WORDS IN EUROPEAN EDUCATIONAL COMPANIES WITH

PANTOMIME GAME

KALATHAKI MARIA

European Union promotes mobility and intercultural understanding, and identifies

learning languages and multilingualism of high priority, since they are considered important
element of the European competitiveness. In education and training, EU strategies aim at
developing the European dimension in Education, particularly through the teaching and
dissemination of Member States' languages, while fully respecting the diversity of cultures
and languages (EC, 2008).
Respect for linguistic diversity is a fundamental value of the EU, just like the respect
of personality and openness towards other cultures. It is an integral part of European identity
and the most direct expression of culture. In Europe linguistic diversity is a fact of everyday
life. According to the Strategic framework "Education and Training 2020", in EU, which was
founded on 'unity in diversity', the ability to communicate in several languages is necessary to
individuals, organizations and businesses for the mediation and intercultural understanding,
social cohesion, intercultural dialogue and European construction (EC, 2009).
During European educational meetings many companies of students and teachers are
constructed for the project work and cultural events with multiple linguistic demands and
interesting. The participants to this educational activity, coming from different European
countries, are looking for common words which are used in the everyday life. The applied
pantomime game with the title Many common words that we use in our everyday life uses
speech, images and body language in order the participants to pronounce the word that they
use in their mother tongues to describe the image which showed by one team and be
understood by the rest teams. Teams of students and teachers of various countries compete
to find out as many common words as they can by describing printed images, eg animals,
furniture, body parts, house devices, etc (iefimerida, 2013). Thus, they realize in practice that
many links from the past can build up a common future.
Indicatively, some common words used more or less in Greece, Cyprus, Turkey,
Romania and Italy are following:
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REFERENCES
EC (2008) Multilingualism: an asset for Europe and a shared commitment, Communication
from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and
Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, Brussels, 18.9.2008, COM(2008) 566
final

EC (2009) Council conclusions of 12 may 2009 on a strategic framework for European

cooperation in Education and Training (ET 2020), notices from European Union institutions
and bodies, (2009/C 119/02) Official Journal of the European Union 28.5.2009, available
20.02.2010 on
http://ec.europa.eueducationlifelong-learning-policydocjoint10com640_en.pdf

iefimerida (2013) 200

, iefimerida.gr, 12/07/2013, available 20/11/2016 at
http://www.iefimerida.gr/news/114550/oi-200-toyrkikes-lexeis-poy-hrisimopoioyme-
kathimerina-kai-den-xeroyme-lista#ixzz4QogkXESN