United Nations Appreciation of Languages!

Earlier this week (March 20, 2013) was the celebration of theInternational Day of Francophonie (Journée Internationale de laFrancophonie).  The event wascreated in 1988 (introduced to the UN system in 2010) as a day celebrated bythe French-speaking world to celebrate their common bond and embrace theirdiversity.  The French-speakingworld today makes up about 220 million people across 33 countries and is theofficial language of 32 states (apart from France); this is a figure that willcontinue to grow with the advancement of globalization. 

United Nations (UN) officials pointed to the power of the Frenchlanguage to bring people together and emphasized its importance as a tool formutual understanding and peace.  UNofficials stress the importance of linguistic diversity to understand and respectthe many cultures of the world. 

UNESCO emphasizes the importance of linguistic diversity as acondition for sincere and authentic international cooperation.  During the celebration, UN Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon received the Leopold Sear Senghor Medal, “le Grand Prix de laFrancophonie,” awarded to the UN for its aid in developing the French languageas an international tool.

Mr. Ban is expected to pay tribute to the place of French ininternational cooperation, including the need for more French-speaking staff inUN peacekeeping operations for crucial dialogue with local populations.

International languagedays were introduced to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity in thesix official languages of the UN Organization (Chinese, English, Russian,Spanish, and Arabic).

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=228027

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