Newsarchive
Up one levelJune 2008: The Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD) has been launched
The Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD) has been launched at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday June 11. The Euro commissioner for Multilingualism, Mr Leonard Orban, addressed the members of the NPLD. He also gave a first outline of the policy paper on multilingualism that will be discussed by the European Commission on the 17th of September. On behalf of the provincial government of Fryslân Mr Jan Slijkhuis (Director of the Department Prosperity and Welfare of the Province of Fryslân) has been spoken about the significance that the Province attaches to the European network, in particular with regard to closer cooperation with other European regional authorities in the field of language policy.
May 2008: Chinese delegation visits the Mercator Research Centre and the Fryske Akademy
A delegation of the Institute for Linguistic and Strategic Studies of the University of Nanking (China) visited the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning and the Fryske Akademy (Frisian Academy) on Monday, May 19th. The Chinese professors were favourably impressed by the strength and wealth that multilingualism can entail.
May 2008: Financial contribution of the municipality of Leeuwarden for the Mercator Research Centre
The Mercator European Research Centre for Multilingualism and Language learning receives 50.000 Euros from the municipality of Leeuwarden. The contribution is intended for the further development of the Mercator Research Centre into a European Agency for Linguistic Diversity and Language Learning in the knowledge city of Leeuwarden.
April 2008: Mercator Research Centre invites speakers to Yiddish Festival Leeuwarden
From April 15th until April 20th, 2008, Ljouwert/Leeuwarden will be a “Yiddish shtetl in der medine” for five days, as it will host the 1st international Yiddish Festival. The festival, called 'Friling, a New Yiddish Spring', highlights various aspects of Yiddish culture, and will introduce people to the wealth of Yiddish language, music, film, literature, and history.
April 2008: Minister of state visited Mercator Research Centre
Shortly after the visit of Euro commissioner Leonard Orban to Fryslân, on April 4 and 5, the Dutch Minister for European Affairs, Frans Timmermans, visited the Mercator Research Centre to discuss its activities, its current position, and its ambitions. Being fluent in the mother tongue and two other languages is a prerequisite for European citizenship, thus said the Dutch Minister for European Affairs after his visit to the Mercator Research Centre.
April 2008: Orban to Visit Fryslân
The European commissioner for multilingualism, Leonard Orban, will pay a working visit to Ljouwert / Leeuwarden on Thursday 3 and Friday 4 April.
March 2008: Interesting guests for Mercator Research Centre
Michael Hance, manager of the Scots Language Centre in Perth, and professor F. Xavier Vila i Moreno, director of the research network Xarxa Cruscat (acronym for Competence, Representations and Use of Catalan) will visit several institutions dealing with the Frisian language and education. As guests of the Mercator Research Centre / Fryske Akademy Michael Hance and F. Xavier Vila i Moreno shall also give a presentation in the conference centre It Aljemint, on Tuesday March 4th 2008 at 7.30 pm. The presentations will focus on the present linguistic and political situation in their home countries; Scotland and Catalonia. After that there will be time for questions and discussion, and for the exchange of experiences and ideas.
January 2008: Xllth conference of the foundation for Endangered Languages
In 2008 the Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) will organise its Twelfth Conference in the Netherlands, in association with the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning and the Fryske Akademy. The theme of the conference will be Endangered Languages and Language Learning. The conference will be organised and sponsored in the framework of the jubilee program KNAW 200, the bicentenary celebration of the foundation of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1808.
November 2007: Mercator looks back on a successful seminar on Basque education
The Mercator Research Centre, part of the Fryske Akademy, organised a two-day European seminar on the developments in Basque education and the challenges of multilingual education in Ljouwert last week. Participants were researchers, policymakers, and education professionals from more than twenty different European countries and regions.
Oktober 2007: Durk Gorter appointed as research professor in the Basque Country
Prof. dr. Durk Gorter, project leader of the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning and researcher at the Fryske Akademy, has been appointed as Ikerbasque research professor at the university of the Basque Country in San Sebastian, Spain as from January 1, 2008. In the Basque Country Durk Gorter will be conducting two large studies.
Oktober 2007: Launch of Mercator Expert of the Month–series in October
The Mercator Research Centre launches an Expert of the Month-series on its website. The first Expert of the Month will be Kadri Koreinik, sociologist and specialist in language studies especially in linguistic phenomena at the Võro Instituut in Estonia. She is also the author of one of the Mercator Research Centre Regional Dossiers Võro: The Võro language in education in Estonia (due to be published).
September 2007: Visit of Comittee of Experts yn Fryslân
A delegation of the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional and Minority languages of the Council of Europe visited the province of Fryslân on Wednesday September 5th. The visit followed the third report of the Dutch government describing their actions towards the protection and promotion of the Frisian language for the period 2002 – 2005. The drafting of these reports is part of the actions described in the Charter for the Regional and Minority languages of the Council.
Augustus 2007: European Seminar on Basque education
Mercator: European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning in collaboration with the Basque Department of Education, Universities and Research organises an international seminar in Ljouwert. This seminar is by invitation only.
Augustus 2007: Conference announcement Future of European Policy Towards Multilingualism and Language Learning
The Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning is happy to announce an international conference which will take place in Ljouwert/Leeuwarden (Fryslân, The Netherlands) from 21 - 23 November 2007. This conference will examine new issues and developments in the field of Regional and Minority Languages and Language Learning policy within Europe.
May 2007: Frisian Knowledge Workshop welcomed enthusiastically
The Mercator Research Centre recently organised a so-called Knowledge Workshop for Frisian institutions that play a role in multilingual education in Fryslân. This workshop has shown that these institutions are very ambitious. For the Mercator Research Centre this is an encouragement to organise, in association with the other institutes, Knowledge Workshops on a regular basis, where European themes will be investigated in depth.