Skip to 0 minutes and 3 seconds Thousands of languages are spoken around the world, and if you walk the streets of larger cities, you’ll hear hundreds of different speech varieties around you. We can say that 300 languages are spoken in London alone. Worldwide, there are more multilingual people than mono-linguals. Due to migration, multilingualism is all around us. It’s in the streets, at schools, on the workfloor, and perhaps even in your home. Knowledge about multilingualism can be an advantage to your life, and give you answers to questions such as how to raise your children multilingually, or how to deal with colleagues from a different language background. Do you feel that you live in a multilingual society? Or are you a multilingual? Do you work in a multilingual environment?
Skip to 0 minutes and 44 seconds Or would you like to know what multilingualism does to your brain? Maybe you’d like to learn more about minority languages. Or you might be curious about language policies. If so, this free online course, Multilingual Practices, may be for you. Welcome to the University of Groningen, one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. The University has branches in the city of Groningen, but also in Leeuwarden, the capital of the multilingual province of Friesland. My name is Nanna Hilton, and I am an assistant professor teaching in our Bachelor programme, Minorities and Multilingualism, as well as in our Masters programme in Multilingualism. I would like to invite you to join our course and to start exploring multilingual practices.
Skip to 1 minute and 24 seconds After taking this course, you’ll be familiar with key theories in linguistics relating to multilingualism. And you’ll be able to join the conversation about language in your home community. We’ll show you how to do research on multilingualism, and how to tackle some of the issues that arise when people who do not share the same languages meet. So join us as we explore one of the most interesting and wonderful challenges of today’s societies, multilingualism.
