Adelaide Language Festival to celebrate cultural and intellectual diversity

Adelaide Language Festival – 29th November

2:00pm – 7:00pm

The University of Adelaide is hosting a free public event on Wednesday 29 November 2017 to celebrate cultural and intellectual diversity, and to help university students, high school pupils and adults in the community learn more about the various cognitive and health benefits of being multilingual.

Crash courses of 20 languages from around the globe will be given at the event, which will also feature an opening address by the Governor of South Australia, His Excellency the Hon. Hiếu Văn Lê AC, and a keynote speech on the Virus of Language by the Hon. Rev. Dr Lynn Arnold AO.

Among sessions on Mandarin Chinese, French, Kaurna, Pitjantjatjara, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Latin, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Israeli (Hebrew), Hungarian, Udmurt (Russia), Russian, Kalasha (Pakistan), German and English as a Foreign Language, there will also be sessions on the artistically-constructed Klingon and Vulcan languages from the Star Trek movies and TV series, and the international auxiliary constructed language Esperanto.

Each crash course will provide background about the language (for example where it is spoken and to which language family it belongs, number of speakers and percentage of children speaking it); basic knowledge in language (such as greetings); one unique characteristic; and information about where it might be possible to continue to learn the language in Adelaide or online.

2017 Event Video

2017 Event Program

1.45pm	Attendees take up seating in Bonython Hall
1.55pm	Musical performance: Paris & Tahlia Williams, violin duo
2.05pm	Welcome to Country: Taylor Tipu Power-Smith
2.10pm	Welcome address: Interim Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Mike Brooks
2.15pm	Opening Address: His Excellency the Governor of SA, Hieu Van Le AC
2.20pm	Performance in language: Anastasia Calvert (Korean), Siobhan Owen (Breton)
2.30pm	Address: Prof Ghil’ad Zuckermann
2.35pm	Keynote Address: The Hon. Rev. Dr Lynn Arnold AO, The Virus of Language
3.15pm	Crash courses in three languages: French, Mandarin Chinese, Kaurna