The Language square at Technical College Reykjavik begins today, February 17th and will end on the International Mother Language Day, Monday February 21st.

One of the main purposes of the project is to highlight the benefits of speaking more than one or two languages and promote communication and friendship among students at Technical College Reykjavik. 

The Language Square is a venue for students with Icelandic as their mother tongue and Icelandic as a second language to collaborate. They share their culture and languages to support and increase interest in languages, Icelandic skills and cultural competences. These things connect well to the Technical Colleges new school values: diversity and kindness, as well as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals number 4.7. 

One of the creative results of the project will be a language rainbow with nine values selected by students. The words will all be translated into the participants mother tongues, close to 50 languages. 

Kristín R. Vil­hjálms­dóttir – who has worked on developing ways to connect people, languages, and cultures – was brought in to shape the project along with teachers and students at Technical College Reykjavik. 

For those interested here is a video made at an upper secondary school in Denmark which recently participated in the project.