
The project “Be Happy, Be a Polyglot” is mobility of young people – youth exchange that is organized in Krushevo, North Macedonia from 1st to 8th of November 2022. The project brings together 37 young people and youth leaders from North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Italy, Romania and Spain in order to deconstruct the myth that learning new languages is a difficult thing to do.
We go with the bold statement that the advantages of learning foreign languages can set a person up for success in nearly every aspect of their life. Let’s start with the economical aspect. According to different sites such as Statista and Trading Economics the rate of youth unemployment in involved countries in the project is as follows: N. Macedonia: 35.55%, Spain 30.6%, Italy 26.8%, Serbia: 22.2%, Romania 20.3% and Bulgaria 14.8%. We see that young people in participating countries are facing real economic difficulties and we see the skill of being a polyglot as a way out of the unemployment cycle. We think that being a polyglot can help youngsters because basically, learning a foreign language opens a world of job opportunities. It can also open many potential career doors, not only in terms of the range of jobs, but also the range of destinations to find a job abroad. As the world becomes more and more globalized, demand from companies for speakers of more languages (polyglots) is on the increase as they expand operations into new markets. Basically, being a polyglot is a great way to make yourself stand out from the competition and be more valuable to an employer. It’s even estimated that polyglots earn 8% more than their monolingual counterparts. According to studies, polyglots also are better at problem-solving, more creative and are better multitaskers. All these skills are very attractive to any potential employer.
Another problem that EU is facing these days is the rising populism and Euroscepticism. Populism as anti-liberal democracy ideology represents an attack on the EU institutions. It supports popular sovereignty and majority rule but rejects pluralism and minority rights. These negative tendencies are spreading quickly among the youth and are dangerously undermining the idea behind the ‘EU project’, so we must be ready and work on educating the youth and inspiring them to create a strong EU identity. In this context, the benefit of learning new languages is that it makes a person to be more open-minded. To educate is to lead out-to lead out of confinement and narrowness. Learning a foreign language and getting soaked into an entirely new culture and worldview is the surest way to become an open-minded, understanding, tolerant individual, and that is something that all involved organizations are striving towards and what international youth exchanges provide for youth to experience.
Also, learning new languages is good for mental health, according to studies in Sweden, learning a language causes areas of the brain associated with memory to increase in size, making it stronger and more flexible. What’s more, it has been suggested that learning a new language helps prevent brain diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s. Learning new language boost confidence! Any language learner can attest to making his or her share of mistakes while discovering a new language—often in front of an audience. Learning a language means putting yourself out there and moving out of your comfort zone. In this context, learning a new language is one of the strongest senses of pride and achievement that you can have. That’s one of the conclusions of our project idea: to be happy, you should be a polyglot!
Seeing all these benefits, we consider that learning languages is “must” today. With this project, we would like to show that once you learn a new language it would be easier to learn a new language, especially if it belongs in the same group of languages. By learning one Slavic language it will be easier to learn and to be able to understand the other ones. The same goes for the Romance languages. But in the bottom line, everything depends on the level of motivation. What better motivation than making it clear about the benefits that learning languages can bring.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES:
- To raise awareness and promote the importance and benefits of learning new languages,
- To learn about different cultures through language and non-formal learning activities,
- To promote and foster mutual understanding, intercultural learning and cooperation between 37 young people and youth leaders from different cultures, backgrounds and regions,
- To exchange good practices, experiences and competencies between the participants by using experiential and peer-to-peer learning,
- To foster international cooperation and partnership building between youth organizations from 6 European countries,
- To promote and educate about Erasmus+ programme and Youthpass as tools to work with young people in the fields of employability, entrepreneurship and intercultural learning.
METHODOLOGY:
The youth exchange will use methods that are based on non-formal and experiential education in order to provide all the participants with the information needed to enhance their learning process, but also in order to create an inclusive and learner-centered learning environment. Methods that will be used will include: getting to know each other, ice-breakers and team building, energizers, discussions, debates, working in groups, learning-by-doing activities, peer-to-peer work, simulations, presentations, analysis and comparison, theatre and role-playing, personal and group reflections, open-space and outdoor activities.
The project “Be Happy, Be a Polyglot” is funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union through the Key Action 1: Mobility for young people and granted by the Macedonian National agency for European educational programs and mobility.
