UNSECO declared 21 February as International Mother Tongue Day. Language is the mirror of a country's cultural and national identity. Of course, the European School Munich also celebrates this day.
The international section of the European School Munich, the SWALS, wanted to point out the importance of their mother tongues and undertook a number of actions. First of all, the students of the Secondary School organised an exhibition at the central entrance to the Neuperlach site, where 13 nationalities (Bulgarian, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish) presented a characteristic part of their cultural heritage. The exhibits were presented by SWALS students to the directors Mr Hrovath and Mr Duggen. They welcomed this initiative and praised the students' efforts. There was also an exhibition at the Primary School on Fasangarten site. On posters the school children explained fairy tales from their countries, and the school building was also decorated.
At the Secondary School, Prof. Dr. Lilia Diamantopoulou, Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the LMU, gave a lecture on the Greek language and identity "Language(s) and Identity(ies): the example of the heroic epic Digenis Akritas" was the title. The lecture was organized by the Greek classes of the Secondary School on Wednesday, February 19 and supported by the Greek Consul General in Munich, Mrs. Panagiota Konstantinopoulou. The director of the ESM, Mr. Hrovath, the director of the Kindergarten and Primary School, Mrs. Giannakopoulou, as well as many colleagues, parents and students of the ESM listened to the interesting lecture. Mr. Hrovath praised the initiative and expressed his admiration for the high standard of this event. All these actions of the SWALS underline the uniqueness of the mother tongue of a country and thus help to promote the European dimension of the ESM.