On 29  September, the British Council in collaboration with partners: the Institute of Multilingualism at Fribourg and Forum du Bilinguisme organised an afternoon event on multilingualism in Switzerland and Europe. Simon Brimblecombe, Deputy Director of British Council in Switzerland reports back from the event.

The afternoon of debates took place in the magnificent setting of the Maison des Cantons in Berne. The first part of the conference included a presentation from David Vitali on the new Language Law in Switzerland. This was followed by a presentation on Language Rich Europe  in German and French by Nadine Ott, Project Director of Language Rich Europe and myself. Following the break, three interesting presentations on the issue of multilingualism and education were presented. Despite competing events and a busy timetable, the event attracted over 50 participants from the language world – including policymakers, academics, teachers, authors  and language organisations

Another language event ? What was new ?
We heard about the new Language Law in Switzerland and how the country aims to preserve and develop multingualism in the country.

The British Council presented bilingually in French and German with presentation slides in the opposing language – whenever I saw a German slide, I knew it was my turn to speak French and for Nadine  it was the opposite – in fact a bit like riding those bikes which require you to move the handlebars to the left, when you want to go right.

After a tea and coffee break, we had three excellent presentations on multilingualism and education in Switzerland at three different ages: pre-school, secondary and older children. Some magnificent projects were highlighted but one issue perhaps less addressed is dealing with the role of immigrant languages in a country which has 4 official languages but the highest proportion of immigrants in the project. In Geneva, there are schools where 90% of the pupils have more than one language in their everyday lives.