INTERLINGUA Partners: British Council KulturKontakt, Austria The Romanian Ministry of Education

Aims To raise young people’s awareness of the need to develop their intercultural and democratic citizenship competences that will help them to become active and responsible citizens of their societies and of wider Europe. To encourage participants to look at language education as an inherent part of education for intercultural dialogue and citizenship. To increase young people’s employability skills in the context of globalisation and work force mobility.

Background and Rationale The project Interlingua is a demonstration of the British Council’s commitment to valuing mutuality and cultural diversity through active engagement in the debate about multilingualism (i.e. English and other languages). This area also highlights the goals and achievements that British Council shares with European and international institutions such as: UNESCO and the Council of Europe.

Context The project was initiated as a result of: The evaluation of the achievements of British Council-Romania projects: Human rights and Language development and Education for Democratic Citizenship. A Gallup poll entitled ‘Being Young in Romania’ (2004) A BC commissioned survey on’ Perspectives on youth values in Romania’ (2006) The aims of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue – 2008 and the European Year for Creativity and Innovation – 2009

Process School teams of students and teachers of English, German and Romanian (both as a mother tongue and as a second language) from six regions of Romania (Braila, Bucharest, Brasov, Constanta, Iasi and Odorheiu Secuiesc) work on developing intercultural and citizenship projects on a variety of topics: Ethnographic studies of local ethnic diversity Ethnic communities between tradition and modernity Studying abroad – cultural and educational challenges Multicultural Bucharest – a view from the outside Language and community development.

Russian Lipoven and Roma communities in the Braila region

Outputs Training programmes on intercultural principles Training programmes on project management Training module on creative expressions in intercultural communication Training programme on democratic citizenship Teams of teachers and students with skills in intercultural learning and democratic citizenship Projects that demonstrate young people's intercultural understanding An Interlingua handbook of good practice and principles of intercultural learning projects (to be published March 2010)