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"WORLD GREEK LANGUAGE DAY"
In 2017, with a joint decision of the Ministers of Interior, Foreign Affairs and Education, Research and Religions (Government Gazette BD 1384/24/04/2017), on February 9, the World Day of the Greek Language. The choice of this day may not be random, it is the day of remembrance for Dionysios Solomos. In other words, the world day of the Greek language is coming to "be" on the day of remembrance of the national poet of the country! How beautifully these two elements interact with each other. The establishment of this celebration aims to highlight the role of the Greek language in the development and cultivation of both European and World Culture. Its historicity and timelessness is unquestionable, with 40 centuries of uninterrupted speech and 24 centuries of common writing and spelling.
Greek was in ancient times the most widely spoken language in the Mediterranean and Southern Europe. The reason for this popularity was mainly due to the large number of colonies founded by Greeks on the shores of the Mediterranean. Another very important reason for the spread of the language was its establishment as a language of trade and commerce for several centuries.
Greek today is the mother tongue of 12 million people in Greece and Cyprus. It is a spoken language in areas inhabited by Greeks abroad, from America to Australia. It is estimated that the number of people who speak Greek worldwide as a first or second language is 25 million.
Undoubtedly, in recent years there has been an increase in the number of people who choose Greek as a foreign language. The choice of Greek as a second foreign language in Russian schools is typical. Through this very important decision by the Russian Ministry of Education, it is possible to spread the language and culture of Greece to a large part of the population. Education in Greek as a second foreign language is provided throughout the territory of the Russian Federation and more specifically in the 5th and 6th grade of elementary school and in the three grades of second school!
Another typical example of the power of the Greek language is that 25-30% of the world language, ie English, consists of words derived from Greek. Greek is also the language of the Christian texts and the Scientific community worldwide. Therefore, Greek words exist all around us all over the world. Learning Greek is not just a language for additional knowledge, it is a whole mentality, culture and way of life!
This year was the second year that the world day of the Greek language is celebrated. Of course, the establishment of a world day is not enough to achieve the goal of recognizing the Greek language. The intention is through this anniversary to mark the interest in the precious language treasure in functional and essential ways, for a language teaching that will incorporate new technologies, so that Greek can reach every region of the world!
Every year this day will become more and more famous. The Greek language hides a magic, which the more you look for it, the more you discover it. With a vocabulary that can describe all kinds of emotions, with a multitude of synonyms and antonyms that allow to avoid repetition and with a history of texts written by great personalities from antiquity until now, the Greek language is an indisputable constant.