Abstract:

Language and culture are two concepts challenging to define. However, we do not seek for any definition that does not have a practical meaning in our school-life. In any society – such as school or university – there are many languages being spoken: first the language of schooling, then the languages learners present at school, as their mother tongues, for example. In class, teachers and students find languages taught and learnt as academic subjects or even languages used in other subjects that are not inevitably language teaching classes. We may also consider some regional, minority and migration languages spoken by some. And all these languages serve one purpose only: to communicate. But languages communicate different things, things that are untranslatable. Ways of thinking, ways of expressing, feeling, moving, dressing. Cultures. And if languages are vehicles for cultures then it is obvious that different languages can express different cultures.

Academically speaking, multicultural education (or intercultural education) is a topic that can lead to us to many different paths. In our Polytechnic Institute, in Portugal, there are students coming in Erasmus from many countries in Europe. There is also a significant community of international students coming from Portuguese speaking African countries and from Brazil, another country where Portuguese is also the official language. In a small Polytechnic Institute we can find speakers from three continents in the world.

In this Polytechnic Institute with many speakers from different countries, language teachers feel the need to show and explore those differences, out of knowledge and out of academic interest.

In March, we celebrate a month dedicated to languages and cultures. It is a set of activities and events where everyone is free to participate and whose goal is to share cultural and linguistic diversity. Students are invited to join and to organize events to show this diversity. Among others, two activities have been organized for four years: a Multicultural Parade and a Gastronomic Show.

These two events are now part of our academic life and they get hundreds of students involved. The aim of this paper is to explain the outcome of these two activities, from planning to execution and assessment, and to demonstrate how they provide for the cultural awareness of our academic community.

Keywords:

Culture, Languages, Event Planning, multicultural Awareness.