Melbourne Language Picnic is a Cultural Diversity Week event that aims to celebrate our city’s multilingual profile, foster positive attitudes towards learning languages and thereby build bridges towards cross-cultural understanding.
Community get-togethers involving specific languages are a regular feature of life in Australia, but the ‘multilingual ’picnic is a more recent innovation that includes families from diverse cultural backgrounds with various language interests. Melbourne Language Picnic was inspired by similar outings previously held in Perth and Canberra, first coming together in 2009 on a wing, a prayer and a great deal of curiosity about what would happen next. Its continuation and success very much rest on ’people power’, on the goodwill and generosity of volunteers and supporters like those shown in the current THANK YOU list.
Melbourne Language Picnic is a flexible and movable feast. Your suggestions on future venues, activities and improvement would be very welcome.
MLP 2011 is scheduled for Sunday, 20th March, from 10 am to 2 pm, at the Edinburgh Gardens in North Fitzroy, by the Rotunda (Melways Ref. 22C, 1C). There will be a petting zoo, multilingual activities and language-related information posters.
So, come along and ‘taste’ some different kinds of lingo! Bring family, friends, picnic fare and appropriate weather gear, and above all, your languages and willingness to join in.
We look forward to meeting you.
