Last Friday, the Fryske Akademy and the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning were visited by no fewer than 80  secondary school students from Thorbecke Scholengemeenschap in Zwolle. They came to Leeuwarden as part of a science week on language and were eager to learn about Frisian and multilingualism.

In cooperation with Tresoar, Mercator/ Fryske Akademy was able to offer the group a great programme. Chairman of the day Inge Heslinga (Mercator/ Fryske Akademy) welcomed the youngsters in the main hall of Tresoar. Lexicographer Pieter Duijff (Fryske Akademy) talked about Old Frisian and software engineer Eduard Drenth (Fryske Akademy) explained multilingualism and technology. Trainee Alissa Vogel (Minorities & Multilingualism, RuG) guided a workshop Language Portraits, a product of the Holi-Frysk project of Mercator and NHL Stenden University. The pupils also got to work with the multilingual augmented reality game Babelar from the Mercator project VirtuLApp.

The Leeuwarder Courant was there and made a nice report.