Try origami, Russian dance and signing at language festival

Reading residents can fold paper animals, learn traditional Russian dances and pick up their first words in British Sign Language at the town's first Festival of Languages next month.

The University of Reading's Department of Languages and Cultures will host the festival from Monday, 2 November to Friday, 6 November, with events at venues across Reading town centre. The week celebrates diversity of cultures and languages, including languages spoken in Reading, with workshops, film screenings, a guided walk and a panel discussion open to everyone.

After English, Polish and Nepali are the most common main languages in Reading, each spoken by more than 4,000 residents, according to Reading Borough Council's 2021 Census. The census also showed that the number of residents with Romanian as their main language rose from 194 in 2011 to 2,642 in 2021. More than 1,000 people in the borough speak Urdu, Portuguese, Spanish or Italian as their main language.

Professor Melanie May, Head of Department of Languages and Cultures, said: "Walk down almost any road in Reading and you'll hear Polish, Nepali, Romanian, Urdu and many more languages besides. Many of our neighbours move between two or three languages every day without giving it a second thought, and the diversity of languages around us is worth celebrating.

"We've designed the week so there's something for everyone. That might be a child hearing a story in their grandparents' language, a teenager watching a film they're studying for their A levels, or someone who has always wanted to learn a few words of sign language. You don't need any experience, just curiosity.

"Learning even a few words in another language is a way of reaching out to the people around you. We hope people will come along, have a go, and leave seeing their own town a little differently."

Exploring the future of languages

The festival is part of the University's wider work to encourage more people to learn languages and to view the world through a different lens by engaging with other cultures. The University of Reading teaches degrees in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Latin American language and culture, and its Languages for All programme offers classes in languages including Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and British Sign Language to students and staff.

Alongside origami, traditional Russian dancing and sign language lessons, other highlights during the Festival of Languages include children's stories read in six languages at Reading Central Library, a sing-along workshop on the Italian song Bella Ciao, an Arabic calligraphy session and a workshop on Chinese characters. A guided walk will trace the links between Reading and the Spanish pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela.

Foreign-language films with English subtitles will be shown at the Biscuit Factory on three evenings, each introduced by a University of Reading expert and followed by a Q&A. The festival closes with a panel discussion on the future of languages in the age of artificial intelligence, including whether AI could threaten the survival of smaller languages.

All events are free of charge, but some events require booking, with links available on the festival programme page.

The festival is supported by Friends of the University of Reading.

Events programme