İZMİR IS A EUROPEAN CITY WITH ITS LANGUAGE TOO

9 European cities were chosen in the scope of the Lifelong Learning program of the European Union, and 11 languages spoken in that cities were introduced.

A book is published containing the photographs that reflected the features of the language or languages spoken in those cities by presenting sections from the daily life and cultural features of the cities and a short film is shot that introduced the city and its language.

The first leg of the project had taken place in 2007-2008 and it was carried out in Poland, Greece, Bulgaria, Malta and Spain and İzmir took place as a European city in the second leg. In the scope of the project that received 200 thousand Euros support, the writings, signboards and sign systems photographed in various places of İzmir are used. These photographs took place in the book entitled “Signs in İzmir” and the characters in Turkish alphabet are introduced in the book. The book will be presented in festivals, education and tourism fairs many cities in Europe.

İzmir University of Economics, School of Foreign Languages instructor JoAnne Aliye Noonan stated that they were every pleased to be the implementer of the project in which İzmir Chamber of Commerce and İzmir Metropolitan Municipality took place as contributors. She underlined that by using the signs in the cities, both the language and the city were introduced. Noonan emphasized the fact that İzmir was chosen since it was considered as a European city, she said, " By taking the photographs of the signs in the cities the project aims to introduce the language or languages being spoken in that country and to direct a foreigner coming to that city for the first time to learn, understand and use the language. Our purpose is to make our foreign guests to be interested in our city and culture as well as our language."

JoAnne Noonan stated that 9 cities were photographed by the same photographer and a short film was shot and computer games were prepared in the scope of the project. Noonan said, “Common points and routes are established in the project. All the cities are photographed by the same photographer. Therefore, all 9 guidebooks are in the same format. Besides, the short films will be screened in various film festivals abroad. As İzmir University of Economics we are very pleased to see that our city took its place among European countries in the scope of this project.” İzmir University of Economics, School of Foreign Languages instructor JoAnne Noonan was the coordinator of the project and Ufku Erel and Beril Sarayköylü gave support to the implementation of the project.