NECTFL Awards Ceremony

Friday, April 13, 2007

Marriott Marquis Hotel, New York NY

Ladies and gentleman,

Dear Friends,

As consul of education of Spain in New York and on behalf of the Spanish Ministry of Education, it is a great pleasure to share not just this ceremony but the whole conference with you all. Because we all believe in the importance of learning foreign languages; because, as Elias Canetti said, “There is no such thing as an ugly language.” Today I hear every language – and New York is the perfect place – as if it were the only one, and when I hear of one that is dying, it overwhelms me as though it were the death of the earth; because, as Nelson Mandela pointed out, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.”; because learning a foreign language is a way of not being a foreigner; because learning languages is challenging, is frustrating, is risky, is necessary, is spicy, is hard work, is endless, is fascinating, is infuriating, is fun. That is why we are here at this great conference sharing experiences, promoting multilingualism and multiculturalism, complaining about how much teachers work and how badly they are treated and paid, meeting old friends, glancing through new textbooks, acknowledging the great work of good professionals, and all in all celebrating one of the most beautiful gifts the human race has, the gift of language, the gift of more than six thousand different ways of saying the same things. Let´s keep it up.

Thank you.

Prof. Dr. Jesús Fernández González

Agregado de Educación y Ciencia en Nueva York  - Consul of Education and Science in New York