Language brings people together. While the professional benefits of learning a language are manifold, the further cultural advantages of being able to communicate with people from a neighbouring nation are equally important. Often, a language of communication between people from different countries is not necessarily either's native tongue. In eTwinning, however, many schools are doing the opposite: they are learning and communicating in the language of neighbouring countries in order to become closer to one another on a number of levels.


eTwinning projects between neighbouring countries are ideal for language learning because they allow pupils to enrich their cognitive skills in terms of language acquisition and their social and academic abilities as well. Sabina Vecchione Gruener is an Italian who teaches German in Trieste, Italy. Having studied Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian at university, she has a true appreciation for the languages of her neighbours and is in many ways a pioneer in this field.


When asked what language she teachers, she ponders the question carefully before answering. "I teach German. At university I studied foreign languages, specifically German, Serbo-Croatian, and Slovenian. I say this to show that even then I was aware that I belonged to a country bordering on others, to a multicultural country, and this is something I have carried forward throughout the years."


In terms of her current teaching experience, Sabina thinks that her pupils get a lot out of their classes, not just from a linguistic point of view, but also from a historical one. "Teaching German in Trieste is very special, because the city has a close relationship with Germanic culture: it was part of the Habsburg Empire for several hundred years, and this historical background is reflected in the dialect, in the culinary traditions, in various expressions…"


When speaking of her pupils' eTwinning project experience, which included the discovery of such facts, she has found that the project was a self-discovery for many of the youngsters."[…] "For example, finding some words in the German vocabulary that are also in our dialect, or discovering that our Austrian friends eat the same things we do, all the time thinking that these were our specialties, all this allows us to discover that our neighbours are even a part of ourselves at the same time."

Crossing over the border, Sabina's eTwinning partner, Cornelia Esterl is an Austrian teacher of Italian in Klagenfurt. For Cornelia, learning the language of a neighbouring country is important on many levels. "It is not only for economic reasons but of course also cultural reasons that explain why you should learn the language of your neighbour."


In terms of her pupils' experience, "The pupils experience the language not only as a language being taught at school, but in fact as a language belonging to a culture in which they can also participate if they want to." A common border also means that Cornelia and Sabina's pupils can meet each other face to face. In this way, the learning of both German and Italian has true value for the pupils - they are then able to be international travelers, international communicators.