LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD
19 students, 5th grade, Txomin Aresti School, Leioa
Teacher: Patricia Márquez
Artist: Zaloa Ipiña
Main curricular subject: Basque Language/Studies
Related curricular subjects: English, Spanish, History
Language: Basque
The idea here was to take a look at language from the perspective of art, exploring both language diversity at the global level and local dialect nuances. This involved analyzing the connections between language, popular culture, geography, and art. The art activities were designed to encourage schoolchildren to create, promoting independence and imagination in trial-and-error exercises.
The students were asked to read a poem in Basque by Kirmen Uribe and compare it to its translated versions in Spanish, English, and Portuguese in order to identify each language’s distinctive features. Drawing letters from the poems, they realized that each language had symbols of its own or used the same symbols differently.
Despertando a la tierra (Earth’s Awakening) was an exercise on Carnival and its origin: celebrating the time when the earth starts blossoming again after winter. The children had to plant seeds and bulbs in pots, and then play musical instruments made from recycled materials to “wake the earth up”. Their performance was recorded in video and the footage was used to make a film about the passing of time and popular culture.