The II International Language Festival in Bashkortostan, which coincided with the International Translation Day, took place on September 29-30 at the Bashkir State Pedagogical University named after M. Akmulla. The festival brought together about 400 people who acknowledged unique language diversity and the value of the human language in general. Compared to the last year the number of guests from other towns and cities had grown (61 people), among them were the project supporters from the Republic of Bashkortostan, Irkutsk, Sverdlovsk, Ulyanovsk and Moscow regions. Besides, there were also participants from Ukraine and Kazakhstan. The main events of the festival took place on the first day.
That day the participants and guests had the opportunity to hear 35 languages from 6 different language families: Slavic, Turkic, Finno-Ugric, 
Austroasiatic, Semitic and also a faraway Korean language. The presentations were made by the participants from all the parts of the republic – Ufa, Salavat, Sibay, Blagoveshchensk, Mishkino, Davlekanovo, Belebey, Dyurtyuli, Sterlitamak and Neftekamsk. The representatives of other parts of Russia (Moscow, Irkutsk, Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Tagil) and foreign countries (Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Germany, Armenia, Vietnam) kindly shared their knowledge of languages. The presentations were held simultaneously in 7 lecture halls and grouped according to several topics: “Languages of international communication”, “Languages of nations of Bashkortostan”, “European Language Union”, “Slavic chamber”, “Language as a mirror of history and culture”, “Rainbow of the world’s languages”, “Dialog of languages and cultures”. The most common as well as less familiar languages of the world were presented to the audience.
The highlight of the festival was the artificial language Esperanto created in the 19th century as a means of communication for the world community. The presentations prepared by the Bashkir Esperantists drew the attention of the audience and got a lot of questions. Praiseworthy and beautiful performances were devoted to the national language of the Republic. Love and respect to it were embodied in a special literary and musical piece “Praise you, my Bashkir language”. It is pleasant to note that the students of the Bashkir State University took an active part in the work of the II International Language Festival. Especially notable was “Slavic Chamber” workshop. Special guests of this section were Dr. Verka Sasheva Ivanova, senior lecturer of the Modern Bulgarian Language Department of St Cyril and St Methodius University of Veliko Turnovo (the Republic of Bulgaria), and M. O. Sadykova-Lisovskaya, the chairperson of the Polish Culture and Education Centre of the Republic of Bashkortostan “Vozrozhdeniye”.
The students made reports on basic peculiarities of Slavic languages and presented them with a great enthusiasm. They had also prepared some literary and musical compositions, including poems and songs in the original languages, as well as their own translations of some Slavic poets’ works. The traditional presentations on II International Language Festival went well alongside with the 20 lectures that made the scope of the event much broader. And it’s pleasant to note that they were received very positively by our guests. The subjects of the lectures were completely various. The lectures covered the development of language and the actual necessity of international languages in a very simple way, the problem of how language reflects the world around us, brought up the topic of the Old Turkic runic characters and the Bashkir naming, introduced interesting linguistic ideas and cultural notes. As some of the participants said, during the first day of the festival they made new friends, got a lot of necessary information and lively impressions. The festival’s atmosphere let everyone realize that it’s better to learn a language with a curiosity and freedom rather than because of a severe necessity. The second day of the event proceeded with the cultural programme. After the closing ceremony, where participants and organizers received commemorative certificates, a tour of the capital of Bashkortostan was provided for all comers.
List of 2012 Festival languages
Indo-European languages
- Slavic (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Old Russian, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech);
- Romance (Spanish, Italian, Catalan, Portuguese, French);
- Germanic ( British English, American English, German, Luxembourgish);
- Iranian (Ossetian, Persian);
- Graeco-Phrygo-Armenian (Armenian, Greek).
Turkic languages (Bashkir, Kazakh, Tatar, Turkish, Chuvash)
Uralic languages
- Finno-Ugric (Hungarian, Mari, Mordvinic (Erzya), Udmurt, Estonian).
Afroasiatic languages
- Semitic (Arabic).
Austro-Asiatic languages (Vietnamese).
Sino-Tibetan languages (Chinese).
International language Esperanto
Runglish language
List of 2012 Festival lectures
- Linguistic tasks.
- The way languages organize the world.
- The development of language (general information).
- The development of language (in post-USSR time).
- Why do we need artificial languages?
- A native language, a native word.
- A native language is a sacred language, the language of my father and mother!
- A trip to German cities and towns.
- I am interested in Germany.
- The symbolic world of the Kazakh people.
- The Russian streets of Paris.
- My home is my castle.
- Phraseological units in English and Bashkir containing the component “colour”.
- What we hear and what we do not hear in other languages.
- The localization of software from English into Tatar.
- The interaction of the Tatar and Russian languages.
- The Language Festival: from the beginning until now.
- Mass Media as a means of learning the English language.
- The traditions of naming in Bashkir families at the turn of the century.
- Old Turkic script (Orkhon-Yenisey script).
Internet resources about the II International Language Festival in Bashkortostan:
- the site of BSPU
- the site of UNESCO
- the site of BST
