Good morning, good day, good evening, and welcome everybody wherever you are in the world!
The saying “Life is what’s happening while you are busy making other plans” which is attributed to John Lennon – although he was not the one who coined it – probably captures best what has happened to all of us in 2020 so far.
We, the EUROCALL community were not spared the impact of Covid-19, and while the Copenhagen team – Karen-Margrete, Sane and Patrick - were getting ready to host us on their campus and in their city, it became increasingly clear that an on-site event was not an option this year.
Life took over in the shape of a pandemic and I know that this has brought hardship to some of you. An especially warm welcome to you to the Gathering of our – of your - CALL community.
What has moved me most over the past weeks and months is the spirit and enthusiasm with which everybody has risen to the challenge (against all odds!), my colleagues on the executive committee, first and foremost.
The solution for Plan B was clear: we’d be using technology for what it should be used: to bring us together, to first prepare and now share what we feel passionate about, that is our work as CALL scholars.
I would like to say, “Thank you!” to Teresa, Kate, and Toni in particular who have picked up the baton from the Copenhagen team and have created – with your input – this event.
It is with immense gratitude to all of you that I declare the EUROCALL Gathering 2020 open.
Before I hand over to my colleagues, I would like to invite you all to tomorrow evening’s social. Bring a glass of your favourite drink and a song, poem, tongue twister, any object with an associated story in any language or anything else that lends itself to online entertainment of a language-related nature.
and so it began...
and we ask you tell us of your experiences of the #eurocallgathering event using flipgrid, a video sharing platform. To contribute you will need to sign on with either a microsoft or a google mail account.
The topic is here or you can scan this QR code:
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