Students, schoolchildren, authorities and journalists learned more about use of the French Language at the UN during the observation of the French Language Day.

The goal of the event is to promote multilingualism of the UN and cultural diversity. The event also marked the wrap up of the Francophonie month in Armenia. In addition to being one of six UN official languages, French is one of the two working languages of the UN Secretariat. It is also spoken on all continents, playing an important role in spreading the message of the UN in the world.

The event was organized jointly by the schools #48 named after Misak Manoushyan, school #56 named after Stepan Zoryan and school #78 named after Hayrapet Hayrapetyan. It was supported by the UN Department of Public Information and the French Embassy and is under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and the Department of General Education of Yerevan Municipality. Over 100 children from these three schools participated in the performances and presentations, promoting French language.

Maria Dotsenko, Representative of the UN Department of Public Information said: “I am happy to see so many young bright people in the audience today! It is important that Armenians are learning French, which will help you to open the borders and learn more about the world around, will help you to be citizens of the world. I think it's crucial to remember that we exist in a multilingual world where the languages we speak, or read, or write, affect the way we think and act."

The schools’ management and partners from the Yerevan municipality received specially designed Certificates from the UN Department of Public Information.

Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish are the six official languages of the United Nations. UN Department of Public Information together with its partners marks Days of all official languages of the UN throughout 2013.