The Polyglot Gathering is an informal event which takes places once a year and brings together polyglots (people who speak several languages) from all over the world. It is a four-day event with lectures and social activities for everyone who loves and enjoys languages.
The founders of the event are Judith Meyer, Chuck Smith and Martin Sawitzki, who were the main organizers the first three years. They enjoyed the Polyglot Conferences held in Budapest (the first large-scale international polyglot events ever), and didn’t want to wait another year to meet all the amazing people again at another Polyglot Conference. So they organized the first Polyglot Gathering in Berlin, in 2014.
As the event was very popular among polyglots, another edition followed in May 2015, and the last one in 2016 with as many as 350 attendees. The interest in the Polyglot Gathering has been continually growing. This year, the Berlin organizers decided to cooperate with Peter Baláž from the E@I organization and Lýdia Machová from www.languagementoring.com, and together we are bringing the Polyglot Gathering to Bratislava in 2017.
Participants of the previous editions of the Polyglot Gathering are usually eager to come back because the event is very special. Many polyglots who can’t share their biggest passion in life with their friends and relatives are happy to meet other like-minded people, and practice all of their languages. Every participant gets a name tag where they write all the languages they wish to practice, so everyone knows what languages to speak with each other.
Besides lectures which form the main part of the program during the four days, participants of the Polyglot Gathering also spend a lot of time together doing other activities. Among the most popular are hanging out together at lunches and dinners as well as in the breaks between lectures, a multilingual concert, polyglot games, pub visits in the evenings and many others.
This year, participants of the Polyglot Gathering can also look forward to getting to know a new city and a new country! We are preparing one and two-day trips in Slovakia for a group of participants right after the event (as an extra service for those interested). It will be yet another chance to hang out with fellow polyglots and travel at the same time.
It’s going to be an awesome event. Make sure you don’t miss it!
