Linguamón's director, Antoni Mir, during the presentation of the House of Languages at the UN headquarters in New York.

On 17 December 2008, Linguamón - House of Languages was presented to the United Nations at the headquarters of the latter in New York. The presentation took place as part of the seminar entitled “Languages matter. Linguistic Diversity, Globalisation and Development”, which the UN and UNESCO had organised to bring the International Year of Languages to a close. According to Linguamón's director, Antoni Mir, “the aim of Linguamón was to answer the UN's call and show that Catalonia is already working on a groundbreaking centre for the cultivation of the world's multilingualism, in the form of the House of Languages”.

Mir took part in a round-table discussion called “Towards a Global Culture. Multilingualism, Opportunity and Development”, where he advocated “dignifying, reinforcing and protecting the world's linguistic heritage to foster dialogue and cooperation between peoples”. He also called on the UN to stand firm in its commitment to multilingualism and encouraged institutions, businesses and individuals to take responsibility for guaranteeing and consolidating the human race's linguistic wealth. He went on to announce that, following on from the first seminar, Linguamón intended to organise a series of such events throughout the world, in conjunction with international bodies that work to promote linguistic diversity. It is against that backdrop that the 2^nd Global Seminar on Linguistic Diversity, Globalisation and Development is to take place in November 2009 in Sao Paulo (Brazil), where the focus will be on the media as a vital means of promoting the values of languages. In New York, Mir had stated that “we have come to the UN to present the House of Languages as Catalonia's permanent contribution to the universal principles endorsed through the International Year of Languages, but we do not want to stop there. On the contrary, this is just the beginning. In Sao Paulo we aim to further highlight the need to nurture, preserve, study and manage the planet's multilingualism”.

The UN views multilingualism as one of the keys to peaceful coexistence and mutual understanding, and thus proclaimed 2008 to be the International Year of Languages. As the lead agency for the International Year of Languages, UNESCO called for activities to be carried out all over the world with a view to promoting, supporting and raising awareness of the planet's more than 6,000 languages.

• Press pack (in Catalan)  
• Photos
• Press cuttings (in Catalan and Spanish) 
• Programme
• Supplement from the newspaper El Periódico (available in Catalan or Spanish)
• Speeches 
• Catalunya ràdio - evening news programme (in Catalan)