Publishing and Bookselling: 22nd International Book Fair kicks off in Vilnius

February 17 - 20 2011 Vilnius is holding 22nd International Book Fair.

One of the Fair’s events is a presentation of a book entitled “Cities and languages” in the Lithuanian language issued by the Vilnius University. Within the framework of the “Cities and languages” project a team of Lithuanian researchers studied which languages were spoken by residents of large cities of Lithuania in their everyday life and at work, and which foreign languages were given their preference.

– The aim of the project was to study three main cities – Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda, learn about the proficiency in languages of their residents, as well as their identity, – said the Head of the Department of Russian Philology, Vilnius University, one of the book’s authors Jelena Brazauskienė.

The study showed that the most “Russian” city in Lithuania was Klaipėda. There are more Russian residents, and they consider themselves to be representatives of their nationality to a greater degree.

– There are a lot of Russians in Vilnius as well, however they consider themselves more like citizens of Europe and the world. The least number of Russians live in Kaunas, and all of them have a very good command of the Lithuanian language, and use it more often than Russian in their everyday life and stated Lithuania as their Motherland, – told Jelena Brazauskienė.

The 22nd International Book Fair is taking place on February 17 – 20 at Vilnius Exhibition Center Litexpo. This year 220 publishers, booksellers, scientific institutions and companies from 9 countries including “World of Graal” from Perm, which specializes in religious literature, will familiarize guests of the fair with their latest publications.