Inclusion of the Albanian language in Swedish schools by the Albanian teacher Zyrafete Loshaj

 

 Zyrafete Loshaj, a multilingual counselor in the municipality of Linköpings in Sweden, spoke about the assistance she has provided in the implementation of the Albanian language in school curricula.

The Minister of State for the Diaspora, Pandeli Majko, has published the case of Loshaj, who is working constantly to promote the Albanian language.

"I constantly work for the promotion of the Albanian language. Where this language is lacking, I request that this language be added, because it helps many children who have a mother tongue. At first, there were no Albanian language programs here, but I was persistent and after 2 years of trying I was asked to help translate 20 films into Albanian. These programs are only for children living inside Sweden and not abroad. Also in the same program, I have translated 8 other books that are for children up to 8 years old, as the previous films were for children up to 3 years old. But I see that these translations are also for the benefit of parents, not just children,” she says.

 Zyrafete Loshaj

Zyrafetja also corrected the Swedish National Encyclopedia of Mother Teresa, as it is not cited that she was Albanian. According to her, this was a coincidence because when she looked in the encyclopedia what was written about Mother Teresa, she saw that the Albanian word was nowhere to be found. From the research she did, she was able to tell everyone and convince them that she was Albanian. She was one of the initiators of the establishment of the ‘Albana’ foundation, which aims to promote Albanians around the world.

"This organization extends throughout Sweden and invites all Albanians to join it. As a branch here in Sweden, we are trying to create the necessary conditions for the development of the Albanian Diaspora. This organization is headquartered in Tirana but this headquarters is composed of people from different countries of the world. The good thing about this foundation is that it has a unifying character and tries to bring Albanians closer to working for the interests of Albanians. I have worked in the Ministry of Diaspora and have been official in the development of languages ​​from different countries. I only worked there for one summer and my role was as a ministry representative and I spoke to the media. This staff is very well organized and do their best for children coming from abroad. Although I separated the work there, I had collaborations with them by conducting excursions and exchanging materials and projects", she emphasized, among other things.

She was educated in Kosovo in Geology, but after the war she was forced to emigrate to Sweden on April 29, 1999. Her journey was long and painful because they had left behind all those years with memories and her family was already there distributed in different parts of the world. Many other immigrants, including many students, went to the area where she went to Sweden. Thus, with her knowledge of English, she served as a translator for Albanians. She did this job as a volunteer, but after two months she started working as an Albanian language teacher and as an assistant to a Swedish teacher who had an Albanian class. It all started from scratch for her. Zyrafetja has also been invited by the Swedish School Authority to promote a translation pen created by her and several colleagues of different nationalities. This pen translates phrases from different languages ​​of the world.