On 5 December, on the occasion of the International Day of Volunteerism winners of the Prize Competition Bodi UP! were officially pronounced. The competition was attended by pupils of Supply Teaching Lessons of Slovenian.
The intention of the competition was to encourage young people to language innovation and consideration about volunteerism. During the Slovenian lessons we tried to find a new Slovenian verb that would best describe voluntary work. A group of pupils from elementary schools suggested verbs “promagati” and “propirati”. The verbs have been derived from the first syllable of the word “prostovoljec” (volunteer) and last syllables of words “pomagati” (help) and “podpirati” (support), because help and support are important for voluntary work. A group of pupils from secondary schools suggested verb “prostovoljiti” (volunteer).
There were 369 applications of verbs at the competition and exactly the verb “prostovoljiti” was chosen as the verb which best described voluntary work and as such would be added to the Dictionary of the Slovenian Language. All pupils who took part at the competition got T-shirts with Bodi up! written on them.
Stand up and remain!
Barbara Hanuš
