International Mother Language Day
A language is much more than just a way of communicating, Language, and especially our mother language, is an important part of our culture. There are about 6, 500 languages in the world, but did you know that a language disappears and dies every two weeks?
In 1999, a special day to celebrate and protect all the languages of the world was created: International Mother Language Day, It is on 21 February. The idea for this special day came from Bangladesh, a country in South Asia, and 21 February is also the day when Bangladeshis mark the day that the Bangla language was officially (官方) accepted. Bangladeshis celebrate the day by holding competitions and singing songs.
Every year, UNESCO (联合国教科文组织) chooses a different theme (主题) and holds different events. For example, in 2005, there was a focus on Braille and sign languages, and in 2017, a focus on how multilingual (多语言的) education could help the world to have a better future. Many countries have also set up special projects to mark this day. For example, in 2014, the Indian government provided digital (数字的) learning materials for schools and colleges in the 22 most widely spoken Indian languages. It is said that there are around 750 languages in India, and, sadly, that around 250 more languages have been lost in the last 50 years.
The Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azouley, pointed out in a recent speech on International Mother Language Day that mother languages "shape millions of developing young minds". She believes that children learn best in their mother language, and that it is important that children should have this opportunity. Around the world, 40% of the population can't be able to learn in a language they can understand or speak.
At least 43% of all languages are at risk, and fewer than 100 of the world's languages are used in the digital world. Most Internet communication is in one of the following languages: English, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Indonesian, Malayan, Japanese, Russian and German. But everyone has the right to use their own mother language, and to keep the memories, traditions and ways of thinking that their language represents. And this is what International Mother Language Day is all about.
