Nelson Mandela, once said: "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to a man in his own language, that goes to his heart." Mandela understood our mother language is very personal thing to us.
After all, it's the language we first hear and the language we first learn to speak. We can communicate in a nuanced(微妙的) way through our mother language, expressing our emotions and moods more fluently. We make friends in our mother language. We fall in love init. When we die, we know people will mourn for us in our mother language.
For people who speak an ancient tongue as their mother language, their language is their main link with their ancestors. And it is also how they imagine the future. So it's a serious thing that a language disappears. Over the last century, more than 400 languages have died. Some languages are now spoken only by a few dozen people, like Yagan in Chile. Africa and South America are also places where many languages are imperiled.
Why are humans speaking fewer languages than we once did? The answer has to do with globalization(全球化). With greater trade and communication, the planet has become smaller. Some people aren't prepared to accept a planet with fewer and fewer languages.
Through efforts both large and small, they are getting people to speak and read in certain languages, and to pass them on. The United Nations has set Feb 21st as International Mother Language Day to raise awareness of dying languages. This work is very important. As US writer Rita Mac Brown wrote, "Language is the roadmap of a culture. It tells where its people come from and where they are going".
