With International Mother Language Day being around the corner, discover the different languages spoken by International students in Cardiff.
Source -WikimediaThis year the world would celebrate 65 years of the United Nation’s (UN) International Mother Language Day. The day is celebrated on February 21, worldwide to recognize the languages spoken across the world.
The day holds significance as it is remembering the killing of four students in the year 1952 who campaigned to use Bengali as their mother language in Bangladesh. The protest began when Bangladesh, then part of Pakistan decided to have Urdu has their officially spoken language.
In Bangladesh, people observe the day by laying flowers at the Martyr’s Pillar (Shaheed Minar) and celebrating it through having festive meals and hosting parties.
The theme of the United Nations this year is to go towards Sustainable Futures through Multilingual Education. The aim is to promote literacy skills by keeping mother language as the first language and to foster sustainable development of cultures, values and knowledge.
Source – WikimediaAccording to the UN, around 7, 000 languages spoken worldwide are threatened to die with coming generations. This constitutes more than 50% of the total languages that are spoken.
It also says that 96% of these languages are spoken by only four per cent of the total population and less than 100 languages reaching the digital platform.
Cardiff city has around 20% of student population studying in different universities. Cardiff University alone has a significant number of about 7, 000 international students. The city’s culture is diverse and people from many parts of the world have made Cardiff their home.
To mark the celebrations, the InterCardiff, requests its readers to record a short video saying, “Happy International Mother Language Day” in your mother tongue and please do not forget to tag us along with mentioning the language recorded with #InterCardiff and twitter handle @Intercardifff.