INTERNATIONAL MOTHER LANGUAGE DAY

How can You Measure Your Love for Your Mother Tongue?

Well, It’s Immeasurable!

Host: “How do you feel when you speak in your mother tongue, Sanghita?”

Me: “You can speak in many different languages. However, the first language you learn to speak as a child is your mother tongue.

When you speak in your mother tongue, you automatically become so authentic, so real. You speak your heart out. Your tongue gets in sync with your brain and heart.

You don’t have to fake any expression. You express your feelings and emotions without any hesitation. The communication that happens is empathetic. In simple words, mother language is the language you use to dream, feel, and think about your emotion. Don’t you?”

Host: “You are so right, Sanghita! When you talk in your mother tongue, your eyes, too, along with your heart and mind, become expressive and make the real communication. We express so well making all sorts of possible gestures.”

Our pride Our hope, O thy our Mother language

This is an excerpt of an online observance of International Mother Language Day on February 21, 2022, where I was invited as an elocutionist. While conversing with the host, the significance of mother tongue came up.

Every language spoken across the world represents its unique flavor and distinct cultural heritage — history, food, art and culture, livelihood, music, environment, and everything in between.

The concept of the mother tongue is an absorbing aspect of language that has surpassed generations. It provides you an identity, is a storehouse of history and heritage, and has a vital role in shaping our feelings, our emotions, and our mental framework.

The UNESCO declared February 21 as International Mother Language Day in 1999 to commemorate the supreme sacrifice by the language martyrs in Bangladesh on February 21, 1952.

Since then, every year, February 21 is being observed as International Mother Language Day across the world. In order to preserve and protect all the languages used by the people of the world, the annual observance on February 21 also has an aim to promote awareness of lingual diversity and cultural diversity, and multilingualism.

According to UNESCO,

i. education, based on the first language or mother tongue, must begin from the early years as early childhood care and education is the foundation of learning.

ii. The theme of the 2022 International Mother Language Day, “Using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and opportunities,” raises the potential role of technology to advance multilingual education and support the development of quality teaching and learning for all.

My mother tongue is Bengali and like every Bengali, my heart goes out to the people of Bangladesh who fought for the recognition of the Bengali (Bangla) language and laid down their lives. And for that matter, my heart goes out to all the people who have to fight for the protection and preservation of their mother language.

To honor and practice our mother tongue is our birthright, and we shall do it, no matter what.

If you wish to check one of my recent humble presentations on YouTube paying homage to the language martyrs, you may please click the following upload:

If you fathom my thoughts on this topic or even if you don’t, please do leave your valuable thoughts with a request to greet in your mother tongue in the Comment section.

Much love and warmth!

Long Live Mother tongues of the entire globe!!

Nomoskar!!! (The Bengali way to greet)