Promoting language culture with the most beautiful words of our mother tongue
Sasa Zdravkovic / / Blog, I-IV, Kombinovani, Nacionalni, V-VIII / February 20, 2021
Promoting language culture with the most beautiful words of our mother tongue
Celebrating International Mother Language Day on 21 February
On International Mother Language Day, Year 5 students received an interesting research project which, among other things, required them to make a list of the most beautiful words in their language.
The students created a poster which will remind us of the importance and beauty of the Serbian language, and the poster will open for amendments in the future.
Our mother tongue is the language we learn in our childhood from our families and our environment. It’s an integral part of our identity and an expression of our culture. However, fast communication has a negative impact on one’s native language. When it comes to the Serbian language, linguists often point out that it’s coming under more and more threat, mainly by the dominant English language.
The use of English is currently even threatening languages with a serious tradition, e.g. French, German or Italian. This is why our students approached this project seriously and with great interest.
A DISPLAY OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WORDS IN SERBIAN
Students in Year 5 were tasked with making this year’s mini-exhibition for International Mother Language Day. They were required to find interesting facts about language in general (on the Jezikofil website), and make a list of the most beautiful words in their language with an explanation as to why they find a particular word appealing. Afterwards, this material was printed out for a poster in the school hallway.
There are two questions on the poster: What do you know about your mother language? and Which is the most beautiful word in your mother language?.
The display is an answer to these questions and an invitation to others to contribute with their favourite words.
As motivation, they were presented with a famous quote by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić:
Language is the guardian of the people. As long as a language lives, as long as we love it and respect it, use it to speak and write, the people will live on and understand each other, without succumbing to others.
INTERNATIONAL MOTHER LANGUAGE DAY FOR CULTURAL DIVERSITY
The International Mother Language Day was established in 2000 to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism.
The date (21 February) was chosen to commemorate a tragic event from 1952, when a group of students were killed in Dhaka, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) for protesting against the fact that their language hadn’t been declared official. Subsequently, the United Nations General Assembly declared the International Mother Language Day in order to promote the preservation of all languages of peoples all over the world, particularly those with few speakers.
