February 21 is International Mother Tongue Day, a chance to
celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity and persuade young
people who speak another language at home that this skill is a
valuable asset.
International Mother Tongue Day highlights the
importance of community languages and aims to show young people
that their mother tongue can open doors to new opportunities.
CILT has a range of resources such as Languages Work
materials including the
Hidden Talent series and
Use it or Lose it factsheet which can help motivate young
people.
The Languages Work website also includes
case
studies of professionals using languages including Bengali,
Panjabi, Arabic, Turkish and Urdu in a variety of careers such as
interpreting, healthcare, translating and sales.
For those who speak a second language at home
but are unsure how to benefit from it, there is information on the
CILT
website about how to get accredited in community languages.
To find out more about the resources available
to get ideas on how you can celebrate International Mother Tongue
Day please click
here.