#MotherLanguageDay: Inclusion starts with respecting different languages and multilingualism!

🌍💬 Today is International Mother Language Day! It is a day to remind us that inclusion starts with respecting different languages and multilingualism.

📢 But were you aware that, globally, 40 percent of the population does not have access to education in a language they speak or understand?

📝 That’s why the 2023 theme for Mother Language Day is “Multilingual education – a necessity to transform education.” It highlights the importance of designing an education system that facilitates access to and inclusion in learning for population groups that speak non-dominant languages.

📚 Cherishing multilingualism indicates that we are getting closer to inclusive societies where everyone benefits from the coexistence and cross-fertilization of multiple cultures, worldviews and knowledge systems.

#WeAreManushyan ♾️ Equal Human Beings

✊ Manushya Foundation supports linguistic diversity and education systems that leave no one behind. As children are forced to abandon their mother tongues, their ancestors’ wisdom withers away. It’s thus in our society’s best interest to respect, nurture, and preserve all languages, especially those of minority groups and Indigenous peoples.

👉 While you're here, learn more about the barriers children face in Thailand in accessing education in their mother tongues:

• Thailand UPR III Factsheet on Khon Isaan, 9 september 2021

• Joint Civil Society CERD Shadow Report 'Thailand is a Paradise but only for the 1%!', 25 October 2021

References

• UNESCO, Languages in education, available at: https://www.unesco.org/en/languages-education

• United Nations, International Mother Language Day 21 February, available at: https://www.un.org/en/observances/mother-language-day

#InternationalMotherLanguageDay #MotherLanguage #NativeTongues #IndigenousPeoples #MinorityGroups #Language #LanguageLearning #Diversity #LanguageLover #LanguageExchange