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International Day of Multilingualism

languages Mar 25, 2019

Some days you just get up, get dressed and just about keep things ticking over. Other days you get up and organise the first ever International Day of Multilingualism in collaboration with world-renowned academics and language professionals.

It's pretty exciting that Babel Babies is involved in this venture, and here is everything you need to know to be involved in this worldwide movement, from the comfort of your own home.

When is it?

Wednesday 27th March

What is it?

A day to celebrate the incredible linguistic diversity of our planet. We talk about diversity in ecosystems and animal kingdoms, but do we stop and reflect on the incredible diversity of our languages? Not so much. And recently there has been a steep decline in take-up of languages at GCSE in the UK, which is incredibly worrying.

More positively, however, this has sparked lots of discussion on Twitter about why languages are wonderful and important, and the neuroscientist Thomas Bak, from Edinburgh University, suggested during one such discussion that we should try and unite under one banner to celebrate the fact that learning languages is healthy, fun and perfectly normal. Cate suggested the #multilingualisnormal hashtag and the idea has taken root very quickly, with a group and event building up momentum over on Facebook over the last fortnight. You can visit the official website and the reasons why Cate designed the logo with the triangles here.

How can you take part?

On 27th March, the date engraved on the famously multilingual Rosetta Stone, we are gathering as many people as we can to get the hashtag #multilingualisnormal trending on Twitter at 9am and 9pm GMT.

If you can, please:

1 – share a photo/quote/fact related to languages across as many of your social media accounts as possible

2 – use the #multilingualisnormal hashtag in all posts

3 – post at 09:00 and 21:00 GMT on Wednesday 27th March 2019

4 – schedule multiple posts to create a simultaneous wave of support

Let’s get the topic trending, and get people talking about talking!

You can join the International Day of Multilingualism Facebook group here, and discuss ideas on how to take part with other interested parties.

The group has a Facebook event running, with live translations of the phrase ‘Multilingual is Normal’ and the above instructions into as many languages as we can collectively conjure. Please come and take part!

Babel Babies has always been proudly multilingual, ever since we launched eight years ago, and this exciting event is giving us renewed hope that languages are going to thrive and take their rightful and central place in education.

Sing, learn and love languages together!

Read more blogs about the International Day of Multilingualism on Multilingual Parenting, Ute's International Lounge, and Malta Mum.

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