21 February 2023
First and foremost, thank you very much for the beautiful songs. You not only made my day, I think you made my week. It was the highlight of my week. Many thanks to you.
Excellencies,
My good friend Under-Secretary-General,
Distinguished delegates,
Dear friends,
It is a pleasure to join you for the observance of the International Mother Language Day.
I thank the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh for organizing this event – and for the initiative that sparked 蘑菇视频ESCO’s proclamation of the International Day in 1999,?congratulations.??
Mother language is our first tool for understanding the world.
Our mother language is the soundtrack of our childhood.
It plays a critical role in the development of our identities.
It is shaped by our past, our culture, our environment.
And it shapes our existence, expressions and interactions.
Then when we grow up, Mother Language becomes our portable homeland.
And throughout our lives, it will remain the flag of our voices as Türkiye’s famous poet, Fazil Husnu Daglarca described.
Dear Friends,
The 6,000 languages spoken around the world showcase the rich cultural diversity of our planet. That’s what we have.
They all belong to humanity’s precious joint heritage.
Unfortunately, some mother languages are on the brink of extinction, threatened by globalization and our ever-growing online civilization.
When a language recedes, so too does the unique historical and spiritual knowledge it embodied for centuries.
We lose perspectives. Lose ideas. A distinct way of being human.
We cannot allow our vast linguistic bounty to slip away with the shifting sands of time.
It is critical that we preserve it.
We can do this, first and foremost, by ensuring that all young people are given the option of learning in their mother tongue.
Access to multilingual and mother tongue education is a vital accelerator of progress to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4.
But the preservation of linguistic and cultural diversity is possible only if all mother tongues are freely used in public life, culture and communications.
This is especially crucial for groups speaking minority and indigenous languages.
Excellencies,
Nelson Mandela beautifully observed that “if you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”.
The use of mother languages promotes tolerance and social inclusion.
It can help us in our quest for transformative solutions as we tackle today’s interlocking challenges.
Let us continue to celebrate and nurture the speaking of one’s mother language to truly ensure we leave no one behind.
For, in the words of Hungary’s famous linguist Ferenc Kazinczy, mother tongue is “not mine, not yours, but sweetly ours”.
In Hungarian, “A nyelv nem az enyém, nem a tiéd, hanem az édes mienk.”
Thank you very much.