International Mother Language Day is an observance held annually on 21 February worldwide to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. It was first announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999. Its observance was also formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution establishing 2008 as the International Year of Languages.
International Mother Language Day has been observed every year since 2000 February to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police in Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh.
Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.
International Mother Language Day has been observed every year since 2000 February to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police in Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh.
21 February is Nikolay Vyacheslavovich Rastorguyev birthday, (Russian: Николай Вячеславович Расторгуев) He is the lead singer of the Russian group Lyube.
ReplyDeleteIn 1978, Nikolay was the soloist for the band (VIA in Russian) "Шестеро молодых," but his first note came during his 1980-1985 stint in the band "Лейся, песня (in English, Lyeysya, Pyesnya)." There he befriended Valery Kipelov, who later to from Aria. After Leysya Pesnya split, Rastorguyev spent a year in the band Rondo before joining newly formed Lyube. Since then, Nikolay remains the band's only permanent member.
He has also starred in a couple of movies and released a solo English language album.
Speaking one’s mother language is a right that not everyone can take for granted, especially in places where local, mother tongues are threatened by more dominant languages. Today, bilingual education programmes worldwide illustrate how discussions about “mother languages” must include the “other languages”. SOAS Radio (http://soasradio.org/motherlanguageday), UNESCO’s partner from the University of London’s School of Oriental & African Studies provides global perspectives on the debate.
ReplyDeleteThe Very Reverend Archpriest Victor Sokolov (Russian: Виктор Владимирович Соколов) (February 21, 1947 – March 12, 2006) was a Russian-American former dissident Soviet journalist and an Eastern Orthodox priest.
ReplyDeleteHe wrote articles critical of the Soviet government that were clandestinely distributed throughout the Soviet Union and abroad.
After moving to the United States in 1975, he was stripped of his Soviet citizenship by an ukase of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on September 7, 1976, for "activities discrediting the rank of a Soviet citizen", becoming only the fifth person around that time to be so penalized, among them Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1984.