International Mother Tongue Day at TNMU
Language is the spiritual treasure of a nation. It is not just a means of human communication it is something that lives in our hearts. It is something that we get with maternal warmth. It fascinates us with its sound. It inspires us. It makes us smile.
According to various sources, there are almost 6,000 languages in the world at present, 2 languages disappear every month in the world. It is estimated that in the 21st century at least 40% of languages may disappear from the linguistic map of the world. In order to support linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism, the 30th session of the UNESCO General Conference declared February 21st to be an International Mother Tongue Day.
Traditionally, teachers of the Department of Ukrainian Language of I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University organized events on the occasion of the International Mother Tongue Day. The students of the Faculty of Medicine and International Students Faculty joined them.
Associate Professor Maria Tyshkovets and students of the group MM 113 watched an informative video regarding the International Mother Tongue Day, as well as a documentary video “Why is the Peresopnytsia Gospel so valuable for Ukrainians?”
On this day the poetries were declared in different languages. Associate Professor Iryna Zalipska and students of the group IM 137 joined the celebrations. The international students learned interesting facts about the richness and beauty of the Ukrainian language. Also, the students Ajibade Adeseva Ololade, Wankhede Vaishnavi Howardhan, Gosavi Rupal Rajendra, Gupta Ankeksh, Sinyah Anirudh, Sita Ram Shelke Suraj presented poems in their native languages: in Hindi, Konkani, Yoruba, English, Arabic, Somalian, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam. Azam Sind Mohd Anas and Raj Ranholi enthusiastically delivered poems in Ukrainian. Everyone was enchanted by a beautiful singing of Pallikkali Shamil, Osman Farhan Abdi, Abdullah Sumeja Mohamud.
The students of the International Students Faculty of the group 236 together with the teacher Oksana Mysyk watched videos on interesting facts about the world languages. The students also declared poems in their native language. Poetic works were performed in Hindi, Gadoti, Igala, Igbo, Yoruba and Calabari.
Teacher Nadiia Oliinyk and the students of the groups IM 125 and IM 129 also joined the International Mother Tongue Day. They watched a video about the history of the holiday, and each student told about his country, its cultural identity, famous people, languages spoken there. International students declared poems and sang songs in their native languages (Arabic, Urdu, Swahili, Polish, French, Edo, Berber, Lingala). The students learnt the cultural heritage of Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya, Poland, DR Congo, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Ukraine.
Associate Professor Tetiana Melnyk and the students of the group IM 256 held an educational event regarding the International Mother Language Day on “5 interesting facts about my language”.
The students prepared stories to present the language features, origin and functioning of their language; they declared poems and sang songs in their native language.
For example, Pacheco Carla Ehas and Medina Edhar Machado from Ecuador expanded on the Spanish language.
An interesting report on various African languages (Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa) was made by Ajoola Hilary Harrison, who associated the origin of languages with ethnic groups.
The students from India Vasim Jafarullah Khan and Bhavinkumar Kalidas Patel shared their curiosities about the Indian languages Marathi (spoken by more than 90 million people) and Gujarati (a native language of more than 46 million people).
Let us cherish and love the native language, take care of it, protect it, reveal its greatness and mighty, because it is the only one we have inherited!