Express Yourself North East Festival of Languages has produced two e-books available free to view online. International Newcastle is delighted to be able to share these and celebrate the languages, cultures and global connections of people in the North East.
How languages changed my life is a series of inspiring stories shared by people who are from here, or came to live here, work or study here. The Mother Tongue Other Tongue anthology, is a selection of poems and writing from children and young people in the North East, in their home languages or languages they are learning.
How languages changed my life
As part of Express Yourself North East Festival of Languages in March this year, we asked people to share their stories to inspire people about language learning and their personal journeys, the cultures they are from and interacted with and their travels and working lives.
These are stories of people of all ages and backgrounds who are from here, came to live, work or study here or left the region and went elsewhere. The stories are about what languages mean to them and how it has impacted their lives.
We are delighted to be able to share this free e-book, which is a compilation of those stories.
The stories include Newcastle MP Chi Onwurah, US Security Advisor Fiona Hill, international students, police officers who use their first languages and intercultural skills in their work, a journalist and editor, a Deaf photographer, BSL interpreter and Deaf broadcaster and trainer, university lecturers and people who have dedicated their lives to promoting teaching languages – as well as two International Newcastle Board members and our Director.
We hope to inspire language learners of all ages and those who have home or first languages other than English to show the many different paths and experiences possible through languages.
The stories and the journeys are all different, but they all show that languages have had an impact on their lives and their future careers, has helped them gain a better understanding of people, cultures and communities, enhanced the quality of their lives and built their confidence and aspirations and also widened their perspectives about the world and how they interact with it.
Mother Tongue Other Tongue
Mother Tongue Other Tongue was an activity which was reintroduced to the region as part of the Festival of Languages, with the support of the Association of Language Learning North East, Newcastle University Language Resource Centre, Project Co-ordinator, Crista Hazell and advice from Routes into Languages North West. International Newcastle funded this initiative as part of its contribution to the Festival.
The ambition was for children and young people aged 7-18 to write poems and share poetic writings to celebrate their cultures and home languages (Mother Tongue), as well as the languages they are learning (Other Tongue) and their connections to the world.
This celebration of young people’s poetic writing was launched in the last week of February and ran through March, when schools were only open for a limited number of pupils. Thanks to teachers, families, teaching assistants and young people themselves across the North East, 65 submissions across 23 different languages were received.
A selection of these have been included in the e-book, so they can be shared more widely across the region, UK and the world.
“We are delighted that some submissions have been collaborations with home where family members have supported Mother Tongue creative expression engaging their children in sharing language and culture of their heritage. Receiving pieces in Arabic, Bengali, Tamil Ukrainian as well as French, Italian and Portuguese.”
Crista Hazell, Mother Tongue Other Tongue Co-ordinator
All submissions were checked by Newcastle University Language Resource Centre staff and Student Language Ambassadors and all those who submitted poems and writing were given a certificate. Some of the young people from St Paul’s Primary School in Newcastle will also be reading their poems and sharing their home languages as part of a podcast being produced in the summer, funded by the British Council and which will be shared across the country and internationally.
A note of thanks
International Newcastle is grateful to Festival Co-ordinator Crista Hazell for compiling these e-books and to all those who provided stories and poems to inspire others about languages and cultures.
Further information
We hope to run the Festival of Languages again next year and to build on these and the wide range of activities that were provided. International Newcastle convenes the Festival working group, as well as the group for Newcastle City of Languages, which involves partners in providing support, promotion and involvement in language teaching and learning.
- Find out more about Express Yourself NE Festival of Languages here
- Read about the reach and impact of the Festival here
- Find out more about Newcastle City of Languages here, as well as current events and activities relating to languages and links here