Pictured: Kathryn, Storyteller – German
Love Your Mother Language Day at Newcastle City Library was a big hit with children and their families in February. Newcastle City Library offered these fun, family-friendly sessions as part of the Festival and as a celebration of language, storytelling and world cultures in honour of International Mother Language Day. The event welcomed families to drop in and enjoy a range of activities:
- special multi-lingual Storytimes delivered in 9 languages: Urdu, Polish, German, Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, Scots, Mandarin and Greek
- browse and borrow from the library’s collection of world language books for children and adults
- get creative with arts and craft activities that celebrate languages
- play games, share stories and play their favourite music in their mother language
Pictured: Storyteller Tricia (Scots)
The event was wonderful! We welcomed storytellers in seven languages and around 90 people took part. This was our second annual Love Your Language day and we’re looking forward to making it an even bigger and better event next year. We had nothing but amazing feedback and are working on adding Storytimes in languages other than English to our regular library programme.
Toni Ford, Reading Services Specialist, Newcastle City Library
Reactions from children taking part
I LOVED IT! <3 x <3x
More please!!!
Pictured: Storyteller Ulfet (Turkish)
This was one of the special days for me. I read my own translated book in Turkish to the little ones at the city library and had a conversation with them in English. Even though they didn’t fully understand me, they listened with curiosity. I hope their little hearts always remain pure.
I believe I celebrated Mother Language Day in the best way possible. Looking forward to the next event!
Ulfet Sahin
Acknowledgements
- Thank you to Toni Ford (Reading Services Specialist), Frances Harrison and Lisa Knott at Newcastle City Library, for running this activity as part of the Festival and to all the staff and volunteers at the the library for welcoming families to this fabulous event.
- Special thanks also to the Storytellers who gave their time and shared stories in their languages with the children and families: Mrs Saba Mrs. Saba Farooq Khan (Urdu), Katarzyna (Polish), Kathryn (German), Itzel (Spanish), Ulfet (Turkish), Halima (Arabic), Tricia (Scots), Penny (Mandarin) and Sofia (Greek).
- Thank you to all the children and families who got involved in Love Your Mother Language Day.
Other ways to celebrate Home, Heritage and Community languages during the Festival
There are so many ways to celebrate diverse languages with Festival events and activities up to the end of March. Visit the What’s On page or follow the links to find out more and any registration requirements:
- there are some places left at in-person events including: Primary school games and stories at the Multilingual Library in Gateshead; Language Treasures at Great North Museum; Arabic Learning with Team Games; Bangla Day in Sunderland; and Chinese documentary films at Newcastle University (secondary/sixth form)
- creative multilingual projects for 7-18 year olds: Festival Song – What a Wonderful World in 25 languages; Mother Tongue Other Tongue and Calligrams Celebration writing projects (with anthologies of entries created and certificates for schools); and the wonderful Weaving Friendship art project where children can write messages of friendship in any language and send in their creations to be part of a Friendship Trees installation and Newcastle Civic Centre
- Pre-recorded activities (3-16 years) including: French Puppet Shows, Lingotot workshops, Yorùbá singing, dancing and storytelling workshops, Multilingual digital stories made by children, Fun with Japanese and Exploring and Celebrating African Languages
- Free resources available anytime all listed on our What’s On page including challenges, education packs, interactive booklets and more, plus national competitions
Newcastle City Library links and information
Newcastle City Library has been an official Library of Sanctuary since 2021, providing support to people who have been forced to leave their homes and countries. It is a welcoming space and provides a wide range of services, in partnership with other Newcastle City of Sanctuary partners.
- Click here to find out more about Newcastle Library of Sanctuary and find out more about Libraries of Sanctuary here.
- Click here to find out more about the services and activities available at Newcastle City Library
- Read more abut Newcastle City of Sanctuary
