Multilingual Month, a month celebrating multilingualism and language diversity, will take place between February 21st, the International Mother Language Day, and March 21st, the World Poetry Day and the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The first Multilingual Month gathers organizations, people and events all over the Nordic countries. We warmly welcome all organizations to join us and celebrate language diversity!
Why Multilingual Month?
Language is a powerful tool for creating a sense of security and belonging. It is a part of our identity and the precondition for all communication. How do languages sound, feel and taste like? How do they affect our identities and the way we see the world around us?
The history of the Nordic countries is multilingual and the multilingualism of the Nordic countries include both national and traditional minority languages, and languages, that the more recent immigration has introduced. Multilingual Month brings forward this diversity and encourages everyone to make everyday life even more multilingual.
How to contribute
Culture for All Service invites educational institutions, libraries, NGOs and all other organizations across Nordic countries to join the first Multilingual Month by the following ways:
- Organize a poetry reading, meeting with writer, workshop, lecture or discussion or any other multilingual event between February 21st and March 21st. If you are hosting an event related to multilingualism, please tell us about it through the link below or in social media using hashtag #multilingualmonth.
- Contribute to challenges that will be published twice a week on our Facebook page and Twitter account during the Multilingual Month. Learning languages is all about small acts and having fun!
- Share a best practice, tell a personal story related to languages in your life or start a discussion with hashtag #multilingualmonth.
Multilingualism and language diversity are central in the work of many organizations and projects through the whole year. You can also tell us about these continuous activities as one of the goals of Multilingual Month is to promote cooperation between actors in Nordic countries. We will list participants and other Nordic organizations working with language diversity in the Links section.
If you organize your own event during the Multilingual Month, we encourage you to use the logos provided on our website.
About us
Multilingual Month has been celebrated in Finland as Satakielikuukausi (Month of a Hundred Languages Festival) since 2015. This year the Finnish National Agency for Education invites Finnish schools to organize their own events.
Multilingual Month is coordinated by Culture for All Service as part of the project Multilingualism and Diversity as a Resource in the Cultural Field. The service offers information and support in questions related to diversity and accessibility and is located in Helsinki, Finland. In Finland Multilingual Month is celebrated as Satakielikuukausi and it is coordinated by Cultural Centre Caisa.
Feel free to spread the word!
Oona Simolin
Planner
Culture for All Service
Pictures: Anton Vakulenko (CC BY-SA 2.0) | Anthony Jackson (CC BY-SA 4.0) | Quinn Dombrowski (CC BY-SA 2.0)