Save the date: on Sunday February 24, from 2 pm, join ELA at University Settlement on Manhattan’s Lower East Side for a no-holds-barred language marathon, featuring speakers of languages from around the world!
Donations are appreciated, but everyone is welcome. We’ll also have a special sale going, with ELA’s Queens language maps and unique t-shirts both going for just $10.
Come hear poems, songs, jokes, proverbs and learn a few words in over a dozen languages originally from Pakistan, Mexico, Indonesia, and elsewhere, all now spoken in NYC. The stage is also open to anyone and everyone who would like to share a few words of their mother tongue: just drop us a line telling us a little about what you’d like to present.
What’s the occasion? Since 1999, in memory of the 1952 Bengali Language Movement, the United Nations has designated February 21 as International Mother Language Day, a day to celebrate all of the world’s approximately 7,000 languages as equally rich, varied, and extraordinary vehicles for communication and thought. This year we’ll also be recognizing the International Year of Indigenous Languages, a huge range of events around the world celebrating the deep value and indigenous language, thought, and cutlure.