A day of language and culture with Benteen Elementary School
The Mayor’s Office of International and Immigrant Affairs brought International Mother Language Day to life this spring with a special story hour honoring language and history.
Led by multilingual speakers of Bangla, French, Haitian Kreyol, Igbo, Quechua, Spanish, and Yoruba, 55 second-grade students at Benteen Elementary School engaged in activities that remind us how we are connected across music and language.
International Mother Language Day celebrates the diversity of languages spoken throughout the world, promoting multilingualism and centering the preservation of indigenous languages. Created in honor and memory of Bengali language movement martyrs fighting for language recognition, International Mother Language Day recognizes the importance of preserving and protecting all languages.
Multilingual City of Atlanta employees and representatives of the Consulate General of Peru joined the Mayor’s Office in celebrating their mother languages from Bangladesh, Haiti, Nigeria, and Peru. City departments represented included Atlanta Fire Rescue Department, the Department of City Planning, the Department of Watershed Management, and the Mayor’s Office.
In an afternoon of song, dance, language, and laughter, students engaged with culture and tradition from around the world, and saw how these are represented right here in their city.
Students learned about the Bangladeshi roots of International Mother Language Day from a Bangla-speaking city planner, sang to traditional Yoruba drumming with a Yoruba-speaking Atlanta Fire Rescue captain, and stomped their feet to wake up Mother Earth in a traditional Valicha dance with Peruvian Quechua speakers.
In a presentation about Haitian history, a representative of the Mayor’s Office taught students about her native languages of Haitian Kreyol and French, and how both languages are intertwined in her home country.
Students also heard from Igbo and Yoruba-speaking City employees representing Nigeria, highlighting the shared cultural values that exist between these two cultural groups.
In alignment with Benteen Elementary’s Dual Language Immersion Program, which offers in-language instruction in a secondary language, the Mother Language Day Story Hour gave students a fresh perspective on world languages and an appreciation for cultural diversity.
