Written by: Aparna Mohan
Picture: Mother Language Day from Shutterstock
Amidst ISM’s melting pot of cultures and the increasingly globalized world, it is ofutmost importance that we understand our own cultural backgrounds and establish our own sense of identity before attempting to understand those of others. It is also important to understand that language is the means of connecting to our roots – a verbal expression of culture as well as the one thing that links us all together.
In the elementary school, Mother Tongue classes are offered that acknowledge the need to nurture language, culture and diversity. According to ES Assistant Principal Michael Rourke, these after-school classes were initiated by parents four years ago and are sustained by continued need for first language maintenance. The Mother Tongue classes, says Rourke, which at the moment are Dutch, German, Chinese, and Hindi, nicely counterbalance the lack of foreign language classes offered in the ES. He also emphasized that strength in a mother tongue not only helps kids identify with their culture, but also develops a mental framework for approaching other languages, such as English. Since 65% of elementary students are non-native English speakers, these after-school classes that increase proficiency in a mother tongue can actually enhance English fluency!
As Mr. Rourke says, “Everything we do inschool, all our learning, is through the prism of language. We use language to make sense of what we learn.” Mother Tongue classes clearly help students use language more effectively, as ideas learned in one language can be applied to another almost immediately. But learning a language transcends just being able to succeed in school and learn effectively. Fluent in multiple languages himself of English, French and a bit of Vietnamese, Mr. Rourke believes that learning a new language also “opens massive windows into different cultures.” As British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, “The limits of mylanguage are the limits of my world.”
