Today, February 21, is International Mother Language Day. This day was proclaimed by UNESCO “to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world”. The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of two national languages of Pakistan (then), were shot and killed by police in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh (now).

Having grown up during Apartheid in South Africa, I know that June 16, 1976 carries similar significance for South Africans that February 21, 1952 does for the Bangladeshi people. This is the day that school children in Soweto protested the use of Afrikaans as the language of instruction in secondary schools. The government forced Afrikaans education onto children who didn’t speak it. Police killed about 176 students during the Soweto uprising – the photo of Hector Pieterson being carried by Mbuyisa Makhubo after being shot, became the iconic image of the day. The day is now commemorated as Youth Day, a public holiday, in South Africa. Since my mother tongue is Afrikaans, I’m filled with sadness about what happened in the name of my mother language. South Africa now has 11 national languages, but mother language instruction is sadly still not always available in all locations.

Celebrating International Mother Language Day is a way to promote our unity in diversity. Our world is richer because of multilingualism and multiculturalism.

“We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race.” 
- Kofi Annan


How will you celebrate your mother tongue today? I’m planning to sponsor a word in the Afrikaans dictionary (a fundraising way for survival of the dictionary), read only Afrikaans books for our evening reading ritual, and learn a new word in an unfamiliar language.

Happy International Mother Language Day!

Reading time at home means books in a mix of three languages

It is said that at least half of the world’s population is bilingual. And many of those are multilingual. The broad definition of a multilingual is someone who can communicate in more than one language. This can be through speaking, writing or signing, or through listening and reading. There is an interesting new book by Michael Erard, Babel No More, about polyglots: people who can communicate in multiple languages. Poly (Greek: πολύς) means “many”, and glot (Greek: γλώττα) means “language”.

In our family, my husband and I grew up in South Africa, speaking Afrikaans, and learning English (the Queen’s version), starting in elementary school at about age 10. Our first language, or mother tongue, will always be Afrikaans, but we are pretty competent in English, with Jaco having written 3 books so far.

Our girls were born in the USA, but have heard both Afrikaans and English since birth. I guess this makes them simultaneous bilinguals. When our youngest started Kindergarten, we opted for her to go to the same public school as her sister, but to be in a Two Way Bilingual Immersion Spanish class. In this class, balanced numbers of native English speakers and native Spanish speakers are taught together, so that both groups of students serve as language learners at different times. It has been a wonderful experience: it is amazing to see the kids grow in language ability, but also to see friendships develop over the 3 years between all of the kids.

As our youngest is becoming a competent reader, writer and speaker in Spanish, we realized that we needed to learn Spanish too, since it helps to understand when we listen to her practice reading, and when we help her practice spelling words! Our family spent 3 months during 2010 in Chiapas, Mexico. All four of us attended a Spanish Language school in San Cristóbal de las Casas. Even though it wasn’t always easy to be immersed in a language you cannot speak, it is the quickest way to learn and we made a lot of progress.

Back in our regular life now for over a year, it has been difficult to keep up our Spanish vocabulary. We’re trying to find creative ways to hear, speak and read Spanish so that all our hours of Language School will not be in vain. Our oldest daughter is taking piano lessons in Spanish, and I recently started attending adult Spanish classes again. We also listen to a lot of Spanish music at home.

We have realized that we need to spend more time in South Africa if we want our kids to be able to read and write in Afrikaans, and not just speak it. So we’re planning to spend two months close to family in South Africa this year, immerse the kids in language and culture, and work on their reading skills. Hold your thumbs (the South African/British version of crossing your fingers) for us!

I think what I’ve realized most in our multilingual journey, is that it is a process. There is no goal post that we have to reach. There is no path we need to follow, since this is our own journey. What works for one of us, may not work for the other ones in the family. We’re figuring it out along the way, making mistakes and learning all the time. And that is OK.

What do you do to encourage multilingualism in your family?

In La ‘Kesh – Mayan:
“We are different faces of each other” or “I am another you”. These words are spoken with deep reverance as recognition of the divine within another person – similar to the phrase Namaste.

Nakama – Japanese:
Nakama is used to refer to friends who one considers family. Your “crowd” or group of friends will stand by you no matter what.

Szimpatikus – Hungarian:
You know the feeling you get when you meet a person for the first time and your intuition tells you she/he is a good person? You say this person is “szimpatikus”. You get a ‘good vibe’ from such a person.

Mate – Australian:
You probably know this one well. It provides a key to the Australian spirit. You spend a lot of time with your mates, doing things together, giving mutual support in good fortune and in bad fortune.

Anam ċara – Gaelic:
Your anam ċara is your “soul-friend,” your true friend, a lovingly stern companion to whom you can, in stringent honesty, unburden your heart.

Enjoy Valentine’s Day with your anam ċara! And may you get to spend time with your nakama!

That made me think about a MotherTongues Manifesto. What is the ethos of MotherTongues? What inspires me to search for life-affirming words? What inspires me to use Fair Trade, organic cotton t-shirts to print these words on? What is the bigger picture? This is what I came up with. I hope you will enjoy, and find some inspiration for your own life!

These are 5 untranslatable words about nature, and our relationship with the earth, that I recently came across:

Tenalach (Irish): A word used in the hills and mountains in the west of Ireland. It points to a relationship one has with the land/air/water, a deep connection that allows one to literally hear the earth sing…

Hear the earth sing

Komorebi (Japanese): The scattered, dappled light effect when sunlight shines through tree leaves.

Gökotta (Swedish): To wake up early in the morning with the purpose of going outside to hear the first birds of spring sing.

Aloha aina (Hawaiian): This phrase means “love of the land.”  Hawaiians are the land, in the sense that the land provides food, water, clothing, and shelter. Showing care for the land, while visiting, is a wonderful way to show care and respect to the people of Hawaii.

Dadirri (Aboriginal Australian): An ancient word that combines contemplation, deep inner listening, and quiet still awareness of creation and the Creator, Dadirri is like a crystal clear water hole that calls us to be replenished and revitalized. To embody Dadirri, is to be at peace with yourself, with others, in nature, and with the Creator. Be patient with yourself, with your neighbor, and wait upon the seasons. Become aware of the sacredness that surrounds you. Hear creation breathe and follow her rhythm.

Do you have any words to add?

Photo by Lize van Dyk

Our family is bilingual (English and Afrikaans) and we’re trying to add Spanish to our language mix too.  I’ve enjoyed reading François Grosjean’s book, Bilingual, to put names to all the things we experience and wonder about. Do you have to be equally fluent in two languages to be bilingual? Why do my kids keep switching languages, or translate words directly? Can you learn a new language later in life?

One of the most interesting chapters for me was to read about how bilinguals dream. After 17 years in the USA, I still dream in only Afrikaans. Our girls tell me they are dreaming in English, Afrikaans and Spanish. My sister has had fluent conversations in Spanish while dreaming after only a few Spanish classes.

Prof. Grosjean says this is all part of the spectrum of experiences. He did a survey and found 64% of bilinguals and trilinguals say that they dream in one or the other language, depending on the dream. The place that the dream takes place in, or the people in your dream, may influence what language you dream in. Some people even dream in no language at all! Steven Pinker calls this the “language of thought”.

I’m still hoping to dream in another language one day. Let me know what languages you dream in!

ps. Christopher Moore writes in “In Other Words”:
“What are we to make of the fact that languages such as Spanish and Italian have the same noun for ‘sleep’ as for ‘dream’, while others, like French and English, differentiate between the two? Do some nations sleep differently than others?”

A couple of years ago, I did research on the Swedish word Lagom and designed a t-shirt to go with the meaning: Enough is as good as a feast. Lagom describes having just enough (food, clothing, shelter). You decide on your own “enough”, nobody can prescribe it to you.

Lagom changed my life. I became aware of how much stuff I bring into the house. I now ask myself if I really need it before I buy. I’ve started following Bea’s blog TheZeroWasteHome.com, read about the man who only owns 15 things, and become inspired to simplify, reduce, and pare down. I still buy way too many things that I regret, it is definitely a journey!

One year ago we spent Christmas in South Africa, and knowing we can’t bring back gifts in our already-stuffed-suitcases, we asked our family to give our girls experiences instead of gifts. The family responded by organizing a puppet show (and making it a wonderful afternoon to remember with friends and many kids), taking the kids snorkeling in the ocean and showing them what swims and grows there, and taking the kids to the beach for a fun day.

This year we were in Florida for Christmas. We visited the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, where Winter the dolphin from Dolphin Tale lives. The girls were in awe to see their first “movie star”.

I’m hoping that I can live into the spirit of Lagom more and more over the coming years: showing our kids that you don’t need physical gifts to celebrate, but that it is the experiences that you’ll carry in your memory forever.

How do you plan to find your own Lagom in your life?

“The official languages of the Republic are Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu.”

As a side note, this makes South Africa only second to India, which recognizes 23 official languages in its Constitution, with the number of dialects as high as 1,650!

Most South Africans can speak more than one language. Growing up, I never appreciated the wonder of hearing different sounds and languages around you every day; to hear the rhythms of a language even though you don’t understand what is being said.

Here are 11 words for peace, in the national languages of South Africa. May your year be filled with peace, in whichever language you choose to say it!

Xhosa: uxolo

Zulu and Ndebele: ukuthula

Tsonga: ku rhula

Venda: mulalo

English: peace

Sesotho: kgotso

Afrikaans: vrede

Tswana: kagiso

Northern Sotho/Sepedi: khutšo

Swati: lucolo

Mudita Mandala

I love words. Maybe you do to. I seek words, not the normal, everyday words, but words in languages that I do not understand, words that can teach me concepts from other cultures. These words, I believe, can inform my life and all of our lives in positive, life-giving ways. In fact, I’ve built a business around these words, a company called MotherTongues. And I’ve written how these words have changed me, and my family’s life.

Sometimes I just know when I find a word that it will change me in more ways that I can anticipate. One such recent word is mudita (moo-dee-TAH). It is a Sanskrit word describing a state of happiness in response to someone else’s success in life. Imagine taking delight in and being happy for someone else’s good fortune, despite your own circumstances at the moment. Surely such an attitude can change one’s life!

We have many English antonyms for mudita — envy, jealousy, pity — but no words describing feelings of happiness or even approval at another’s success. I read somewhere that we are taught to pursue our dreams and to resent those who achieve theirs.

The spirit against which mudita speaks, is found in the German word schadenfreude: taking pleasure in other’s misfortune. Often magazines, TV shows, and gossip invite us to find happiness and a sense of well-being in observing someone else’s trouble. Schadenfreude is a powerful attitude, one that sells.

If we live life as though there is a fixed amount of happiness in the world, or that one’s happiness is threatened or diminished by the happiness of others, it is easy to grow a resentful, competitive spirit. Think of the possibilities if you know that happiness that flows from you will return in abundance.

Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen master, writes about mudita in Teachings on Love:

“A deeper definition of the word mudita is a joy that is filled with peace 
and contentment. We rejoice when we see others happy, but we rejoice in our own well-being as well. How can we feel joy for another person when we do not feel joy for ourselves?”

Mudita never denies sadness or sorrow. Our awareness of grief and sorrow, however, helps us to find our own joy in things big and small, as well as in the joys of others. Echoing Thich Nhat Hanh, author Sharon Salzberg writes in her book, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness that

“Remembering the truth of the vast potential for suffering in this world, we can feel happy that someone, anyone, also experiences some happiness.”

I want to live with mudita in my heart and model this counter-cultural way of living for my daughters and those that cross my path. Of course I’ll fail at times, but I’m reminded that there is more than enough happiness to go around. This knowledge continually brings me back to the heart of mudita.

May the power of mudita grow in you as you discover that in this world, there is enough happiness–and love–for all.