Mother Tongue Other Tongue

On Monday 2nd July 2018 I had the pleasure to take a small group of students to the Mother Tongue Other Tongue celebration event at Manchester Metropolitan University.

The Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition aims to promote and recognise the importance of languages in our lives. Students are asked to submit poems, songs or short stories in their first language and explain why they are important to them. This year Stretford High School was proud to submit three entries (only four are allowed from each school taking part). One of them was awarded a High Commendation by the judges. As part of the competition the students were invited to attend the celebration event.

What an incredible afternoon we had! We enjoyed an international lunch, Bhangra dancing, henna tattoos and got to see an exhibition of some of the entries submitted to the competition (including our school’s highly commended piece of work).

After all that we sat down for the prize giving and that is when this happened…

Who was the international education activist handing the prizes? Yes, you guessed it… Malala Yousafzai. She gave a truly inspiring speech about the importance of education and how languages broaden our horizons and experiences of the world, it was a really humbling experience.