International Mother Language Day is marked worldwide every year on 21 February. Its main goal is to raise awareness of the importance of the mother tongue and multilingualism. This day was established in 1999 by UNESCO and on the proposal of Bangladesh. It has been marked regularly since 2000.
Spreading awareness of the importance of the mother tongue
Students of Savremena Gimnazija marked International Mother Language Day in Serbian language and literature classes by creating posts, posters, brochures, and invitations to raise awareness of the importance of the mother tongue.
Students first researched what great people like Vuk Karadžić, Dositej Obradović, Isidora Sekulić, Slobodan Selenić, Desanka Maksimović, Momo Kapor and many others said about language. Then, together with their Serbian language and literature teacher, Marija Pilčević Tomašević, they analysed those sentences, tried to figure out their meaning and shed light on them in a certain context. After that, their task was to create a post, flyer, invitation, or brochure on social networks or in certain programs such as Canva, which would raise awareness among people of the importance of the mother tongue. Some of them were happy to share their posts on social networks and thus really raised the level of awareness about the importance of this date and what it marks.
The language we use to talk about "all the miracles that happen to us"
Students of Savremena Gimazija are aware of how important it is to know many languages, but also that it is equally, if not more, important to have a good relationship with the language in which we uttered our first words, with which we will most easily and naturally speak about our deepest feelings, and according to the words of Momo Kapor "about all the miracles that happen to us", said the Serbian language and literature teacher, Marija Pilčević Tomašević.