On 21st of February countries around the world celebrate the mother language or the mother tongue. Here at Familia we celebrate it with mix of mother tongues. This multilingual staff working under one roof have brought to our beloved organisation even a greater value. For years I was confused how to define mother tongue. I spoke only Finnish until I was 6 years old, after that I moved away from Finland and spoke Arabic and English until I was 22 years old, when I moved back to Finland. I was asked to put down on an official paper my mother tongue, I had by then 3.
People of minority languages in Finland also suffer, they don't find enough support for their mother tongues. Having another language beside the Finnish language will not make the person any less knowledgeable in Finnish. My 6-year-old son lives in a multilingual surrounding, I speak to him in Arabic, his father speaks to him in Persian, his sister speaks to him in English and his grandmother, aunt and other family members speak to him in Finnish. Also he has been in a Finnish day-care since the age of 3. So this made him English/Finnish speaker. I find those two languages are totally equal in strength in his mind. I came to apply for his first year at school to find out that after over 20 years Finnish authorities still don't allow more than one mother tongue. When will this change? So in what language do you feel? Can you dig inside and find out? I personally feel in both Arabic and English and so my mother tongues are English and Arabic! And I should have the right to be registered as bilingual mother tongue!
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