City Desk :
Bangladesh High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK) Saida Muna Tasneem has called upon the Mayor of London to declare the 21st February as the “London Multilingual Day.”
“I call upon the Mayor of London for announcing the 21st February as London’s Multilingual Day to promote multilingualism, greater intercultural harmony and understanding amongst over 300 multi-ethnic communities that enriched the cultural landscape of Greater London,” said the High Commissioner.
She made the call during a recent event, organised by the Bangladesh High Commission, London in partnership with UK National Commission for UNESCO to commemorate the Language Martyrs’ Day and the ‘International Mother Language Day’ under the theme, “Using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and Opportunities, reports UNB”.
The envoy said that given Bengali is the third most spoken language in Greater London, the High Commission would facilitate Bengali language learning to the new generation of British-Bangladeshis.
Paying rich tribute to 1952 language martyrs and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the high commissioner recalled that according to BBC Bangabandhu was the first Bengali to take Bangla at the United Nations General Assembly; and his missionary daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is now carrying forward the legacy by internationalising the Bangla Language Martyr’s Day as International Mother Language Day as well as advocating for recognising Bangla as an official language of the UN.
The envoy also called upon the British Council to support conservation of more than 7000 mother languages at the International Mother Language Institute in Dhaka, established by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Patricia Scotland, UK Ambassador to UNESCO Laura Davies, Ambassador of the Republic of North Macedonia Aleksandra Miovska, Ambassador of Cuba to the UK Bárbara Montalvo Álvarez spoke at the event.
