February 21st

It is a day close to my heart...in 1952 on this very day university students gave their lives defending their right to speak their mother tongue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mother_Language_Day.

So yesterday, in my desire to to commemorate this day i went around asking people to write this sentence in their mother tongue:

February 21st is a very significant day for all who love languages.

It was kinda late and i could only find graduate students and a few faculty members. But what was endearing was to see the enthusiam with which they wrote the sentence in their mother tongue and any other languages they knew. So please overlook the errors that might have been made, and let's celebrate the languages of the world. And yeah, if you don't find your language here, send me an email and i will be happy to add yours.

In my opinion, sacrificing one's life for something one believes in is the ultimate badge of honor. And if you think about it, university students have always been the ones passionate enough to stand up for their ideals and brave the bullets, giving us lesser mortals pause to reflect and hope to march forward.

So here's to you, my brothers...long live your passion, long live languages!

Jara bhasha bhalobashe, tader kachhe ekush-e February ek pobitro din.
(Bangla: The language that they died defending)

21 de Fevereno é un dia ben importante por todos que adoram linguas. (Portugese)

2 gatsu 21 nichi wa kotoba ga sukina hito ni totte totemo taisetsu na hi desu. (Japanese)

21 Februar ist ein sehr wichtiger tag für jeden der sprachen liebt. (German)

21 Février est un jour très important pour tout qui aiment des langues. (French)

Jin-he bhashye pyaari hain, unke liye ekkis February ek behat hi bere din hain. (Hindi)

El 21 de Febrero es un dia muy importante para todas los que aman lenguajes. (Spanish)

Tanggal 21 Febuari adalah hari yang paleng penting bagi mereka yang mencintai bahasa. (Indonesian)

Ér yué érshi yī hào shi yī gè hn zhòng yaò dē ri zǐ gei nà xǐ huān yǔ yán dē rén. (Chinese)

I did ponder for a moment or two...how i felt about including the official language (that was being forced upon them) on my wall of commemoration until i saw the dichotomy in the apparent duality, and realized,

They died defending something they loved, not protesting against something they hated.

The more we realize how to tell them apart, the closer we get to turning this screwed-up world into a better place.