Caroline went along to ask Ms. Gosia & Ms. Rainit some questions.
1. Which languages do you speak?
We speak English, Dutch, Polish, Russian and Estonian.
2. What inspired you to create your winter display in a multilingual way?
We feel strongly that we are all connected. We want to unite all the children coming into the library since they come from different cultures and speak many different languages.
3. Do our pupils take home language books home?
Yes, they are welcome to take one or two, each week.
4. How do students in your opinion feel when they realize that they can take home, books in their own languages.
Non-English speaking children are very happy when they see their own language books in the library, especially in the beginning, when they are not able to read books in English.
5. Which home languages are not so readily available for our students to take home?
The Indian languages.
6. May I ask why you think Indian language books are not so readily available for our students to take home?
Indian languages are poorly represented in our library mainly because of difficulty in accessing them. Bookstore websites are often not available in English. Another reason is the variety of dialects used in India, which makes it really difficult for us librarians to know exactly what to order.
7. Do you know how many languages are spoken in India?
Yes, there are 415.
8. Could you name a few of those languages?
Yes, here's a list.
Assamese
Bengali
Bodo
Dogri
Gujarati
Hindi
Kannada
Kashmiri
Konkani
Maithili
Malayalam
Manipuri
Marathi
Nepali
Oriya
Punjabi
Sanskrit
Santhali
Sindhi
Tamil
Telugu
Urdu
9. Do you know which languages are spoken the most in India?
Hindi is the most widely spoken language, followed by Bengali and Telugu.
10. Would our pupils benefit if children's books in some of the Indian languages were donated?
Yes, we would welcome that very much.
Here is a small selection of the super international display of the season, Fall/Autumn, which is currently on show in the primary library.
Please also see our earlier post labeled, Biliteracy and The Library on the 28th November 2018.
