Celebrating World Portuguese Language Day
5th of May
Did you know that on the 5th of May all over the world a large number of people celebrate World Portuguese Language Day (or Dia Mundial da Língua Portuguesa)? This date was established by the CPLP (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa) in 2009 and it celebrates all the countries in the world that speak Portuguese. After 10 years, in 2019, this day was also officially recognized by UNESCO.
The CPLP members are 9 countries and they spread from Europe (Portugal), to South America (Brazil), Africa (Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe) and Asia (East Timor) – each one with Portuguese as their official language, making Portuguese one of the 10 most spoken language in the world, with more than 260 million people using it daily!
And why did CPLP establish such a date, you might ask? Well, it is a day to celebrate cooperation, culture and language and unites all these countries, but also what makes them unique.
At the moment, in Ireland there are almost 21,000 people speaking Portuguese and the vast majority come from Brazil.
Mother Tongues for the Portuguese speaking communities
At the Mother Tongues Festival 2021, we are going to have two workshops in Brazilian Portuguese.
The first one is called “Our family movie” and it’s designed to bring families together to create a stop motion animation video, while practising their native language! The idea is for participants to choose their favourite family history and turn it into a script. In the 90 minutes class, using storyboarding, characters and open-source software, each participant will transform their story in a stop motion video using a cardboard box that will magically become a Home Studio Box.
For those tired of sitting in front of a laptop, we have the most energetic activity of the Festival: Afro-Brazilian dance & culture connections. This session is led by Alessandra Azevedo, a dance facilitator based in Ireland and the first woman to teach Capoeira (Afro-Brazilian Martial Art) in Dublin.
Mother Tongues offers language classes for children whose home language is European Portuguese. They will start again in Setember (subscribe to our newsletter to be notified!)
Before closing and saying “Até já! E esperamos ver-vos em breve!” to all of you, we would like to mention that Instituto Camões (organization which promotes Portuguese cultural heritage and the study of Portuguese all over the world) is responsible for one of the most promoted activities to celebrate World Portuguese Language Day 2021, a fascinating literary contest. To find out more, visit this page.
Inês Pascoa Baptista
Resources in Portuguese
Estes vídeos fazem parte de uma série de vídeos para mostrar às famílias todo o aprendizado que ocorre quando a criança não está na escola. Você pode ajudar seu filho (a) a aprender de várias maneiras. Confira os vídeos para idéias e sugestões de matemática, alfabetização e arte, para descobrir como você e seu filho podem aprender juntos.
Bláthnaid ní Ghréacháin, CEO and Ciara Ní Bhroin, Development Officer from the organisation Gaeloideachas – the national support organisation for Irish-medium pre-schools, primary and post-primary schools will speak to parents about the benefits of choosing an Irish-medium education, the role parents can play in their child’s education through Irish, as well as the many supports and resources available to parents and children. Irish-medium education offers a wonderful experience for all children of all abilities and all backgrounds and we welcome the opportunity to encourage parents to be part of this model of education in Ireland.
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