Words Between Us

Language Week always feels personal to me.

These books are close to my heart — “The Arabic Quilt”, “Stolen Words”, “Stepping Stones”, “Words Between Us”, “Home in a Lunchbox”, and “What Makes Us Human”. Each one reminds me that language is more than communication. It is memory. It is ancestry. It is belonging.

Paying tribute to our mother tongue means honouring the stories that shaped us. Our languages carry our grandparents’ voices, our lullabies, our prayers, our humour. They hold history. They hold origin.

I believe multilingual learners are not “learning extra.” They are carrying brilliance. Bilingualism and biliteracy are powerful academic assets. When we embrace students’ home languages, we deepen learning and strengthen the bridge between school, home, and community.

To speak more than one language is to hold more than one way of seeing the world.

This week, we celebrate that gift.