The Bangladesh Embassy and Drishtipat DC are putting together an open-air event to commemorate UN International Mother Language day. This event is aimed at celebrating the world's nearly 7,000 languages and the cultures they embody. We seek to join forces with the UN to promote linguistic diversity, protect the right of individuals to communicate in their mother language and encourage multilingual education. Nearly half of the world's languages have less than 10,000 speakers and face the risk of extinction. Through this event, we seek to highlight the importance of protecting languages.

Officials from various embassies, high school and university students and the general public will be invited to join the event. Participants will be requested to dress up in their national attire and bring flags, posters/banners in their language and native musical instruments. The program will include cultural performances from various parts of the world. In addition, there will be an open mike segment, where partakers will be invited to sing in their native language.

 

When: 12pm - 2pm, Saturday, February 23, 2008

 

Where: DuPont Circle, Washington DC