Sunday September 8^th is Lieracy Day and the theme is ‘Literacy and Multilingualism’..

“Multilingualism”? Wow. Try to say that quickly?

I wonder who came up with that? (Someone belonging to the United Nations.)

Yes. I know what it means, but how many people actually use that word, if ever?

According to Wikipedia “Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world’s population”.

To effectively get the LIFE message across most people will have to look the word up or not bother. The latter is probably the normal.

It is a pity because LIFE – Literacy is for Everyone – is the Cayman Islands only literacy charityand lieracy is one of our most important skills. Literacy is critical to economic development as well as individual and community well-being. To be able to read and write effectively, or acquire the basic math skills so many of us take for granted, requires us to be literate.

Therefore, don’t be put off by the use of Multilingualism being in the theme.

According to Project Literacy:

“The Importance of Literacy to Economic Development

Our economy is enhanced when learners have higher literacy levels. Effective literacy skills open the doors to more educational and employment opportunities so that people are able to pull themselves out of poverty and chronic underemployment. In our increasingly complex and rapidly changing technological world, it is essential that individuals continuously expand their knowledge and learn new skills in order to keep up with the pace of change.”

The LIFE press Release we have published today says:

“The Caribbean is comprised of a kaleidoscope of cultures, peoples and languages. Like the wider region, the Cayman Islands is a multicultural community that is home to people from every corner of the world. On these small islands of only 100 square feet, you’ll find residents from Cayman, Jamaica, Cuba, South Africa, the Philippines, Canada and beyond. With these cultures, come languages. Not just official languages like Spanish, French and Tagalog, but a wide range of dialects too.

On the UN website it discusses the MultilingualismTheme:

“International Literacy Day 2019 is an opportunity to express solidarity with the celebrations of the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages and the 25th anniversary of the World Conference on Special Needs Education, at which the Salamanca Statement on Inclusive Education was adopted.

International Literacy Day 2019 will focus on ‘Literacy and Multilingualism.’ Despite progress made, literacy challenges persist, distributed unevenly across countries and populations. Embracing linguistic diversity in education and literacy development is central to addressing these literacy challenges and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

On the occasion of International Literacy Day 2019, the main characteristics of multilingualism in today’s globalized and digitalized world will be discussed, together with their implications for literacy in policies and practice in order to achieve greater inclusion in multilingual contexts.

You can find out much more about – “Literacy and Multilingualism” by going to: https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/ild2019-concept-note-en.pdf

“One dimension is the evolving shape and patterns of multilingualism, influenced significantly by globalization and digitalization, and their impact on literacy policies and they have been at any time in the past. Multilingualism extends beyond geographical boundaries due to rapidly increasing human mobility and the growing ubiquity of multimodal and instantaneous communication. These changes have educational repercussions that are influenced by their socio-economic, cultural, and political dimensions.”

Does that explain everything?

You indeed have to be literate to grasp all that.