UNESCO's International Mother Language Day is Tuesday 21 February, and we hope you can join us to celebrate the love of language with events and resources. You can find out more about what this day is about on the United Nations website-external site.
Movie marathon
Some films we recommend watching for International Mother Language Day are:
- Charulata-external site
- Burning-external site
- Amantes del Círculo Polar: Lovers of the Arctic Circle-external site.
If you would like to watch these films, they are all available on the Kanopy website, which you can access for free using your library membership. Find out more about using this service on our Streaming films and tv shows page.
Other events
We host regular bilingual storytimes at our libraries.
These include:
- Greek storytime at Hawthorn Library
- Mandarin storytime at Greythorn Library Lounge in Balwyn North
- Wurundjeri storytime held online through Microsoft Teams.
You can find out when all the regular sessions are for our storytimes at all our libraries on our Children's storytimes and activities page.
We also have a Chinese language club for kids. This is an online club where kids can explore language learning through stories, songs and games, and get to talk to other kids in Mandarin.
Chinese storytime – English and Mandarin
Wed 13 December 2023
Wurundjeri Storytime
Fri 24 November 2023
Delivered via Microsoft Teams
Greek storytime - Hawthorn
Tue 5 December 2023
Chinese language club for kids
Wed 13 December 2023
Delivered via Microsoft Teams
Recommended reading
Immerse yourself in literature from around the world with international fiction from our collection. Discover brilliant books on our International fiction booklist article, or speak to our library staff for recommendations.