On Saturday 27th of May, the city culture was celebrated for the 9th time in Reykjavík on the annual Multicultural Day.
The mayor launched the festival with a parade from the cathedral Hallgrímskirkja to the concert and conference hall Harpa.

The multicultural market at Harpa was from 2:00–5:00PM. There were exhibitions of various crafts, designs, foods and cultures both outside and inside the house. Performances were in Silfurberg from 2:30–5:00 PM, and international foods sold in the tent just outside Harpa.

Móðurmál was present and represented its work and its groups in Harpa. Many people were interested in the activity of Móðurmál, and asked i.e. about the number of mother tongue groups, what is taught, how many children are in Móðurmál, partnerships etc.

Renata, Magdalena, Lydia and Aurora answered all questions at the Móðurmál booth. This was a great day for all and Móðurmál was very pleased to be a part of it.

Thank you for coming, everyone! ❤️

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This spring has been full of both traditional and unique events. Representatives of Móðurmál have introduced and presented the work of Móðurmál at the Multicultural Congress Let’s Talk on March 25th, where they had a chance to talk with professionals and passers-by. Approximately 17.000 immigrants from more than twenty countries live in Reykjavík who speak about one hundred languages. The Multicultural Congress is organized by the Human Rights Office of Reykjavík in Collaboration with Multicultural Council of Reykjavík.

A month later, on April 25th, Móðurmál signed a contract with SAMFOK, the Alliance of Parent´s Associations and Parent´s Councils of Elementary Schools in Reykjavík, about sharing the office in Háaleitisbraut 11–13, and moving the legal address there. Furthermore, Móðurmál and SAMFOK will collaborate on other projects, i.e. parent counselling.

Another month later, the Minister of Education and Culture Kristján Þór Júlíusson, together with the representative of Heimili og Skóli –the National Parents Association–, visited Móðurmál in its new office and received information about its work, mother tongue groups and languages, library, teacher training etc. The visit took place in connection with the award from Heimili og Skóli that Móðurmál received in 2016.

For the first time in Móðurmál’s twenty-year-old history, groups work together on a common project for a whole year!

Parents of bilingual children work hard to prepare them for the future that will entail using their languages and cherishing connections to all countries where their parents come from and where their extended families still live.

However, the future would be unthinkable without the Planet Earth and its resources. So children from Móðurmál mother tongue groups have been exploring the globe from the ecological perspective, using their languages to understand complicated concepts, learn about their own resources, work on projects, present their creations and take part in common events.

The project was presented at the annual conference of Móðurmál “Beautiful Languages” in November 2016, on the International Mother Language Day in February 2017 and the Children’s Festival in April 2017. At the Children’s Festival, the twelve participating groups presented a multilingual ecological dictionary and together with the Lithuanian school prepared word games and a cultural program.

As a conclusion of a year-long project, Móðurmál organized a field trip for students, teachers, and parents to the educational and entertainment exhibition “Orkuverið Jörð” in Reykjaness on May 13th.

Grófin Culture House traditionally prepared a program for plurilingual children and invited Móðurmál to introduce our program and activities.

We celebrated the International Mother Language Day by inviting children and their families to write letters in their own mother language to a relative or a friend, whether they live in Svalbard, Siglufjörður or Senegal.

Easy instructions for how to make an envelope-letter and postboxes were in each and every library. A big red “real” postbox we borrow from the post-service was placed at Grófin Culture House. The letters from all the libraries were collected, stamped and put into the red postbox. The Post Service came and made sure the letters would travel to all relatives and friends.

Móðurmál presented among other things also the environmental project Children research natural and language resources

Check the website for the International Mother Language Day 2017 here

On February 2nd 2017, three Móðurmál teachers started teaching mother tongues at a distance through a partner organisation Kara connect ehf

Students in Stóru-Vogaskóla on all school levels learn their mother tongues, Russian, Tagalog and Thai. The school received a grant to provide mother–tongue instruction to their students, and both parents and children are very happy with this new service.

Kara is a new company that offers professionals a safe internet-based platform and a work station for distance meetings of all kinds. This is the first time that Móðurmál offers mother–tongue teaching at a distance; however, the project is very promising for the future, it contains possibilities for bilingual children in all communities and also for possible future mother tongue teachers.

Þann 2. febrúar hófu þrír kennarar Móðurmáls móðurmálskennslu í fjarnámi í gegnum samstarfsfyrirtækið Kara connect ehf
Nemendur Stóru-Vogaskóla á öllum skólastigum læra sín móðurmál, þ.e.a.s. rússnesku, tagalog og taílensku, en skólinn fékk styrk til að tryggja móðurmálskennslu fyrir nemendur sína. Foreldrar og börn eru mjög ánægð með þessari nýrri þjónustu.
Kara er hubúnaður sem er aðgengilegur á vef og býður fagfólki öruggt starfsumhverfi á netinu fyrir fjarfundi. Þetta er í fyrsta sinn sem Móðurmál býður uppá móðurmáskennslu í fjarkennslu, en verkefnið felur í sér mikla möguleika til framtíðar; bæði fyrir börn í öllum sveitarfélögum, sem og fjölmörg tækifærimöguleika framtíðar móðurmálskennara.

Dagana 18.–19. nóvember stóð Móðurmál fyrir ráðstefnu fyrir móðurmálskennara og áhugasama kennara og uppalendur.

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Aðalfyrirlesari var Prof. Olenka Bilash frá Háskóla í Alberta, Kanada. Ráðstefna átti sér stað í Menningarmiðstöð Gerðubergi í Reykjavík og var styrkt úr Þróunarsjóði innflytjendamála.
Á dagskrá var meðal annars árangursrík reynsla tveggja þýska og japanska móðurmálshóps, frásögn litháíska og spænska hóp um ráðstefnur alþjóðlega litháísku- og spænskumóðurmálskennara í Reykjavík og Stokhólmi og tvær nýjar menntarannsóknir um innflytjendur.

Prof. Olenka Bilash fjallaði um kosti móðurmálskennslu fyrir börnin og kosti samstarfs móðurmálskennara og íslenskukennara barna. Meðal kosti móðurmálskennslu fyrir fleirtyngd börn eru t.d. aukinn tími sem börnin takast á við læsi og tungumál, vinnáttur með félaga sem tala sama tungumál, sterkari sjálfsmynd og tilfinning að tilheyra mál- og menningarsamfélagi. Börnin þroskast sem heildstæðir einstaklingar og læra kosti sjálfboðaliðavinnu og samfélagsvinnu. Móðurmálskennsla stuðlar einnig að fjölskyldustöðugleika.

Sjá má sjálfbæra móðurmálskennslu sem lítið fyrirtæki sem tekur mið af umhverfinu, félagslegum og fjárhagslegum þáttum og er hagkvæm, bærileg og sanngjörn. Í kjölfarið verða borgararnig glaðari, fjölskyldur tengdar á alþjóðlegum vettvangi, alþjóðleg sjónarhorn finna sér leið í íslenskt samfélag sem verður fjölbreytari.

Prof. Bilash hitti einnig fulltrúa Skóla- og frístundasviðs Reykjavíkurborgar, Skólaráði Reykjavíkurborgar, Sambands sveitarfélaga, Menntamálaráðuneytisins, Háskóla Íslands, Miðju máls og læsis og hafði árangursríka umræðu um hvernig innleiðsla móðurmálskennslu í skólakerfið gæti litið út.

Móðurmálshópar samtakanna Móðurmáls sem taka þátt í sameiginlegu umhverfisverkefni „Móðurmál rannsakar náttúru og móðurmál“ kynntu sköpunarverk sín fyrir gestum ráðstefnu og spænski hópurinn HOLA í samvinnu við Múltíkultíkórinn og leikstjóra Ólaf Guðmundsson frumsýndi frumsamið leikrit „Kólumbus í Norðurhöfum“. Á laugardaginn lauk ráðstefnu með píanóleik Michail Poliychuk, nemanda frá ukraínskum móðurmálshóp.

Takk allir fyrir þátttökuna og fyrir kynningar ykkar! ❤️

Móðurmál has a common project for the school year 2016/17. It involves work with environmental terms and environmental issues. The goal is to increase children’s awareness of their environment, to put it into context with their connections with their parents’ countries of origin and to use their mother tongue knowledge at the same time.

• Work with 20 environmental concepts
• Work on projects connected with the environment
• Linking environmental issues in Iceland and abroad
• Linking mother tongues and environmental issues
• Waking and increasing interest in environmental issues in children and school environment in Iceland

Projects of all mother tongue groups will be presented to the public through a presentation at the Festival of Nations in Akranes, Móðurmál’s conference „Beautiful Languages“, Children’s Festival, Multicultural Festival, Big Preschool Day etc.

Contact person: Maria Sastre

Participating groups: Czech, Filipino, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

This project is financed by the Human Rights Council of the City of Reykjavík.

Samtökin Móðurmál verða með sameiginlegt verkefni skólaárið 2016/17.
Það felst í vinnu með umhverfishugtök og umhverfismál. Markmiðið er að auka meðvitund barnanna um umhverfi sitt, setja það í alþjóðlegt samhengi í gegnum tengslin barnanna við upprunalönd foreldra og nýta til þess tungumálaþekkingu þeirra.

• Work with 20 environmental concepts
• Work on projects connected with the environment
• Linking environmental issues in Iceland and abroad
• Linking mother tongues and environmental issues
• Waking and increasing interest in environmental issues in children and school environment in Iceland

Verkefnin allra móðurmálshópa verða kynnt fyrir almenningi í gegnum kynningar á hátíð Festival of Nations á Akranesi, ráðstefnu Móðurmáls „Beautiful languages“, Alþjóðadeginum móðurmáls, Barnamenningarhátíð og Fjölmenningarhátíð 2017.
Tengiliður: Maria Sastre
Móðurmálshópar sem taka þátt í verkefninu: filipseyska, japanska, lettneska, litháíska, portúgalska, rússneska, spænska, tékkneska.
Verkefni er styrkt af Mannréttindaráði Reykjavíkurborgar.

Check out our facebook event for more information 🗣

Most Móðurmál groups started teaching on Saturday 10 September. For the first time, three groups are using Hólabrekkuskóli in Breiðholt, thanks to the cooperation of Móðurmál with the Reykjavík City School Department (Skóla-og frístundasvið Reykjavíkurborgar).

Móðurmál groups will cooperate on the environmental project “Móðurmál rannsakar náttúru– og tungumálaauðlindir” in which children will work with environmental concepts and issues. The goal is to increase children’s awareness of their environment and put it into the international context through children’s connections with home countries of their parents. Children’s knowledge of languages will help to do research in other countries. This project is supported by Mannréttindaráð Reykjavíkur.

The common project of Móðurmál and SAMFOK (Association of School Children’s Parents in Reykjavík) “Allir með!” will continue in the fall 2016. The project entails several information and training events in different languages for parents of foreign origin.

On 18–19 November, the annual conference of Móðurmál “Successful and Sustainable Heritage Language Programs” for mother-tongue teachers, pedagogues and interested public will take place in Cultural Center Gerðuberg. The key speaker will be Prof. Olenka Bilash from the University of Alberta, Canada.

Móðurmál will continue to take part in regular events, such as the Festival of Nations, the International Mother Language Day, Children’s Festival, Multicultural Day, Big Preschool Day and others.

All Móðurmál members are warmly welcome at the Annual General Meeting, that is taking place on 14 September 2016 at 6–8 PM in Gerðuberg.

Awesome teachers, great laughs, a variety of foods and a beautiful walk in nature. Takk fyrir okkur! ❤️

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