LAST week marked International Mother Tongue Day whereby strong emphasis was placed on strengthening mother tongue languages.
Held at the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs headquarters in Suva, chief guest Dr Apolonia Tamata spoke of the importance of marking the event.
"We must ensure that our mother tongue is not only being used through the media but in other new medium too and of course in our communication within the family or community.
"Let us use our mother tongue in our everyday greetings with families and friends, let's use our mother tongue in writing notices in our homes, let's use our mother tongue to record our history and our culture and tradition," Dr Tamata encouraged at the celebration last week.
The theme for the day, as set out by the United Nations, was "Books for Mother Tongue Education". International Mother Tongue Day has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.