The Multilingual London festival has given us the opportunity to celebrate and explore language learning through cultural lens. In our partnership with the Museum of London through the supplementary schools programme, we worked with artists to produce creative responses for learning languages in community learning settings.

Supplementary education enables children and young people to learn the languages of their parents in community settings. Learning language via cultural heritage such as through stories, songs and dance serve to enliven and embed the language learning experience and is a strong element in supplementary education teaching.

The four languages in focus here are Chimwiini, Somali, Urdu and Yoruba. The artists’ works utilise spoken word, poetry, rhymes, proverbs and songs and span artistic disciplines such as printmaking, stop motion animation, sound, zine-making and graphic design. Enjoy a small portion of the linguistic diversity of London through these creative responses.

Sunbul Akhtar

Aleph is for Am (1m, 42 sec)

@night_press

IROKO Theatre Company

Talking Drum Sayings and Proverbs

irokotheatre.org.uk

Numbi Arts

Afkaaga Hooyo Waa Dahab!

Your Mother Tongue Is Gold!

@numbiarts numbi.org