Mothertongues

Michael and Winnie Ward are settled travellers from Tuam Co.Galway, The Irish traveller community is also sometimes known as Rilantu Mincéirí and Shelta is recognised as their language. It's widely known as Cant but fewer and fewer people within the traveller community speak it. But it hasn't stopped them giving it a go.

We visited Presentation Primary School in Tralee who recently hosted an international day, to celebrate their multicultural school. A school where 36 languages are spoken by students from around the world!

Language expert Rose Bridle returns to Mothertongues to answer our students' questions about how different languages work!

On this weeks episode of Mother Tongues we are joined by a family who speak the native language of Mauritius - Creole!

On this week's episode of Mother Tongues, we meet Liane and her mother who speak Shona, the official language of Zimbabwe!

On this weeks episode we meet Niko, Mia and their Irish Finnish family who live in Dublin. Listen back to learn Finnish phrases and songs

How are languages invented? Why are there so many alphabets? We return with part 2 of 'Ask an Expert', where we asked linguist Rose Bridle to answer your language questions. Listen back now!

On this weeks episode of Mother Tongues, we meet Laura and her sister Clare - a musical, Brazilian Irish family who love to sing in different languages!

Weekend heritage language schools (also called Saturday schools) are community-based settings where children work on their family language or minority language. On this weeks episodes we meet students, teachers and parents from Swedish, Mandarin, Greek, Dutch and Czech Saturday schools.

This week we meet Neven and his mum Vicky - a Bulgarian-Ukrainian family that live in Ireland. If you would like to learn some Bulgarian phrases, or are interested in learning about life and culture in Bulgaria, listen back to this episode!

Language can sometimes feel like a mystery! Children, in every school we visited for this series of Mothertongues, had their own language questions, so we thought, why not let them ask an expert? We met linguist, Rose Bridle to help us answer their questions

On this week's episode of Mother Tongues we meet two families who speak Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, which is also spoken in parts of India. Listen back to this episode to learn more about Pakistani and Indian culture including food, wedding celebrations and of course the language!

This week's episode is for teachers who want to make their classroom a place where language is shared and used easily. Discover how teachers and their students build diversity of language into each and every day

Tagolog is the second most spoken language in the Philippines with about 14 million speaking it there on a daily basis. On this episode we meet Cara and her mum, who speak a mix of Tagolog and English.

Back in Our Mother of Divine Grace and fourth class stack them high but are prepared to see it fall! And everyone learns words along the way.

Roll call! And then the students become the teacher at Ballygall, in a fun take on Simon Says.

In the first in a games miniseries, Fourth Class at Our Mother of Divine Grace, Ballygall show you how anyone can play a fun matching game in the yard.

On this episode of Mother Tongues, we visit St Mary's Primary School off Dorset Street in Dublin 1. Listen back to discover how students explore language through drama and play, with theatre maker, Mark Ball.

On this week's episode of Mother Tongues, we meet Petra and her Irish-Slovak family. From food and culture, to family and past times, this episode is jam packed with useful phrases and stories of life in Slovakia.

The first day at school is challenging for everyone. But imagine you didn't share a language with your teacher. We visit two schools; St.Marys Primary School and Our Mother of Divine Grace school, to ask the children who've been through it, what advice they have for other kids in the same situation.

The podcast is back! And this year we've teamed up with teachers and pupils, as well as families. Two exemplary schools, St Mary's on Dorset St and Our Mother of Divine Grace in Ballygall, let us spend time seeing what they do to help our listeners find an easier path to sharing their love of a parent language. Plus, a lot more.

The Interactive Museum of Languages for Young Audiences is a touring interactive exhibition for primary school children. Made by artist Tomasz Madajczak for Cruinniú na nÓg 2021 the exhibition enables teachers to help young people learn and apply creative skills and capacities. And it visited Riverview Educate Together.

Mothertongues Festival 2021 is mainly online this year, celebrating language and culture in all its forms. So we thought we'd join in. Dance, comics and computer games, all in the one episode.

Giorgia, Gaia and Marica are 3 sisters who speak Italian at home, as well as many other languages. Their mum is an Italian teacher and so she never lets them forget how important language is! Their dad is Irish, but his parents came to Ireland from Italy in the 1960s and set up a Fish and Chip Shop.

Emma is in third class and loves science. Her mum is Ukranian and her dad is Irish. Here she teaches us some useful phrases and tells us about the music and books she enjoys.

Diana is 10 and her sister Sophia is 5. They are both Irish, but their parents are originally from Iran. Arezo is their mum. Together, they speak Persian. Here, they talk about all the traditions relating to Persian new year, Nowruz.

Yasmine is 9 and speaks Punjabi with her Dad & her younger sister, Sabrine. Her mother is from Latvia. Born in Dublin, she spent 4 years in Punjab, India, and here talks about Punjabi culture and food. Also, meet Paavanpreet and Seerat, two sisters who love making things and use their creations to teach us some useful Punjabi.

To celebrate the event we gathered kids from across the country to share their thoughts and feelings. Farsi, Gaeilge, German, Tamil, Zulu, Ndebele, Urdu, Russian and Marathi all in the one zoom room.

Rosie, Eric and Alice have an Irish dad and a Greek Mum, Katarina. A language with a slightly different alphabet, and a sun drenched culture that they love.

Hanako and Sayako are sisters from Dublin. Both attend a Gaelscoil. Their mum is Japanese and their dad is Irish. Here they talk about visiting Japan, Food and how important Japanese and Irish culture are to them.

Oops! The Festive episode was so jam packed that some items slipped down the back of the sleigh. We had to fit them in so here's the show, with added Polish traditions.

All across Ireland, cultures celebrate midwinter in different ways. Here are just a few of them. Happy New Year from all of us on the Mothertongues podcast and thanks to everyone who's taken part so far.

Eabha is 9 and speaks Dutch with her mum, Maartje. Here she talks flat landscapes, bikes and that tricky sound you need to speak it properly.

Louisa is 7 and, along with her mum Rebecca, she is from Sweden. Although she moved here aged one, she still knows a lot about it and speaks Swedish every day.

Felix is 9. Although his family speaks Romanian at home he goes to a Gaelscoil so he has a head full of language.

Benjamin is 6. His Mum and Dad met in Ireland but she is from Turkey and he is from France. Together, they speak three languages!

Saoirse is 7. She has an older brother, Seosamh. Her mum, Penny comes from Taiwan and her dad is Irish. Together, they all speak Mandarin. Almost a billion people speak it as their first language!

Sarah, Omar and Ibrahim have a house full of different languages. Their dad, Mustafa is from Morocco and speaks Arabic, and their mum Iolanda is Italian. They all speak English too!

Niamh lives in Connemara and speaks as Gaeilge every day. She and her mum Fiona talk Communions, Australia and the need for a good “scáth báistí”.

“Mothertongues” is a brand new podcast from RTÉjr Radio. So many kids in Irish schools speak more than one language every day. This podcast is for kids, teachers and families to start sharing all the wonderful things that make us, Us!