Mother Tongue Other Tongue Glasgow

SCILT was delighted to have received over 100 entries to the first ever Mother Tongue Other Tongue (MTOT) competition in Scotland!

Arabic, Edo, French, Georgian, Greek, Igbo, Italian, Mandarin, Ndebele, Polish, Portuguese, Scots, Sinhala, Slovakian, Spanish, Swahili, Urdu and Yoruba were all entered into the competition. Nine of those languages were represented by winning poems which were chosen for our inaugural Mother Tongue Other Tongue Anthology. In total, there were twenty-five winning MTOT stars.

MTOT Celebration Event

On Saturday, 7th of March, our MTOT stars were invited to a special celebration event in the Burns room of the Mitchell Library. This event was one of many taking place in the library as part of the Wee Write children’s book festival.

The morning began with much excitement as our stars and guests arrived to be greeted by a large display of the winning poems in the elegant marble staircase area around the Burns room.

Fhiona Fisher, Director of SCILT, opened the event by welcoming our audience and congratulating our stars. Jim Carruth, Glasgow’s Poet Laureate, followed by speaking enthusiastically about languages and language diversity.

Many of our MTOT stars took to the stage to read or sing their poems and songs in front of the one hundred strong audience. Each and every one of them rose to the occasion and delighted the audience with their confidence and enthusiasm.

Lis Murphy and Tea Hodzic from Musicians Without Borders performed many multilingual and rhythmic songs in which the audience participated with much gusto! The energy of the audience combined with the wonderful acoustics of the Burns room contributed to a warm and convivial atmosphere throughout the morning.

In the prize-giving section, our MTOT stars were presented with their own copy of the MTOT Anthology as well as a SCILT goodie bag filled with multilingual gifts. Six highly commended entries were also presented with MTOT trophies. Families, friends, teachers, guests and our MTOT stars themselves, were all very proud of what they had achieved.  You can read the winning poems by clicking on the MTOT 2014-15 Anthology cover and see photos from the event in our MTOT Flickr album.

As the event drew to a close, our stars and guests were invited to leave comments on sticky leaves around our poetrees. Many expressed great enjoyment at what had been a fantastic celebration. We look forward to seeing our MTOT stars from 2014-15 next year when the competition goes national.

 

 

 

 

 

Full list of Mother Tongue Other Tongue stars:

Mother Tongue remembered pieces

• “Controvento” by Mahakjot Kaur, Mount Florida primary school (Highly Commended)
• “Kołysanka” by Oliwia Warenberg, St Maria Goretti primary school
• “Mazurek Dąbrowskiego” by Jakub Trybek, St Francis primary school
• “Mo Li Hua” by Joy Feng , St Maria Goretti primary school
• “Ogórek” by Kamila Browarna, St Paul primary school
• “Otuto Ugo” by Bright Precious, St Rose of Lima primary school
• “Praise of a Beautiful Lady” by Lilly Precious, St Rose of Lima primary school

Mother Tongue original pieces

• “Bari” by Samia Shamsher , King’s Park primary school
• “Dom” by Patrycja Ochino, St Paul primary school
• “Iraq” by Ruqaya and Rahmah Aslan, King’s Park primary school
• “Kim Jestem” by Szymon Korzeniowski, Mount Florida primary school
• “Kwiecista łąka” by Patrycja Jusis, St Rose of Lima primary school (Highly Commended)
• “Mãe” by Bernardo Ferreira, St Rose of Lima primary school
• “Pies” by Olga Pawlak, Mount Florida primary school (Highly Commended)

Other Tongue

• “L’hiver” by Macy Daisley, St Francis primary school
• “L’hiver” by Ola Siwozad, St Francis primary school
• “Soleil” by Maxwell Peasah, St Francis primary school
• “Un Arc-en-ciel” by Amy Tuwor, St Francis primary school (Highly Commended)

Scots

• “Ah’m a Viking Sword” by Luke Hendrie, Mount Florida primary school (Highly Commended)
• “Who am I?” by Carly Brightwell, Mount Florida primary school
• “Who am I?” by David McConnell, Mount Florida primary school
• “Who am Ah?” by James Hamilton, Mount Florida primary school
• “Who am Ah?” by Laura Daly, Mount Florida primary school (Highly Commended)
• “Scots Viking Poem” by Alex Stevenson, Mount Florida primary school

For updates and information on Mother Tongue Other Tongue 2015-16, sign up to the SCILT e-bulletin. Or for more general information about the competition, see our MTOT homepage.