Message from Ms Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO,

教科文组织总干事奥德蕾·阿祖莱

on the occasion of International Mother Language Day

国际母语日致辞

21 February 2023

2023年2月21日

While mother-tongue-based education is essential to the full development of individuals and to the transmission of linguistic heritage, 40% of the world's students do not have access to education in the language they speak or understand best. Such a situation severely undermines learning, cultural expression and the building of social relations, and significantly weakens the linguistic heritage of humanity.

虽然以母语为基础的教育对于促进个人的全面发展和传承语言遗产至关重要，但世界上40%的学生却没有机会以他们表达或理解得最好的语言接受教育。这种情况严重妨碍学习、文化表达和社会关系的构建，也对人类的语言遗产造成较大损害。

It is therefore crucial that this language issue be taken into account in the necessary exercise of transforming education, which UNESCO was supporting throughout 2022, culminating in the Transforming Education Summit, convened last September by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres.

因此，在必要的教育变革中考虑到这一语言问题十分关键。教育变革是教科文组织在2022年全年着力推动的一项工作，其高潮是联合国秘书长安东尼奥·古特雷斯于去年9月召集举办的教育变革峰会。

This imperative first requires a better collection of data, which will make it possible to carry out specific and customized actions. Above all, however, it requires a more general awareness of the irreplaceable but fragile value of the world's linguistic and cultural diversity.

这项势在必行的工作首先需要改善数据收集，以便开展更具针对性和适应性的行动。同时也需要让更多人认识到，世界语言和文化多样性具有不可替代的价值，同时又非常脆弱。

Each of the more than 7,000 languages spoken by humanity carries within it a unique view of the world, of things and of beings, a way of thinking and feeling – so much so that each disappearance of a language constitutes an irretrievable loss. In this context, the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032), for which UNESCO is the leading agency, is an important opportunity for the international community to mobilize in order to safeguard a major part of the world's cultural diversity.

因为在人类计有的7000多种语言中，每一种语言都承载着对世界、万物和存在的独特理念，代表着某种思维和感知方式，所以，每一种语言的消失都构成不可弥补的损失。在此背景下，教科文组织负责牵头落实的国际土著语言十年（2022–2023年），是大力动员国际社会保护世界文化多样性这一重要组成部分的一个契机。

This is also the aim of this International Day: celebrating these ways of expressing the world in its multiplicity, committing to the preservation of the diversity of languages as a common heritage, and working for quality education – in mother tongues – for all.

这也是国际母语日的意义所在：礼赞这些表达世界多样性的方式，将语言多样性作为共同遗产加以保护，并为实现（以母语为基础的）全民优质教育而努力奋斗。