PhotoMonday 21 February is International Mother Language Day. In New Zealand, this is a day to celebrate the multitude of languages spoken here. At the Library we can also celebrate having such a wide variety of resources for people wanting to read in their own language as well as wanting to learn a new one.

We have a World Languages collection that includes Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Persian, Russian, Spanish and Afrikaans and all of our libraries contain Māori language collections.

Learning a new language no longer involves sitting in a classroom and rote learning.  The abundance of CDs and coursebooks means that you can now learn in the comfort of your own home – or in your own car! We have self-learning material for a huge variety of languages and don’t forget Overdrive, our free digital media platform which allows library customers to download audiobooks, including learning a language.

Our CINCH database of Community Information in Christchurch has 164 links to Ethnic groups , promoting their own language and the chance to meet other people with similar cultural backgrounds.  Combine this with our Library Press Displaywhich gives same-day access to more than 1700 newspapers from around the world, then  International Mother Language day and every other day should be full of opportunities at your Library.