Selam Dehai
Article link:
http://www.prlog.org/12106459 <
http://www.prlog.org/12106459>
Eritrean Diaspora Parents are Taking their Children's Mother-Tongue Seriously
More Eritrean diaspora parents are becoming successful in teaching their
children the Tigrigna mother-tongue.
PRLog <
http://www.prlog.org/> - Mar. 26, 2013 - TORONTO, Canada -- Growing
number of Eritrean diaspora parents are succeeding in passing their linguistic
heritage to their children born in the diaspora. Eritreans are known to foster
strong bond with their native homeland, Eritrea. Many visit their homeland
regularly with their families, some of whom were born outside of Eritrea. This
strong bond partly explains their tendency to attach strong importance to
teaching their children their ancestral linguistic heritage.
One of the most joyous occasion when Eritrean diaspora parents visit their home
country is to introduce their diaspora born children to their grand mothers and
grand fathers in Eritrea, if it is at all possible. And the issue of language
takes a centre stage during such occasions, as very few grand parents are fluent
in the diaspora languages that their grand son or grand daughter speaks. Such
linguistic barries may often dampen the otherwise momentous occasion in one's
life time re-union.
Eritreans parents in the diaspora are tackling the issue of mother-tongue
acquisition in their diaspora children from an early age by using Tigrigna
children's books, stories and early years educational textbooks that are age
appropriate and designed to appeal to children born in the diaspora. An Eritrean
owned publication enterprise, Weledo (www.weledo.com), is a recently established
Children's Books publications company.
Weledo's model of mother-tongue education involves the use of regular reading
and writing activities for children to develop their language skills. An
Eritrean diaspora parent Mr Tedros Afenegus, from Portland, Oregon says " My
daughter is very interested in these books because they are ideal children's
books, colourful, short stories, big alphabets and easy to read and understand."
Mr. Afenegus' daughter, Leya, can now read and write the Tigrigna mother-tongue
at the age of 5 and living all her life ouside of Eritrea.
Research indicates that children who learn their mother-tongue language early on
in life perform better at their schooling both academically as well as on
social, emotional and behavioural development. Many school boards in the West
are now actively encouraging ethnic minority parents to work towards helping
their children learn the native mother-tongue.
Weledo Publications Enterprise was founded by a Eritrean-Canadian teacher and
father of two Mr. Abel Abraham. Mr. Abraham says "We were greatly surprised by
the extent of demand that was there from fellow Eritrean diaspora parents" and
concluded "there is far more things that need to be done in this respect, and we
are confident that it is achievable."
Mr. Abraham, Weledo's founder and current director, has travelled to Eritrea
where he was able to share the work of his company with Eritrea's major TV
network, ERiTV He appeared in several of the TV's popular programs over a
marathon two week period, some involving a an hour long studio interview.
Watch video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&...
<
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-s_KhoGj3CM>
Eritrean diaspora parents typically order their Tigrigna books on-line, Those
living in USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy and other European countries
receive their purchased books from Amazon books. All of Weledo's books are sold
and shipped by third parties, major global book distribution networks. Whereas
Eritreans in Australia and New Zealand receive their shipments from The Nile,
Australia's largest book retailer.
Mr. Mulugeta Elfu, an organizer of a community Tigrigna school in Kristiansand,
Norway, said that "We are happy to get these products and I’m sure that [it]
will help us a lot in the Tigrigna language teaching of our kids and
youngsters’. We admire Weledo's initiative to prepare these books and we
encourage them to strive to work harder so that our diaspora generation could
keep their basic mother language intact for generations to come." // END
Received on Tue Mar 26 2013 - 15:47:17 EDT
