Gibraltarians and their language book presented to schools on the Rock

John Cortes, Minister for Education and Heritage, recently attended the Multilingual Gibraltar event where the NGO presented every secondary and upper primary school, along with Gibraltar College, a copy of the book ‘Gibraltarians and their language: 22 linguistic biographies.’

The book, published by the University of Vigo, was launched at the Second Gibraltar International Conference held by the university in July. It features a collection of linguistic biographies from contemporary Gibraltarians of various ages, detailing their personal bilingual and multilingual experiences. The initiative was led by Professor Elena Seoane and her research team, in collaboration with renowned Gibraltarian author Mark Sanchez.

During their presentation to local educators, Manuel Enriles and Dale Buttigieg from Multilingual Gibraltar stressed the urgency of addressing language loss among young Gibraltarians. They highlighted that if parents only speak English to their children, they risk denying them the cognitive, health, and career benefits enjoyed by previous generations who were raised in multilingual environments. They emphasised that education plays a vital role in combating language loss and encouraged schools to foster a multilingual environment. This includes not limiting communication in English, introducing pupils to Gibraltarian literature in all three languages - Llanito, English, and Spanish - and educating parents on the advantages of raising multilingual children.

Minister Cortes expressed strong support for Multilingual Gibraltar's efforts and the preservation of all languages used in Gibraltar. The association publicly thanked the Minister for his continuous support since the NGO’s founding, particularly for recognising the importance of maintaining multilingualism in the community. As a token of appreciation, Multilingual Gibraltar presented Cortes with a coffee mug inscribed with the phrase, “Life begins dehpue d’un kafelito.”