On 19 February 2026, VU Amsterdam celebrated Mother Language Day for the third time.
It was an inspiring afternoon with musical, poetic and narrative performances on the importance of mother languages for identity, by Abdelkader Benali, Amir Naeimi and Maxime van der Reijden. In addition, students from VU-NT2 (and others) delivered wonderful workshops on their mother tongues:
- Farsi by Zahra Naimi
- Turkish by Sena Tekkoyun
- Syrian-Arabic by Yousef Hasan & Ahmed Merie
- Russian by Irina Giertz
In a workshop on parallel language use, led by Michiel van Drunen and Marjolijn Witte, employees of VU Amsterdam exchanged experiences on multilingual meetings. The organising workgroup, consisting of staff from VU-NT2 and TLC (Language, Literature and Communication) of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, looks back on a successful and meaningful afternoon.
More information about the VU Mother Language Day.
Photography: Marieke Wijntjes