Amir boxes clever at poetry competition launch

Yasmin Hussein, Amir Khan and Dr Sharon Handley launch this year's Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition

OLYMPIC boxing legend Amir Khan has thrown his weight behind a multilingual poetry project.

The champion boxer filmed a special video for the launch of the Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition at Manchester Metropolitan University, in which he said he wished he had had the opportunity to take part in such projects while he was at school.

He said: “I would have loved to have entered a competition like this, because it would have given me the chance to learn a little bit more about my mother tongue.

“Sadly I didn’t have anything like this when I was at school, but I’m just so happy to be a part of it.”

"Have confidence"

The national competition, which launched on Monday, February 2nd, aims to encourage children who don’t speak English at home to celebrate their mother tongue, while at the same time providing an exciting opportunity for native English speakers to learn a second language.

Amir said: “Speaking another language, some people might feel shy about it but they shouldn’t – they should have confidence and be able to talk about what other languages they speak. I think it’s definitely going to boost everyone’s confidence by having this competition.”

He added that he finds speaking languages including Urdu and Punjabi useful when travelling around the world for his career, and is currently learning Spanish in order to better connect with fans in Mexico.

He also said that he plans to teach his daughter several languages so she can benefit from being multilingual.

Laureate project

Mother Tongue Other Tongue takes the form of a series of regional competitions, which will be split into two parts. “Mother Tongue” will see children who do not have English as a first language write about what a lullaby, poem or song in their native language means to them, while as part of “Other Tongue” pupils will create an original poem in a second language that they are learning at school.

The competitions will be open to school pupils aged eight to 18 from England, Scotland and Wales. Regions within each country will run their own versions of the project, which will be launched throughout the year, with a major national celebration to be held in June.

The competition was first launched by the Poet Laureate, Dame Carol Ann Duffy, in 2013. Carol Ann is also the Creative Director of the Manchester Writing School at MMU.

Carol Ann said: “The competition is a unique opportunity for pupils whose first language is not English and those learning another language at school to showcase their creative and linguistic talents and to have their work published in an anthology.”

Exciting and innovative

The project is run by Manchester Metropolitan University and Routes into Languages, in partnership with The Poetry Society, Scottish CILT, The Poetry Book Society and the Poetry Translation Centre.

Dr Sharon Handley, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Languages & Social Science, Manchester Metropolitan University and Director of Routes into Languages North West, said: “Mother Tongue Other Tongue is a very exciting and innovative project. It celebrates the linguistic diversity and the creative potential of pupils within our schools.

“It is the result of a unique collaboration between Routes into Languages and our Writing School: languages and creative writing. The Poet Laureate, Dame Carol Ann Duffy, has made it into a Laureate Education project and it has already inspired over 10,000 pupils to join in.

“I am delighted to see how it has been embraced by schools and to hear the very positive comments about the way it raises confidence and aspirations.”

Unique competition

Yasmin Hussain, Project Manager, Routes into Languages North West said of the competition: “Mother Tongue Other Tongue is a fantastic project. The competition is unique as it allows pupils to use their bilingualism creatively.

"The project has allowed pupils to explore their multiple identities through culture, poetry and language. Being multilingual has many advantages and it’s great that pupils learn to value this early on in their lives.

“Each year the project has gone from strength to strength. We look forward to making this a trans-national project and celebrating multilingualism through poetry and culture.”

Entries are now open, and schools can find out more from www.mmu.ac.uk/mtot.