Multilingualism Facts for Kids

A bilingual sign in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. In Brussels, both Dutch and French are official languages.

Multilingualism is when a person can speak more than one language. People who can speak two languages are called "bilingual", which is a type of multilingualism. Multilingualism is important today in jobs, because different countries buy things from each other more.

There are more multilingual people in the world than monolingual people.

Multialphabetism

Images for kids

Multilingual sign outside the mayor's office in Novi Sad, Serbia, written in the four official languages of the city: Serbian, Hungarian, Slovak, and Pannonian Rusyn.
A stenciled danger sign in Singapore written in English, Chinese, Tamil, and Malay (the four official languages of Singapore).
Bilingual no trespassing sign at a construction site in Helsinki; upper text in Finnish and lower text in Swedish.
Croatian-Italian bilingual plate on a public building in Pula/Pola (Istria)
A multilingual sign at the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Pier in Macau. At the top are Portuguese and Chinese, which are the official languages of Macau, while at the bottom are Japanese and English, which are common languages used by tourists (English is also one of Hong Kong's two official languages).
A caution message in English, Kannada and Hindi found in Bangalore, India
The three-language (Tamil, English and Hindi) name board at the Tirusulam suburban railway station in Chennai (Madras). Almost all railway stations in India have signs like these in three or more languages (English, Hindi and the local language).
Multilingual sign at Vancouver International Airport, international arrivals area. Text in English, French, and Chinese is a permanent feature of this sign, while the right panel of the sign is a video screen that rotates through additional languages.
Multilingual sign at an exit of SM Mall of Asia in Pasay, Philippines. Three or four languages are shown: Japanese/Mandarin Chinese ("deguchi" or "chūkǒu", respectively), English ("exit") and Korean ("chulgu"). While Filipinos themselves are anglophone, such signs cater to the growing number of Koreans and other foreigners in the country.
Multilingual message at a public toilet in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, the Philippines that prohibits foot washing. Text is written in six languages: English, Filipino, Cebuano, Chinese, Korean, and Russian respectively.
A train name found in South India written in four languages: Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, and English. Boards like this are common on trains which pass through two or more states where the languages are spoken are different.
A trilingual (Arabic, English and Urdu) sign in the UAE in the three widely spoken languages in the UAE
Dual language Hebrew and English keyboard
Japanese, English, and Russian sign in Northern Japan
Mongolian, Chagatai, Chinese, Tibetan and Manchu languages sign in Chengde, China
A sign at the Israeli Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Immigrant Absorption in Haifa, uses Hebrew, Arabic, English, and Russian
A multilingual sign in Singapore's four official languages: English, Chinese, Tamil and Malay
Urdu, Hindi, and English on a road sign in India
A sign uses Arabic, Tifinagh and French Latin alphabets

Multilingualism facts for kids

Related pages

Images for kids

See also