Never be ashamed of your native language
Say those beautiful
Phrases and words
Loud and proud.
Do not let anyone stop you from speaking
Let your voice be
Heard and recognized
Don't you dare let anybody make fun of your accent
Embrace the thickness
Don't ever lose grasp of it.
For it is one of the precious treasure
You could ever hold on to
After leaving your homeland
To start a new life in a foreign country
That offers you a whole lot of new opportunities.
Hold on to your mother tongue
As tight as you can
Because this new country you now live in
Will do its very best to change your identity
And oppress your culture.
So it be French or Spanish
Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese
Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilonggo
Greek, Punjabi, Hindi, Sinhalese
Arabic, Vietnamese, Portuguese
German or Russian
And any other language there is in the world.
It has exquisite words that just cannot be simply translated into English
For it has far greater meaning behind it
It is very much well-written
Alluring to one's eye and
Spoken eloquently and gracefully
That the English language is not able to compare
To your admirably and enticing
Well-spoken mother tongue.
I salute your bravery
For moving into a brand new place
And the willing to learn
A whole new language
Because it is not easy for all of us to do so.
This is for the immigrants and internationals who have travelled into Canada and they are constantly being bashed for their accent and their difficulty with learning the English language, the same people who mock them are the ones who have only spoken English all their lives. I personally think the willingness of learning a language so different with your mother tongue in order to improve your future is amazing and I admire each and everyone of you who do so. As someone who has been made fun of in previous years because I had this thick accent, you shouldn't let them make you feel less and do not let them try to think that your race and culture is lower than theirs, cause it is not.
Also, happy national poetry month :-)