Languages of the world

Ages 3 to 5 Read and do together · about 15 minutes

Read together

People speak thousands of languages.

Our family speaks some of them.

Do it

1. Make a “languages wall”: write or draw “hello” in five languages, with a flag or picture of a place.
2. Learn to say hello and thank you in two new languages: for example Swahili (jambo, asante) and Japanese (konnichiwa, arigatō).
3. Ask your family which languages they know. Make a list.
4. Say a short prayer in each language you know: “Thank you, God”.

Talk about it

• Which languages do we hear at home?
• Which new word do you like?

For the grown-up

There are about seven thousand languages in the world. The Philippines alone has more than 170. Many are spoken by small communities and are at risk of being lost. Celebrating a child's home languages shows that every language is valuable.

Mark as done

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Where this comes from

• David M. Eberhard, Gary F. Simons and Charles D. Fennig, eds., Ethnologue: Languages of the World (SIL International), edition 2023 or later
• Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (Philippines), materials on the languages of the Philippines

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.