[lg policy] Punjabi celebrated

Sat Mar 2 16:19:51 UTC 2019

Punjabi Celebrated At PLEA’s 16th International Mother Language Day Function

Punjabi Language Education Association (PLEA) had a very successful
International Mother Language Day (IMLD) celebration at Kwantlen
Polytechnic University (KPU) campus on Saturday, February 23. PLEA had been
eager to establish partnership with an educational institution for quite
some time. The Deepak Binning Foundation (DBF), a staunch and long- time
supporter of PLEA finally opened KPU’s doors for it. Recently, DBF donated
$200,000 to KPU for scholarships for needy students. In consultation with
KPU, it set the stage for partnership between PLEA and the university. KPU
offered its facility to PLEA to hold its function(s) on its campus in
Surrey. It was in this context that PLEA held its 16th IMLD in the Spruce
Building atrium. PLEA is very thankful to both DBF and KPU for this. PLEA
is also very thankful to KPU for looking after audiovisual, equipment and
refreshments etc. for this function.

PLEA Board member Parabjot Kaur commenced the celebration by welcoming the
attendees and representatives of KPU and DBF. As PLEA president, I had the
honour to extend a very warm welcome to the attendees, thank the South
Asian media and provide an update of PLEA’s activities, successes and
future aspirations. The attendees were provided with an overview of the
elementary, secondary and post-secondary institutions where Punjabi classes
have been under way. It is very gratifying to note that last September two
more elementary schools in Surrey-T.E.Scott and Chimney Hill- were added to
the four elementary schools where Punjabi classes are offered now.
Similarly, Punjabi is available in nine secondary schools in Surrey, two in
New Westminster, Burnaby South, North Delta and five schools in Abbotsford.
In addition to that four universities-UBC, SFU, UFV and KPU are also
offering Punjabi classes.

L.A. Matheson teacher and community activist Annie Ohana gave a very
inspiring keynote address emphasizing the role and importance of mother
tongue .She impressed the audience by presenting her own story/ experience
in this regard.

This year’s celebration had a very strong focus on student participation.
The attendees enjoyed and appreciated the work of students displayed at the
celebration. 14 students from various schools presented beautiful
recitations of   poems, short stories, songs and essays speeches in a very
impressive manner. They included  : Sukhman Kambo, Sahib Kambo( Green
Timbers Elementary),Gurjit Randhawa (KPU), Rajveer Kaler,Sami Gill,Harleen
Phagura,Harmeen Phagura,Keerat Dhillon, Ashmeen Gill ((Princess Margaret
Secondary),Raveen Grewal,Prabhjot Vashisht , Karman Gill, Amanveer Kaur and
Jasmeen Dhaliwal,(L.A.Matheson). All of these students impressed the
audience with the high quality and commendable presentations. In addition
to that, the audience was treated to a short film-Talaq (Divorce) prepared
by L.A. Matheson students Rasveen, Jasmeen Saini, Komal Dhami, Puneet Bains
,Keerat Kalair,and Haman Gill. It related to the issues concerning marriage
problems in the Punjabi community.

On behalf of PLEA ,Sadhu Binning and I were honoured to present
 Certificates of  Appreciation and two books each( written by students ) as
token of our appreciation.

PLEA Vice President Sadhu Binning urged the community to get actively
involved in promoting Punjabi at every level. He issued a challenge to
everyone present to approach the decision makers in Ottawa to revisit the
national language policy. Sadhu stressed that it is strange that despite
our community’s contribution to Canada for more than 120 years, our mother
tongue Punjabi is still considered as a foreign language.  It has been
overdue to get the “landed immigrant” status for our mother tongue Punjabi
in this country.

PLEA recognized the contribution of two prominent members of our community
for their excellent contribution to Punjabi language education and
presented them with plaques. They are Surrey School Trustee Garry Thind and
PMSS teacher Preet Dhillon. Both Garry and Preet have done an excellent job
in promoting Punjabi in Surrey and PLEA is very thankful to both of them.
Finally, PLEA is very thankful to the South Asian media, its volunteers and
the community for their on-going support and efforts in creating more pride
in our mother tongue Punjabi. PLEA is pleased to receive a Certificate of
Appreciation from Legislative Assembly of British Columbia which was
presented by Surrey MLAs Bruce Ralston, Rachna Singh, Jinny Sims, Jagrup
Brar and Harry Bains. Also, I would like to thank everyone who took the
time to join us on this occasion and helped in many ways. All of this would
not have been possible without the hard work of PLEA’s dedicated members of
the Board of Directors: Sadhu Binning, Parabjot Kaur , Harmohanjit Singh
Pandher, Dayah Johal, Paul Binning, Parvinder Dhariwal, Rajinder Singh
Pandher, and Ranbir Johal.

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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