HARMONY WEEK - LANGUAGES
Which languages are spoken in the homes of our students and teachers?
“Harmony Week is the celebration that recognises our diversity and brings together Australians from all different backgrounds. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.”
This year, to raise awareness about Harmony Week (20 -26 March, 2023), our Languages Captains, Alyssa Barrile and Lauren Barley, posed some questions to students and staff at Lilydale High during Harmony Week via a Google form about which languages were spoken in their families.
Here is the response to the first question:
Of the 18.4% who answered “Yes”, a surprising variety of languages other than English were represented. Here they are:
| Language (Number of Speakers) | Language (Number of Speakers) | |
| German (8) | Afrikaans (1) | Tamil (1) |
| Italian (7) | Arabic - Lebanese (1) | Telugu (1) |
| Dutch (5) | Auslan (1) | Thai (1) |
| French (5) | Belarussian (1) | Tibetan (1) |
| Russian (4) | Creole (1) | Turkish (1) |
| Spanish (3) | Flemish (1) | Yiddish (1) |
| Welsh (3) | Hebrew (1) | Yorta Yorta (1) |
| Cantonese (2) | Hungarian (1) | Yoruba (1) |
| Greek (2) | Irish (1) | Zomi (1) |
| Indonesian (2) | Malay (1) | |
| Japanese (2) | Portuguese (1) | |
| Maltese (2) | Samoan (1) | |
| Mandarin (2) | Serbian (1) | |
| Māori (2) | Tagalog (1) | |
This is just a snapshot of the many diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds learning together at Lilydale High School.
If you were wondering about where some of these languages are spoken:
- Yoruba is spoken in West Africa, mainly in Southwestern and Central Nigeria.
- Zomi is spoken mostly in Myanmar and India.
- Telugu is spoken mostly in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
- Tagalog is one of the major languages spoken in the Philippines.
- Tamil is spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia and is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, as well as in Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian Union territory of Puducherry.
- Yorta Yorta is an Indigenous language, spoken by the Yorta Yorta people, from the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north eastern Victoria.
Thank you to all students and staff who participated in the survey.
Kelly Farrell
Head of Languages