Nature is a beautiful gift, wrapped in wonder to all living beings on the earth. Likewise, the ability to express ourselves is the gift of God to humans. We can express our emotions, ideas, and thoughts through different art forms. But what gives voice to all of them is a language.

It helps us to communicate, connect, and most importantly, express ourselves among the different and beautiful languages spoken around the world. We have one such language which is global, i.e., the English language.

A Tribute To William Shakespeare

The English language Day is celebrated every year on the 23rd of April. Historically speaking, it is also the day when William Shakespeare was born. The fact that William Shakespeare is widely known as one of the greatest literary writers of the English language, makes it obvious to celebrate English language day on this particular date.

His plays continue to be published and performed in theaters. And film adaptations of his plays are still being remade by different film industries.

Lingua Franca

English is also considered the lingua franca of the world when it comes to business and aviation. Moreover, English is also widely utilized on different social media platforms and the internet.

UNO made the decision to commemorate English language day on twenty third of April in 2010. On that particular day, various events were held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

Very few languages are able to bridge gaps between people from different states, let alone bring them together on a single platform. However, English is one of those few languages that has the ability to enhance people’s interconnectivity.

The United Nations recognizes this contribution of English in uniting the world and therefore, English language Day is celebrated on April 23 every year. Moreover, on this day, the greatest English writer of all times William Shakespeare was also born.

History of English language Day Celebration

The global Department of Communication of the United Nation has established language days for each of the organization’s official six languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

English has also been credited as the Lingua franca of the world. The official language of International relations is also English. The first English language Day was celebrated on April 23, 2010.

Significance of the English Language

The purpose of celebrating these days is to promote cultural diversity and multilingualism, which in turn will help the equal usage of the six official languages.

The English language day is celebrated globally. And is not just restricted to one particular institution. There are various organizing bodies that take up the responsibility to organize activities. These mainly include;

  • Reading Famous English Literature Books. And then conducting reviews.
  • Poetry recitation competition.

This day also coincides with World Book and copyright day.

Fun Facts About The English Language

  • “I am” is the shortest complete sentence in English.
  • There are certain words in the English dictionary that literally have no actual meaning.
  • There is a constant increase in the number of English words.
  • Have you ever noticed that if you turn the word, ‘swim’, upside it, it will still be pronounced as ‘swim’.
  • If you want to know the one word in the entire English dictionary, that is the shortest but also the most said word, is the word “I”.
  • The word ‘girl’ was initially used to refer to a child or young person regardless of gender.
  • There are certain phrases in the English language that have been adopted from other Native American languages. Hence, if you look at them from a grammatical point of view they make absolutely no sense. But still are frequently used by people.
  • The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
  • Month, orange, silver, and purple do not rhyme with any other word.

Why it is Important to Celebrate English Language Day?

A person who is a native speaker of the English language gets the opportunity to celebrate the language that he speaks every day but never appreciates how English has become the language that it is today.

So, how should one celebrate English Language day?

There are different ways to celebrate English Language Day. Let us discuss some of them.

  • Enhance Proficiency

The best way to celebrate the day is to dedicate a certain amount of time from your day to improve your proficiency in your English language. If you are a beginner of the language, you can upscale your skill level to a more intermediate level or an expert level. This may be done in both writings, speaking, and reading as well.

There’s always an opportunity to learn more, nobody becomes perfect, even in his native tongue. It is a constant endeavor to improve your skill level.

  • Learn The English Language

If a person does not speak the language, he can start to learn English. In this scenario, the best way would be to approach a professional language translator or teacher. He will guide you on how to learn the language and will provide a methodology to upscale your skill level and grip on the English language.

  • Teach English

Another thing that you can do is you can teach the English language to other people if you have a certain amount of knowledge pertaining to the language. You can share this information and wisdom with other people who are not so fortunate.

It can be your family members, as well as your friends, your colleagues, who are keen and enthusiastic about improving their English language skills.

  • Celebrating the Day Via Social Media Platforms

Another thing that you can do is you can celebrate English language day on various social media platforms.

For instance, you can utilize the hashtag ‘#Englishlanguageday”, so that your followers and your friends would know that you are actively advocating the English language day. And are reminding people that it is important to appreciate this language.

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed the UN’s initiative to celebrate English Language Day on the 23rd of April.

The purpose of the day is to celebrate one of the most popular languages in the world. English is the lingua franca of the world. It is the official language of various international institutions. And is spoken by almost all the developed countries.

By celebrating English language day, the UN aims to promote multilingualism and intercultural harmony. This will bring together native English speakers and people are who are not native, on a single platform. And together they can forget their differences and celebrate what’s common in them.