At the United Nations, English is one of the two working languages, along with French. UN celebrating English Language Day on the 23rd of April every year— the date traditionally observed as both the birthday and date of death of William Shakespeare.

On this day several events are organised including book-reading events, English quizzes, poetry and literature exchanges, and other activities that stimulate the English language.

History: English Language Day was first celebrated in 2010, alongside Arabic Language Day, Chinese Language Day, French Language Day, Russian Language Day and Spanish Language Day. These are the six official languages of the United Nations, and each has a special day, designed to raise awareness of the history, culture and achievements of these languages.

Significance: With the goal of increasing awareness and respect for the history, culture and achievements of each of the six working languages among the UN community, Language Days at the UN aim to entertain, as well as to inform. Basically, the main purpose of the UN's language days is to observe multilingualism and cultural diversity. The days also promote the equal use of all six official languages throughout the Organisation.

Six Language Days: Under the initiative, UN duty stations around the world celebrate six separate days, each dedicated to one of the Organization's six official languages:

• March 20- French

• April 20- Chinese

• April 23- English

• April 23- Spanish

• June 06- Russian

• December 18- Arabic

About William Shakespeare: Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. Shakespeare’s poems also remain popular to this day.

Altogether Shakespeare's works include 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets, and a variety of other poems. No original manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays are known to exist today. It is actually thanks to a group of actors from Shakespeare's company that we have about half of the plays at all. They collected them for publication after Shakespeare died, preserving the plays. These writings were brought together in what is known as the First Folio ('Folio' refers to the size of the paper used). It contained 36 of his plays, but none of his poetry.

The spread of English: The spread of English all over the world has an ugly history but a rich and vibrant present. During the European colonial period, several European countries, including England, competed to expand their empires. They stole land, labour and resources from people across Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania. By the time former British colonies began to gain independence in the mid- 20th century, English had become established in their institutions.

Many brilliant writers from diverse places across Africa, the Caribbean and Asia had started writing in English, telling their stories of oppression.

People from all over the world were using English to talk and write about justice, equality, freedom and identity from their own perspectives. The different varieties of English created through this history of migration and colonisation are known as World Englishes.

International English: More than 1.75 billion people speak English worldwide – that's around 1 in 4 people around the world. English is being used more and more as a way for two speakers with different first languages to communicate with each other, as a 'lingua franca'.

'International English' refers to the English that is used and developed by everyone in the world, and doesn't just belong to native speakers. There is a lot of debate about whether International English should be standardised.

English Speaking Indians: India is among the countries with the most English speakers worldwide. With roughly 129 million people speaking English across the country, India makes up nearly 9 per cent of the global anglophone population.

India’s total English-speaking population is second only to that of the U.S., where a little over 300 million people speak the language. Most Indians don’t speak English as a mother tongue but as a foreign language.

About William Shakespeare: Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. Shakespeare’s poems also remain popular to this day.

Altogether Shakespeare's works include 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets, and a variety of other poems. No original manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays are known to exist today. It is actually thanks to a group of actors from Shakespeare's company that we have about half of the plays at all.

They collected them for publication after Shakespeare died, preserving the plays. These writings were brought together in what is known as the First Folio ('Folio' refers to the size of the paper used). It contained 36 of his plays, but none of his poetry.

Shakespeare’s legacy is as rich and diverse as his work; his plays have spawned countless adaptations across multiple genres and cultures. His plays have had an enduring presence on stage and film.

His writings have been compiled in various iterations of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, which include all of his plays, sonnets, and other poems. William Shakespeare continues to be one of the most important literary figures of the English language.

The origins of English: The story of the English language began in the fifth century when Germanic tribes invaded Celtic-speaking Britain and brought their languages with them. Later, Scandinavian Vikings invaded and settled with their languages too.

In 1066 William I, from modern-day France, became king, and Norman-French became the language of the courts and official activity.

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