Happy English Language Day! Yes, it seems everything has its day these days and the English language is no exception. April the 23rd was introduced as English Language Day by the United Nations to “celebrate multilinguism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six official languages throughout the Organization”. And why this date in particular? Well, it turns out that April the 23rd is Shakespeare’s date of birth AND death. Really. He was apparently born on this day in 1564 (although accurate records don’t exist) and died 52 years later on the 23rd of April 1616. He shaped the modern English language, inventing over 1,700 words that are still common today, ranging from amazement to zany. So, to celebrate English Language day, here are 5 great reasons why it’s good to improve your English. Really hoping my clients are reading this…..

1. Job. This one is a no-brainer but the fact is, speaking good English can seriously open up your career path. There are very few jobs today that don’t involve some level of communication in English. Even if your company is local not global, chances are they have international customers or perhaps plan to expand internationally in the future.
2. Information. More than half of all online content is in English. Which means if you don’t understand English, you’re missing out on a whole lot of internet sources of information. In addition, large amounts of films, series and books are written in English. Improving your skills means you won’t need to rely on translations or subtitles to enjoy this content.
3. Education. English is spoken in so many countries that there are thousands of courses taught in English all over the world, so understanding English opens up a huge range of opportunities in education. In addition, English is now increasingly the language of science. Most papers are written in English, even if the reseacher is not a native.
4. Travel. One in five people in the world can speak or at least understand English. That’s over 1.5 billion people worldwide. Of course, I’m in favour of learning some of the local language when you travel but if I hadn’t learned some Swahili when I was in Tanzania, the next best thing was English. This goes for a lot of countries. English is the official language in 67 different countries and the second official language in another 27. According to the Pew Research Center, almost every country in the world requires children as young as six to learn a foreign language at school and it’s usually English. So, if you want to travel and make your life easier, speaking English is definitely the way to go.
5. Fun. Ha ha. I can literally picture some of my German clients sitting in front of me, struggling through future tense and muttering away at how really Scheiße the English language is. But really Helmut, it can be a lot of fun! It’s incredibly rich (it has more words than any other language), it allows you to communicate with 20% of all people on the planet people and it can open up new worlds of information, education and entertainment. And like all language learning, it’s good for you. I know I often bang on about this but studies have shown that learning a second language is good for brain health.

Feeling motivated to get started? Why not join my Duolingo challenge and start learning now from the comfort of your couch? Or drop me a line if you are looking for some live coaching. And as always, feel free to add your comments below or follow my blog by adding your email address to the box on the right.