This month marks UN Arabic Language Day.
The day was established by UNESCO in 2010 seeking “to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six of its official working languages throughout the organisation”. December 18 was chosen as the date for the Arabic language as it is “the day in 1973 when the General Assembly approved Arabic as an official UN language”.
As a multilingual and culturally diverse organisation, PG Paper is delighted to support the Arabic language, with numerous native-Arabic speakers within our PG Team.
The Importance of the Arabic Language
Arabic is considered the second most difficult language to learn after Mandarin. It is the primary language of the Arab World mostly found in Asia, Middle East, and North Africa. According to World Atlas it is the official language of around 24 countries and is spoken by approximately 420 million people, making Arabic the fifth most popular language in the world.
The Arabic language evolved from Aramaic, and it is written from right to left as opposed to the standard style of writing left to right. Classical Arabic was a dialect that was spoken between the 7th and 9th centuries and predated modern Arabic. It is the primary spoken language in many countries including Tunisia, Western Sahara, Egypt, and Syria.
According to the British Council website, there are at least 11 different words for “love” in Arabic, each of them describing a different part of the process of falling in love.
The English language has many words that originated from Arabic including racquet, alchemy, algebra, algorithm, alkaline, to name but a few. It has also influenced French and Spanish languages as well.
The Importance of Learning Languages
Recently, PG was contacted by a local secondary school asking us to take part in a multilingual project for their Language Department. We greatly value the local communities within which we live and work and were delighted to get the opportunity to take part. Staff from PG answered pupils’ questions on the importance of languages in business and the impact of multilingualism and cultural diversity within an organisation. We look forward to sharing our video soon.
PG Paper in the Middle East
In PG Paper our Middle East and North African team speaks Arabic, helping us to work closely with our customers throughout the region. We trade extensively within the Middle East and in recognition of our growing customer base we were delighted to open an office in Dubai in 2021 to help us better serve our relationships locally.
If you would like to find out more about our work within the Middle East and North Africa please contact us.