To know Arabs and their culture, one must first learn their language, but with many opposing theories about its origins, this is no easy task.

To keep a language used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, ­December 18 is the selected UN Arabic Language Day.

The day was organized by the UN ­ Educational, Scientific and ­Cultural Organisation (Unesco) in 2010 to “celebrate multilingualism and social diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six of its official working languages throughout the ­organisation.”

This date was picked because it was the day in 1973 when ­Arabic became the sixth official working language of the General ­Assembly of the United Nations and its principal commissions – the others being Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

“Arabic is a very intense language; it has different accents and different calligraphic forms and styles,” says Hasan Al Naboodah, an Emirati historian and dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the UAE ­University in Al Ain.

“Its history is as complicated as the history of the countries that use the language.”

Benefits of learning Arabic