Celebrating International Mother Language Day on 21 February 2023 – the UNESCO day that honours the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity for sustainable societies – Emirates is highlighting the array of languages spoken onboard by its multicultural cabin crew, as well as the vast library of in-language content available on its inflight entertainment (IFE) system.
Emirates proactively hires cabin crew who are multilingual, as communicating with passengers in their own language is considered a core part of its hospitality. Emirates cabin crew are recruited from more than 130 countries and together speak more than 70 languages.
The airline’s IFE system features a huge array of content in over 40 languages, from movies to TV series to music, poetry, and podcasts. A library of over 1,900 movies is available in multiple languages, with choices including English, Arabic, Hindi, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, German, Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali, Russian, Mandarin, Cantonese, and many more.
Meanwhile, for those who wish to brush up on their language skills before they reach their destination, the IFE system includes uTalk Language Learning – a module that helps passengers learn essential phrases in Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, German, and French.
