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BY PHIL MERCER
Fears over Australia’s language decline
Sydney: Australia’s foreign
language skills are in decline. Official figures show only 13%
of high-school students now graduate with a foreign language –
compared with more than 40% in the 1960s.
There are concerns that these deficiencies could isolate
Australia from its partners in Asia and pose problems for trade,
diplomacy and security.
English is the lingua franca of global commerce but there is a
feeling that it has made Australians complacent about the need
to get to grips with the mother tongue of other countries.
Prof Elise Tipton from the University of Sydney believes that
Australia’s economic bonanza, which is driven by red-hot demand
for its minerals, can partly explain this skills gap.
“I think there’s something about Australia being a resource
supplier,” Tipton said. “China comes to us. We don’t really have
to beat down the doors and learn their culture and language in
order to get business.”
She says that Asian language classes – especially Japanese –
remain popular at the university although students often do not
see the courses as vital ingredients for a successful career.
“Fewer are studying Japanese for specific employment, whereas
that’s what they did in the 1980s,” she says. “A lot more are
from Asian backgrounds – whether from overseas or from Australia
– who are interested in Japanese popular culture.”
Other academics worry that language training and teaching in
both universities and schools has been eroded since the 1980s.
Back then, the Australian government gave special attention to
Asian studies as it sought to establish closer ties with the
region.
As the world’s economic power shifts to emerging trading blocs
including Asia, Australia’s language gap could be exposed.
Pippa McCowage, a 22-year-old economics student from Sydney,
believes that many young Australians have a half-hearted
approach to foreign languages.
“While it is encouraged in high school to learn another
language, there’s not really a realistic expectation that you
will need to speak it,” she says.
“I learned Japanese and went on an exchange ... when I was 16
and found that the Japanese students of my age had a much
greater proficiency in English than I did in Japanese.
“So in that sense it almost discourages you, in that if I were
to do business with the Japanese, everyone would be speaking
English.”
Classmate Rob Tyson blames Australia’s geographical isolation
for waning interest in foreign languages.
“Australia’s pretty remote and I wouldn’t get much of a chance
outside of class to have conversations with other people,” he
grumbles. “It’s not the same as being in Europe where you could
pop across to France and get that interaction. We learn in
isolation here.”
Then, of course, there is the complaint that Asian languages are
hard to master. Varshini Thiagalingam, a Sri Lankan-born student
from London, says learning Japanese is an exhausting experience.
“Kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese) are very difficult
and it’s impossible to conquer,” she says. “I can write hiragana
and katakana (two Japanese alphabets) but now that I’ve come to
Australia I’m forgetting it all.”
The last census found that almost 400 different languages were
spoken in homes across multicultural Australia, where a quarter
of the population was born overseas.
This linguistic rainbow reflects recent patterns of migration,
but has not made Australians hungry to learn the lingo of their
regional counterparts.
If former Australian immigration minister Amanda Vanstone had
her way, every child here would have to learn Mandarin or Bahasa
Indonesia at school.
“Asia is our part of the world, that’s where we sit. Why can’t
we recognise that?” she asks.
Tipton believes Australia does realise where its future lies.
“Australia wants to be included in Asia – it doesn’t want to
miss out. The region is going to be the most important region
economically in the 21st century,” she says. – BBC
 
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