You can't really compare the European situation with Australia.
In Europe you only have to travel 200 Km and you have passed through
3 different language zones, so quite a different situation to
ours.

Fact is that English, through the medium of global tv and the internet,
is in fact becoming the global default language.
Most people in business around the globe, once again are commonly
fluent in English.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that one can also waste
a hell of a lot of school time, as teachers try to force pupils
to learn languages in which they have no interest. It certainly
happened to me and my friends.

For those keen to learn another language, the easy way is to
go and spend some time in a country where it is spoken and
you'll pick it up far quicker and easier then teachers trying
to force it down unwilling pupils throats.

Yabby,

I agree, the standard of the language courses offered is important,I wonder how many students studying a foreign language will ever be fluent enough to carry on business negotiations for example,using that language. Successful study of a foreign language(like maths) requires aptitude, interest and hard work,unless you start learning as a child.

I remember talking to a Chinese friend about a program we'd seen in which a professor of Chinese at a prestigious British university was interviewed speaking and witing Chinese. My friend's assessment was that the Prof. wrote Chinese characters competently but his accent was "like a dog."

I agree with Yabby. Apart from the shortage of language teachers who can also teach several other subjects, particularly in government schools, I would also like to point out Australian children are not taught their own language well enough. Until they can read, right and speak English properly, and not have to go through a remedial English course before they can start tertiary education, other languages should be left alone.

I have a 19 year old grandson who cannot read cursive writing, and his own writing is like something off a cave wall. A couple of days ago, my wife heard a university spokesman pleading with school teachers to use the most naive, rounded printing so that they could communicate with their entrants in writing. If they want to take the easy way out with English, they are not going to try to hard with other languages.

Anyway, as Yabby also says, English is international language now and, you can only learn a foreign language well by living with the natives.

There are other, and better, reasons for learning a second language at school. Good language teaching exposes the relation between language and thought, thus improving rationality. It also provides an introduction to another culture--its literature and philosophy, thus encouraging a critical evaluation of the student's own culture.

In my view, however, the mishmash of languages at present taught, and the lack of uniformity between schools, diminishes these benefits. There needs to be a single langauge which all secondary schools teach--one which contrasts with English in its grammar and in its concepts; and one from a culture with significant and thought-provoking differences. Arabic might not be a bad idea.

I have no problem with people learning a foreign language if they have an interest and talent in that area.
However,wasting valuable time in high school teaching a foreign language is another thing.A high proportion of Australian students can't speak or write English in a comprehensible fashion.
Their reading skills are very likely poor as well.
We need to get our priorities in order.
As for the learning of a language teaching the student about the history and culture of a nation,that can be done much more effectively through history and sociological subjects.

Manorina, you make some very valid points.

Ozbib, surely you can teach kids rational thinking, without forcing
them to learn Arabic?
Forcing kids to learn a language in which they have absolutaly
no interest, just wastes valuable schooltime, which could be
prioritised more usefully.

I am just amazed, how some kids even get through the school system
these days. The other day, a school leaver working for an industrial
company, was doing an invoice for me. She had to figure out
99 times 8. She was searching around for her calculater, when I
mentioned that 792 was perhaps what she was looking for. She
was just amazed, she'd never learned how to do that kind
of basic stuff at school.

One of the most useful things that I learned at school, was to get
into the habit of reading, something which many kids hardly do
these days.

That wasn't achieved by English teachers stuffing Jayne Eyre and
similar down our throats. It was because of one wise teacher,
who encouraged us to read anything at all that interested us.
Rather then associate reading with boring, suddenly reading became
fun and away we went! I still thank that teacher today.