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The Forum > Article Comments > What’s the point of teaching languages? > Comments

What’s the point of teaching languages? : Comments

By Brian Manning, published 12/5/2008

A first practical step towards reconciliation in Australia would be to teach a local Aboriginal language in schools.

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In my article I proposed there was another important point in improving communications with Aboriginal People and at the same time, making a move towards genuine reconciliation.
In communities where the local language has been lost and kriol has substituted,there is merit in it’s use. At Royal Darwin Hospital, they have an accredited kriol interpreter whose services are very much in demand.

One important point that I obviously did not make clear enough was that I was not intending that Aboriginal Languages be taught to Aboriginal kids…….
I was intending to include an Aboriginal language as an option for white kids……
Such an option is not going to be any more of a set back to a students progress than having to tackle Mandarin , Bahasa, Greek ,French or German. However, the white kids would derive great benefit in being capable of at least greeting an Aboriginal person in a familiar language . I am not even suggesting they need to reach a level of competence where they can utilize the whole vocabulary, recognizing each species by it’s own genus.

I had an experience just last week in the bank where a Traditional Aboriginal woman in front of me in a queue appeared to be getting irritated at the wait. The person in front of her seemed to be intimidated by her muttering and body language to the point where he dropped back in the queue. She turned and looked at me whereupon I greeted her saying “ Ga nhamirr nhe, manymak ?” (and how are you, good ?)
To which she replied “Yo, Manymak ngarra “ (yes, I’m good) and smiled.

We had a short friendly conversation using a combination of English and Yolngu mutta in which she told me who had passed away recently , who had been sent home from hospital and that another of my Clan family was at Snake Bay. until her turn came to go to a teller.

That represents a small practical gesture of Reconciliation. I would hope that Pat Dodson might consider pursuing the issue.
Posted by maracas, Monday, 12 May 2008 7:33:03 PM
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Brian,

I think it indeed would be a good idea to further Reconciliation .

Where there is no local working language possibly Aranda ,usefull around Uluru and Alice Springs would be handy, or a major language from the Kimberleys , Arnhem Land or north Queensland could be the language of choice .

My schoolboy French was handy overseas but useless trying to get to really know Aboriginal People in Alice Springs, Broome or Adelaide River .

Learning about the Culture of the language has to expand white consciousness .

It is important Aboriginal People learn English well, as the Court cases that you mention show .

They have been noted down through our short history as being capable of learning many languages when exposed to them .

An indigenous language should pose no real problems- finding the teachers may be a bit harder.
Posted by kartiya jim, Monday, 12 May 2008 7:50:45 PM
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As I understand it indigenous languages have a rich and diverse vocabulary for the environment in which they are intended to be used. Outside that environment they struggle because the vocabulary required is different. Along with that are a range of concepts (e.g. linear time) not in common use in indigenous culture.
It is not simply a matter of expanding the vocabulary of the indigenous language or using a kriol. Those things can only take a language so far.
Which languages do you use? There are many indigenous languages and many others have been lost. Some which exist now have so few speakers that, realistically, they are not going to survive - especially with cultural taboos which limit contact between members of the group.
Do we put vast resources into trying to rescuse a language spoken by less than one hundred people?
Pitjanjara is taught at university level in South Australia but it is no longer an undiluted form of the language. That could not survive in the 21st Century. Language has to be able to describe the environment in which people live. Even those living in remote communities see and have access to objects that have no traditional vocabulary to describe them. Vocabulary must be created or borrowed.
In PNG Pidgin a helicopter was once "Mix-Master belong Jesus" among some locals. Now it is much more likely to be "helikopta".
So, if we teach indigenous languages, which ones do we teach and, more importantly, what will we really be teaching?
Posted by Communicat, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 8:18:39 AM
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Communicat ,
One important point is that the law students that learnt Pitjantjatjarra would one would hope be streets ahead in understanding and making justice available for these speakers .

White justice should be administed justly and understood to be just .
Posted by kartiya jim, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 8:44:29 AM
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It is not the role of schools to get involved in brainwashing bollocks like the meaningless "Reconciliation."

Of course learning about Aborigines is valuable. I strongly support World History and Comparative Religion being taught right the way through school. But if choices must be made ancient Greece, Rome, and China are far more important and relevant for Australian school children than those halcyon days of yam farming and gathering witchety grubs.

The "Indigenous" group at the 20/20 Summit was a scandal. Jackie Huggins is a good bird and was an appropriate Chair for that committee. But given the horrific and unacceptable prognosis of children living in many remote communities, what did these six-figure salaried jet-setting carpet baggers bang on about? "Self-determination" and treaties! Newsflash! Aborigines have as much “self-determination” as any other Australian. It is called running for parliament and voting in elections.

Contrary to this group being informed by "blackfella education" we had the usual misunderstood and plagiarised nonsense from mid twentieth century Parisienne intellectuals that dribbles from these academics! "genocide," "the Other," "UN human rights" blah, blah, blah. Hardly concepts from blackfella epistemology and metaphysics.

If uniquely aboriginal industry structures and companies can make enough money to sustain their “self determination” perhaps we should seriously address this possibility. Until then they should face up to the REAL issues..
Posted by John Greenfield, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 11:41:26 AM
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There is no legal right to be heard in your first language - even the deaf do not have a legal right to an interpreter. Where there is a risk of a lengthy term of imprisonment there is usually some provision made but there is no requirement to do so. This has sometimes resulted in individuals with an indigenous background using the legal profession to claim they would not get a fair trial.
I doubt that getting law students to learn indigenous languages is going to solve the problem, indeed it is likely to exacerbate it.
Posted by Communicat, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 1:56:18 PM
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