Another issue for the 2020 Summit has been the issue of language teaching, or should I say Asian language teaching? It seems that Asian languages are being pushed to the exclusion of languages which have more value to our multi-cultural community.
Mr Rudd is naturally very keen on the idea of teaching Asian languages in schools but is this really the best use of language teaching time in schools?
There has been some research done on this issue which suggests that students take much longer to acquire a competency in Chinese or Japanese and that many students never achieve sufficient to hold as much as a simple conversation, let alone conduct business in either language.
Should we teach these languages in schools simply because we live in the neighbouring geographic reason or because we do business with these countries. After all we are not teaching nearly as much Vietnamese, Indonesian, Cambodian or Thai and the languages of the Indian subcontinent are virtually ignored.
If we want linguistically competent people should we first be concentrating on local community languages (including a couple of the more widespread indigenous languages) and encouraging native speakers to participate? Should we teach these first and then encourage students who show an aptitude for language learning to learn an Asian language, perhaps with the carrot of additional financial support?
Or should we persist in teaching a minimum of an Asian language that a majority of students will almost certainly lose on leaving school just so that students have the experience of learning an Asian language rather than an Indo-European one - or even an African one like Swahili?
I would be genuinely interested in hearing arguments from both sides.

Dear Communicat,

I wasn't aware that the Australian Government was excluding other languages and concentrating entirely on Asian languages.

Are you sure about this?

I remember reading that - the Australian Government through the School Languages Programme (SLP) is providing $112 million over 4 years (2005 - 2008) to State and Territory Education Authorities to support the teaching and learning of - Asian, European,
Australian Indigenous languages, and Auslan, in schools and community
language programmes in ethnic schools.

The article said that -the Government recognizes that young Australians with language skills
and an understanding of international cultures are vital to our nation's future in an increasingly global community.

Why Asian languages? That easy! With 1.5billion chinese people and not too mention all the rest, I believe there is a conspiracy theory that they are simply going to out breed us and move into all 4 corners of the planet. Think about this, it makes a lot of sense.

Why make war when all leaders know they cant afford the rebuild and with most leading powers there is always a few nuclear missiles in just about everyone's pantry. So the game is move to all 4 corners with the flag of friendship and go like hell and breed like rabbits.

Do you think Rudds Asian gift of Cantonese was just a coincidence, or maybe better still it may be a case of not living dangerously.

What a great way to shift the balances of power. America may just have it's first black president and if you really listen to the world other races are getting sick and tired of being pushed around and told what to do by the white folk.

Which ever way you look at it, there is something going on. If they are going to breed us out, we all start learning Asian.

Just a thought.

One of the things I like about Lù Kèwén is his fluency in Mandarin, which certainly creates a new level of dialogue at the highest possible political level with China. And let's face it, that's where Australia's economic fortunes are inextricably tied. Like it or not, Australia is going to become far more influenced by Chinese culture and economics in the coming decades, so it would seem adaptive at the very least to encourage the acquisition of the languages in which business will increasingly conducted.

Put it this way, any Australian business or other relationship with China that can be conducted in Chinese languages has to have an edge over those who communicate through interpreters. Kevin Rudd sets a great example for all Australians in this respect, and I give him credit for it.

Why Asian languages? Duh.

Maybe so! But i still think there is more.

Yes C.J thank you for correcting me. ( languages)