We need to be careful with this one. In 1960s, it would have been been popular to learn Indonesian. Probably not so now.

Students starting in high school and non speaking Mandarin at home would find it a challange. Obviously, Chinese Australians will shine.

I have previously lived in HK and Singapore for nine years and know "taxi" level language: But found that Chinesse Australians, with Masters deegrees, could not handle esoteric surveys regarding my academic research.

Oriental language should be optional.

Guanxi [connections] is more important than language in business dealings if their is just one Chinese speaker on your team, coupled with the willingness to joke and enjoy a glass or two of XO. Also it should be remembered that Chinese entrepreneurs are often Shang and might believe in making money and tricking you, more so than a traditional Confucian

Dear Communicat,

The following website may be of interest to you and some of the posters:

http://www.abc.net.au/m/nationalinterest/stories/2008/2201830.htm

"All Chinese to us."

It's quite an interesting discussion by language experts.

Thanks for the link Foxy - I'll take a look.
SIG - it is for practical purposes that I am raising the question. I do not care what the cost is (that should be immaterial). I am concerned with whether schools will be willing to give the extra time required to teach Chinese or Japanese and what the outcomes will be if we do not give the extra time.
Yes, Indonesian was popular some years back - and it is relatively easy to learn 'bazaar Indonesian' - enough to buy something in a market place. It is much harder to learn the language in depth - but that would be true of all languages. However a student can learn to say and write "Selamat pagi. Apa khabar?" (Good morning. How are you?)at the first lesson and even respond to it. (Hope my spelling is right as it is a very long time since I learned to say that!) Now my Chinese neighbour told me the same thing in Mandarin but I still cannot answer him or write it down.)
So I think we do need to be concerned with the time frame required. Is it practical to spend three times longer learning an equivalent amount of Chinese as a first priority language or should we aim at giving students confidence in the Italian or Greek or Turkish spoken around the corner or do we consider that they might want to do business in India (or do you take the view that everyone speaks English in India) - and what about some type of Arabic or even Farsi?

I learnt Japanese in Japan over a ten year period. The greatest barrier to learning was Japanese wanting to practice their English! French at high school, with a French Canadian teacher trialing a phonetic system of learning, provided a solid start.

My half-Japanese children are not learning Japanese. A deliberate decision as English is the only compulsory HSC subject (NSW) and it is vital that they become competent in their first language. I am not surprised Oliver found some gaps in the knowledge of Chinese Australians.

Learning a language to conversational level, not for academic achievement, should be the focus. I think the bare minimum resource is having native level teachers.

We have to be realistic (not complacent) about English being an international language. I still use far more English than Japanese when in Japan. In fact, it is only my mother-in-law (79) who speaks no English whatsoever.

On an academic level, having learnt music (piano, guitar) and language (French, Japanese), it has been reasonably easy to learn computer programs such as Visual Basic or PHP. There is a strong interconnectedness between these codified systems. In the end, I think the overall quality of our education systems relies on giving students competance in the core subjects, with not too much focus or funding for non-core subjects, although I don't doubt the enrichment they provide.

Communicat: Indonesian got a big plug from the then PM John Gorton’s wife, Bettina Gorton (an American and a language student), following their official visit to Malaysia and Indonesia in 1968. It is quite probable that the current PM’s linguistic skills will shift an emphasis onto Chinese learning.

Gibo: Our church’s latest evangelical effort is ESL classes for Japanese in our local area, we are about to start up and have done the first leaflet drop to promote it. Language learning means more bibles translated and more people equipped for this work. China is fertile ground and we know where victory lies.

Hi Foxy
If you happen to get this I am sorry to say the link you mentioned had gone.
Yes, important point KatieO - there are fashions in language learning. It's just a pity that a little logic does not apply as well.
I have my doubts as to whether even conversational Chinese is going to be much use to the vast majority of Australians but we should not be complacent about English as the international language either. What is disappointing is to have such an emphasis on some languages to the exclusion of others. We seem to be intent on cutting ourselves off from vast areas of the world. How much Spanish (spoken by 20% of the world's population in one way or another) is taught in Australian schools? Very little but it is the major language in South America. Could we be doing more business with South America.
I believe we really do need to review our language teaching and the reasons for the priorities.

CJM,

In my experience working into China from HK, both the Chinese side and the other side (Singaporean in my case) have bilingual speakers. I had a Singaporean MP as a minder and a Chinese property developer was a minder to the Chinese group. The higher-ups are international public figues, so like Dentists, can't be named. :-)

One occasion, we were purchasing a private secondary school for a Singaporean public company. The trap was the Chinese party wanted a partner for running the School, but not disclosing their profits were really being made' via resident quarters separate from the School.