Sunday, November 4, 2012
Call me parochial...
... but, unlike Kevin Rudd, I don't think Australian schools need to devote more time to LOTE. There are only so many hours in the school week, and every extra minute doing one thing means a minute less doing something else. And when it comes down to it, the something else is probably going to be music.
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If you're parochial, does that mean you're turning Anglican? ;-)
ReplyDeleteI don't mind encouraging LOTE, but am regularly bugged by the 'Asian language' bandwagon. Those plugging it usually are doing so for commercial reasons, which strikes me as particularly wrong-headed. As it stands now, the default language for international commerce is probably English - so those wanting more LOTE-speakers are actually working on giving up their competitive advantage. That might be quite godly, sharing with poorer nations and all that, but I'm not sure that's their intention.
Learning a language should be about understanding our world, not making money. I'm still inclined to think a European language is more helpful in this regard.
My 5 renminbi.
I don't get it either. I seem to remember having been down this road before....maybe even when I was at high school myself? Everyone was saying that learning an Asian language was "the" thing to do.
ReplyDeleteI didn't do it (I did do German to Year 12 though, and that was more for a bit of fun alongside all the maths and science boredom I was enduring) and I don't feel I've suffered by not doing it either.
My other question for Kevin, Julia et al is where are they going to get all the teachers of these languages from?
Yes! That's a REALLY good point Karen. You can decide to make something complusory...but you've also got to find the staff. And it's not like making Legal Studies complusory (any humanities teacher could have a go). It requires specialists!
DeleteSimone - I'm sure you'd appreciate this article:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/music/music-the-key-to-learning-language/story-fn9d2mxu-1226507858819
Anthony - one doesn't lose a 'competitive advantage' by learning a LOTE. In fact, most people in today's educational system don't learn English grammar until they start learning another language - all the internationals in my TESOL course could run rings around most modern Australian schooling graduates in terms of knowing English grammar. In addition, one becomes a better ESL teacher by having learnt a LOTE oneself, irrespective of which one.
My complaint is that Korean is not one of the 'target' languages. Has the government paid attention to the fact that the 4th largest vehicle manufacturer in the world (5th largest player in terms of Australian market share) is Hyundai, a South Korean firm? Or, to 'save' jobs, would they rather throw millions of $ at 'Australian' manufacturers who end up going off-shore anyway? And here in Qld, the biggest increase in tourism from Asian markets that I've noticed over the last few years seems to be Koreans who come here as educational and general tourists.
I think we should learn foreign languages if not because it would decrease our arrogance when overseas.
ReplyDeleteFIndo, that hasn't worked for Americans, many of whom know Spanish.
DeleteAmericans aside, my experience is that learning a language broadens one's cultural awareness. But in school, we often limit cross-cultural engagement to the language classroom. Far better imho would be a more integrative approach e.g. music classes that included Bollywood; English classes that read novels by African authors; science classes that considered the achievements of early Muslim scholars; history courses that included Asian histories alongside European, etc.
DeleteLooks like this is up for public discussion again. I saw this article today.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/news-features/should-we-all-speak-an-asian-language-20121109-292mn.html