The lost decade: learning Asian languages

An interesting and detailed article about the past 10 years of Asian Language Learning in Australia.  The article The lost decade: learning Asian languages goes into great detail about many of the problems of teaching and learning languages over the past decade.  While I was aware of the many of the reasons and problems of learning an Asian language, there was still much that I didn't know.  One of the best discussions on this topic I have read.

10 Free Chinese Lessons

Grasp Chinese.com has to free multimedia lessons. Topics include;

• Saying Hello
• Introduction to tones
• Ordering a Coffee
• Airport -arriving
• Taxi – going to the hotel
• Hotel – checking in
• Numbers
• Breakfast
• Shopping
• Introducing yourself

Lesson include; Video, practice listening, writing words, writing sentences and a vocabulary list. Creating an account will track your progress and keep score of what you have done. All lessons are in Pinyin and English.

While all of these lessons are now too low level for me, I still think they are of a good quality. The attempt to create some interactive and basic lessons is quite good.

Not bad for free. Grasp Chinese

Asian language should be mandatory for Australian schoolchildren

Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop has said that she will push to have this plan made coalition policy before the next federal election. Another bold plan proposed that is bound to cause trouble for state education departments, teachers, parents and students. I look forward to seeing what transpires. Asian language should be mandatory for Australian schoolchildren

Other articles of interest. Language study shuts up

NSW Education Department statistics;

• 43% drop in students studying languages in the last 15 years
• There has been a drop of 50,000 students studying Japanese since 1996
• Less than 9% of this years Year 12 students in NSW will sit a language exam
• NSW students are only required to study 100 hours of a language in years 7 or 8

While the Victorian Government has plans to make a second language compulsory for all students from prep to year 10 by 2015. Our kids to learn new lingo

If the number of students does not increase Australian student will fall behind international education standards. Generations of Australians will not have skills to develop business, political and economic relationships with Asia. Without government intervention language learning will further decline.

Alarming and disturbing news indeed. I wonder if we have reached rock bottom yet.

Something to balance all the negative reports I have been blogging recently A feel good story can be found here. Teacher's leadership in languages applauded However, reading this carefully there is sound advice and warnings about current langauge learning in schools.

Meanwhile in Sweden. 'Every school must teach Chinese' Go Sweden Go!

We should be teaching languages in Australia, yet we are not teaching languages

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) this week released some plans for language learning The Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Languages. In this document there are some very broad plans for the future of language learning in schools across Australia. The good news is that Chinese Mandarin and Italian are the first languages to be rolled out nationally under the new Australian curriculum

Within days the NSW Education Department is resisting any change. At present NSW schools are not required to teach any language other than English. Alarm bells have gone off in the NSW Education system and they are crying teacher shortages and over crowded curriculum as a reason not to teach LOTE. More information about current policy and comparisons to VIC education policy can be read here Primary school languages plan hits resistance with a letter to the editor response here Learning a language opens young minds .

This week there was also a response to the revolutionary idea to send youth to Asian countries to learn language and culture, that I posted about recently Radical Ideas . The response No quick fix in any language highlights many of the currrent problems with langauge learning in Austrailia, however it does not propose any solutions. This article like so many discussions in the current debate of LOTE in Austrailia shows facts and figures about the decline of language teaching and learning across all schools and universities. The common repetative theme discussed and debated in many articles and forums can be summed up as;

“We should be teaching languages in Australia, yet we are not teaching languages”

Thoughts and Reflections

I finished my first year of Chinese learning at University last week. The final exam was not what I expected, however I will know how and what to learn for the next ones. I did not do as well as I had done on my assignments. I think I was quite anxious before the exam. I knew the vocabulary and grammar quite well. Yet I did not feel that I did my best. Despite the final exam I have had a really productive and enjoyable year of study.

As mentioned in my last post I am fortunate as I am able to go to Xian for three weeks of intensive study. Out of all the macro skills speaking is my poorest ability. Sometimes I feel I am learning in isolation. This is the downside of the distance education language learning course. I am able to teach myself to read, write and listen, but speaking is not possible. I can of coure listen and repeat to course texts and materials. However, in reality I do not feel able to hold a very simple conversation. I have no opportunity to speak with a native speaker. I live in what is a rural and remote area so my choices are very limited. Though I am not proficient in speaking, I am still looking forward to the three weeks of language classes and opportnities to speak.

Right now I am very relaxed about my language learning. I am listening to my Pimsleur Chinese course materials fairly regularly. I occasionally have a look at other resources. I am not pushing myself and I think I am getting better results than I did pre exam. I have an chance now to make some progress in a more relaxed learning environment. Shall keep this up for a few more weeks and see how it works out.  

Radical Ideas

I recently read an article recently about the lack of connection Australia has with Asia and in particular China Minding our languages. The article states that our language learning progress is and has failed for a number of years now. At primary, secondary and tertiary level we have failed to learn Asian languages. The main reason is too few teachers and too few students willing to learn languages.

To address this problem the idea is to stop spending money on language learning in schools and universities and send students to live and learn in Asia. This plan would be government funded. The proposal is to send 10,000 students a year. This may address the deficit we currently have in Asian literacy.

This is indeed a radical idea. However, for me it seems like something that might work. It is better than the stagnation and lack of interest in Asian languages and culture we currently have from many in Australia.

A similar news article, We must invest to latch on to the Asian century, also states very clearly that we must engage with Asia by investing in training and teaching Australians in Asian languages. The article has many facts and figures about the decline of Asian languages in Australian education. Apparently we are at the lowest point in Asian literacy since 1970.   

An alternative and ambitious plan from the Victorian state government to reverse the decline in language learning sounds similar to what I have seen before. Grants for Teaching Languages outlines the offer $ 1 million in grants to schools to halt the decline of language learning in primary schools. I am keen to follow the progress of this plan. It would be good if other state governments also implemented similar grants.  

Post Exam....what next?

Yesterday I sat my final exam for this semester. It was good to complete it. Right now I do not really have the same sense of accomplishment that I felt when I finished my assignments. Though I am relieved that I have finished first year of Chinese. While I have studied as much as I can this semester I feel that I must review my study methods and focus.

Now that semester two is over I am going to move on to the next stage of my learning journey. I learned yesterday that there is a formal speaking and listening exam next January. In preparation for my short intensive course of Chinese in Xi'An next year I shall do some self study. So I have one and half months to prepare. I have some resources where I can focus on speaking and listening.  So upward and onward to Xi'An.

Electric Things

A long long time ago when I learned Japanese, I started to become very interested in kanji. The first one that fascinated me was 電. I liked the story of the rain and rice field with the bolt of lightning (natural electricity). Now that I am learning hanzi and simplified Chinese the character looks like this 电 and loses much of the original story. However I have realised that this character is turning up again and again in my vocabulary lists. Here are some examples with literal translations;

电视 Electric Look - TV

电影 Electric Shadows - Films

电梯 Electric Stairs - Escalator

电脑 Electric Brains - Computer

电车 Electric Car - Tram

电邮 Electric Post - Email

电话 Electric Voice - Telephone

When I think about these words it makes me think how logical and straight forward Chinese language sometimes is. The literal translations act as automatic mnemonics so that I can easily remember them.

Reading this gives me some hope

Following on from my last post about the state of language learning in Australia, I was please to find this article Languages a growth area at UQ .  At least at UQ there is a significant growth in students learning languages. I am hoping that this will be the trend in the future and that this will also be the case in Australian high schools.  I wonder when and if this is going to happen?