I like Chinese Sing Along....Wo Ai Zhongguo Ren....

I have always liked this video and oldy but a goody....I also wish I could learn more Chinese....but instead, I make excuses and spend my time doing this WoW Laolongwang

Let the Negativity Begin!

It didn’t take long for the Moaning Minnies to pop up and say the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper will never work.
Opinions in the media are easy to find.
Here is a sample of  a collection of very dodgy language myths and falsehoods;

“..anyone over the age of 12, the intonations, grammar, sentence structures and colloquialisms of another language seem like an Everest to master.”

Many students really enjoy the challenge of learning another language. Learning a foreign language allows the development of higher order thinking skills.

Bilingualism and second language learning can be acquired at anytime in life. It has much more to do with motivation and perseverance rather than when you start learning.

Have a listen to this.  Your Fabulous Bilingual Brain! Radio National – All in the mind

“In the past, for English speakers, it's been relatively easy to learn a foreign language.”

There is no ‘easy’ way to learn a foreign language.  Otherwise those “Learn Language X in 10 minutes a day” books and audio would really work. Learning any foreign language has ‘swings and roundabouts’ in the cycle of learning.

“Business people who travel from Shanghai to Singapore, or from Tokyo to Taipei will tell you time and again that unless you're on the pointy end of trade, people in Asia won't want you to practise your dodgy local language skills on them: they want to practise their YouTube versions of English on you.”

So you are saying our “Business People” only speak dodgy foreign languages? I am sure they would be delighted to hear this.  Perhaps that is why a White Paper has been published so that we can educate our future “Business People” so that they can learn better than dodgy language skills.

Also explain why is it ok for an Asian business person to practice their English (apparently they only use YouTube to learn English) on our Business people? Yet we can not practice our foreign language skills with them.

“But Chinese and Japanese both use different alphabets and very subtle juxtaposition of symbols to create nuances in their written languages.”

1. Chinese and Japanese both have a non-alphabetic scripts
2. Chinese word order is quite strict (there is less flexibility with word order compared to English).
3. Nuances in written language is not peculiar to Chinese and Japanese.  All languages have this.

“This subtlety also extends to the tonal nature of their pronunciation and vocabulary, where it's much easier to make mistakes than in the European languages.”

• Japanese is not a tonal language.
• Hindi is not a tonal language.
• Indonesian is not a tonal language.
• Yes Chinese is a tonal language.

So three out of four of the languages in the White Paper are not tonal languages.

“That is why high school students drop out of Asian languages - if offered - at a high rate. They're just too hard. ”

Too hard for you perhaps!
However, in my humble opinion the drop out rate has more to do with how the language is delivered or presented to out Ozzie students.  “If you build it they will come”, give our students an attractive, exciting and rich learning experiences in the language classroom and they succeed in language learning.

So now that I have dispelled all the farcical nonsense from this (in my humble opinion) very poorly written article. Which is full of broad language learning  generalisations and lacking in factual details.
Lost in translation - why Gillard's plan won't work
It would be nice if there was not such bias against a new idea (learn an Asian language in school) and that at least we could try it. Better than clinging to (and publishing) old out-dated myths about language learning.

I now have a crusade to go and find more of these badly written and false pieces of writing about LOTE and set the Ozzie world right.

Australia in the Asian Century White Paper

Australia in the Asian Century White Paper was released on 28 October 2012.  Lots of media coverage. debate and discussion has and is happening now.  It is our road map for success. A road map for a journey to 2025.

So what does it mean for Ozzies?  I am glad you asked. Some of the highlights of what is supposed to happen or is going to happen are many. There is a series of ambitious goals. 25 goals or plans to be exact. Divided into five key areas: the economy, education and skills, commerce, regional security and culture. Too many to go into details here.  The full paper can be read here Australia in the Asian Century White Paper
However here is what is supposed to happen in regards to Education and in particular Languages Other Than English (LOTE) learning by young Ozzies.

• Asian studies will become a core part of the Oz curriculum
• All Ozzie students will have access to one of the priority languages; Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese or Chinese Mandarin.

Quotes at the launch from our Prime Minister include;
"Above all, success for an open Australia in a middle-class Asia starts in the classrooms, training centres and lecture theatres of our nation. Where we open minds, not just markets, to our region."
“Children in kindergarten now will graduate from high school with a sound working knowledge of Asia”
"All students will have access to at least one priority Asian language: Mandarin, Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese. These strategies will be part of our national plan for school improvement,"
Want to know more?  Of course you do.  Details available here;
Slide Show
Fact sheets
Media releases
Issues Paper from December 2011

What next?

The Winds of Change....?

So are we (i.e. Language Learners, Language Teachers and anyone in the Language Learning business) about to see change? So are we entering a period of "Boom Funding" for languages?. There is some quite interesting (well at least for me) comments in the media about our current state of language learning in Oz.  Our polititions and academics have a lot to say about current and future language learning. Lots of 'Killer Facts' follow.

April 2012

Queensland Labor backbencher Kevin Rudd Australia is failing to do enough to become China-literate and Asia-literate in the 21st century.

• Decline in the teaching of the four principal languages of Asia: Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian and Korean.
• A reduction from 569 schools teaching Chinese to 380 or so;
  • In Chinese, while the number of schools teaching Chinese has gone down, there has nonetheless been a modest increase in the number of students studying Chinese from 78,765 to 92,931.
• From 2276 schools teaching Japanese in 2000, down to 1921 in 2008;
  • In Japanese, the number of students has gone down from 419,488 to 351,579;
• In the case of Indonesian language 1795 schools to 1077 schools; and
  • In Indonesian, the number of students has gone down from 265,366 to 191,316;
• In Korean, the number of students has actually gone down from 3672 to 3190; and
  • In the teaching of Korean, we have actually gone up (but don’t hold your breath) from 42 schools in 2000 to 46 schools in 2008.

Learn a language they said...It will be fun they said...

Incidentally Study of Mandarin in British schools floundering

"The study of Mandarin in British schools appears to be floundering. The number of pupils taking the subject at A-level has gone up by only 88 in the course of the year. Heads and language experts said that many of the 3,425 candidates now sitting the subject were likely to be native speakers who happen to live in the UK."

May 2012
Mr Abbott (Leader of the opposition) started the ball rolling with Preschoolers to learn second language under Tony Abbott and the Coalition

• Plan for every preschool child to learn a foreign language
• 40 per cent of Year 12 students to study second language

Potential Language Learners of the future (well Tony Abbots future dream)

August 2012
Education Minister Peter Garrett  Parents blamed for Asian study fall and Decline in Asian language studies parents

• $60 million + spent on language learning (from current government) and there is a decline in language learning
• No driving culture of parents wanting their children to learn Asian languages

August 2012
 Dr John Hajek, of the Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities Pollies to blame for language lapse, not parents

• Boom and Bust funding over the past 10 years for language programs is to blame for the lack of serious language learning in Oz
• "The amount of funding made available for NALSSP was very small, considering the target school population and time frame: $15m per year, well below one dollar an Australian per annum.''
• "Parents are aware that the 30-50 minutes a week that are provided in many schools are not sufficient for proper language learning."
• "If federal and state governments wish to effect real long term change in favour of Asian and other languages, then the funding investment from all parties needs to be much greater and over a longer time frame...''

The declines cited by all sides in the debate come from Asia Education Foundation reports

To return to my orriginal questions. So are we about to see change? So are we entering a period of "Boom Funding" for languages?. You bet we are!  

Despite all the political retoric in the media, we are still at possibly the lowest point for language learning in OZ. Can this debate be the catalyst for change?

So when will we see change?  

When will the debate end?  

When will the reports (interesting though they are) stop being written?

When will see see funding back in schools for LOTE?  

Will LOTE be taken seriously by all parties in our education systems?

LOTE in Australia many are called but few are chosen

To be continued...

What an interesting twist....usually teachers are blamed...

Australian Education Minister Peter Garrett had this to say about Asian Languages during an television interview;
"...we don't have a driving culture in this country .....which is saying from a parental point of view we want our kids to be in these schools learning these Asian languages."
What an interesting twist....usually teachers are blamed...
Highlights of the newspaper article include;

• Rates of Asian Language study is in a "state of freefall and collapse".
• The government spent $60 million to boost the uptake of Asian Languages

However, there has been a decline
This old chestnut was mentioned again....

• 5.8 % of year 12 students accross Australia are studying Asian Languages
• Only 300 of these are of a non-Chinese background
• Even fewer study Bahasa Indonesian

......and the solution is (drum role here).........our Ozzie Government has convened a working group of business and academic leaders to examin the issue...

They will consider making Chinese Mandarin part of the Australian National Curriculum (this means it would have an compulsory aspect)...this could be very unpopular with the following groups;

• Parents
• Principals
• non-LOTE teachers
• Students

However, apart from these players we should be fine.

Yep that will work.
So no suprises there.
Parents blamed for Asian study fall

Cross Post...though I am not cross

This is a modified repost of a comment I made on  the  Sapore de cina blog post about Remembering Simplified Hanzi and hanzi learning methods.  It is now more of an update on my way of learning hanzi. 

I use SRS for learning I tried Anki and didn’t like it. I now use Skritter and much prefer it. I like the tracking that it offers, the reminders, the interface, ease of use, user created mnemonics, gamification  and other features of Skritter.  I do use the iPad app for too. 

When I first start learning a set of characters or vocabulary I use Quizlet.  This online learning program keeps getting better and better with updates. I subscribe to this site. However, most of the site feels altruistic as much of it is free. It is also easy to set up cards and use them. Very portable too. 

As I am enrolled in a Uni. course we learn about one lesson of New Practical Chinese Reader: Textbook Vol.3 every two weeks. So this keeps me moving and I still try to only learn what I am going to use. Though this does not always work and I occasionally have to go back learn something that I would not use outside of the text or course work.  Still I am finding NPCR 3 more interesting than NPCR 2. 

I also print character sheets for the rare occasions I don’t have a computer or iPad to do study online. I have not hand written sheets recently as I find Skritter is enough.  I hope those stats that I get feedback are accurate and not just massaging my ego. 

I do have a large collection of Chinese course texts, Chinese Grammar books and Hanzi books. I prefer ebooks now. Because of the portability. Easy to look up things too. I am always on the lookout for new eBooks about Chinese language, grammar and learning if anyone has any recommendation I would like to hear them. 

he  comments and explanation of  Remembering Simplified Hanzi on the Sapore de cina blog reminded me of another text book for learning hanzi. There is a book from called  Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters. It has a method of mnemonics that differs to any other text that I have read. I quite like this method but do not use the text often. While I do like the book I don't have much time to work from another book outside of my Uni's set texts.  

These hanzi books will not suit everyone. There are a few negative posts around the Net on both of these books as the methods are not very 'pure' both rely on author made up mnemonics.  These mnemonics differ very much from traditional methods of hanzi learning. Yet both books have some merit and would suit some learners. I think it best to keep an open mind about learning Chinese methodology.  I do not think that one method is necessarily better than others. Horses for courses.  What do you think?

The three books in this post.

8 Useful Phrases for American Retailers

This is very clever.  I found it originally posted on Magnus and Mingxin's board on Pinterest.


It is the creation of Dim Sum Warriors who write a bilingual app. The aim of the app is to help English and Mandarin learners in a way that is innovative, effective and fun. Looks like an excellent idea. 

Read a Comic, Learn a Language

See they are doing it all wrong they are only rote learning...

Another media report comparing East Asian education to our Australian education system. Killer report is from Dr Ben Jensen, School Education Program Director of the Grattan Institute.

There are  killer facts from this article (some of which we have seen somewhere before);

• Money is poured into Oz education

However it is certainly not encouraging or increasing the number of our students learning an Asian LOTE. Asian LOTE study is at an all time low in Australian schools. 

• Rhetoric between policy and reality of what is going on in the classroom does not match. Lot of talk and little implementation.

There was 44% increase in spending on education in Oz schools between 2000 and 2008. Yet we are falling behind. This is most embarrassing. 

• In East Asia teacher status is high.  Perception is that they are doing an important job preparing youth for for the future. As they are respected these teachers are given time and resources to prepare awesome lessons to teach their students. 

Australian teachers on the other hand...

 "In modern Australia it is a different story. Teachers are certainly not given this status; indeed mention the word status and Australians immediately equate this with salary and perks. Too often our schools are treated like repair shops as the community dumps more and more of its social problems on them. Nor are teachers the proper focus of government rhetoric in the so-called education revolution."

More here; When it comes to status, the teachers get less than top marks

There is a perception that when we compare our Oz Education system to East Asian education systems that it is like comparing apples to oranges.  Learning by rote: why Australia should not follow the Asian model of education

Here comes a very oversimplified generalisation which many in the Ed. business and Oz media like to believe.  East Asian studentS only learn by rote, whereas our Ozzie kids are learning problem solving abilities and higher order thinking skills.  Taking this one step further Oz Education is doing it right....whereas those East Asian systems are doing it wrong. After all those killer facts and figures are based on a European tests and league tables.    We can dismiss the fact that a 15 year old student in Shanghai, China is performing at a level two or three times above an Australian student of the same age. Apparently we in Oz can dismiss that three out of the top four education systems are in East Asia.Sigh.....

See they are doing it all wrong they are only rote learning...

East Asian students years ahead of Australian counterparts: report 

Audio here

Less Europeans....More Chinese

Meanwhile in Oz...


Australian tourism told 'Gear up' for Chinese tourism. What does this 'gear up' mean? Doesn't really say how to 'gear up'. 


Does it mean start preparing congee for breakfast for Chinese guests in hotels?

Does it mean train your staff in Chinese etiquette?  

Does it mean learn Mandarin?  Which is placed in a place of prominence... at the bottom of the article. 


More Chinese, fewer Europeans visit Australia

Are Australians too slow to understand others?

Quite a mixed bag of language related stories this week. All saying much the same thing. It seems that government is good at producing reports about learning languages and the media is good at reporting the same information in a slightly different way. 

"The pledge from Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in his Budget reply speech last month to lift the study of foreign languages dramatically, particularly Asian languages.

He said exposure to foreign languages should begin at preschool. And he committed to having at least 40 per cent of Australian Year 12 students taking a language other than English within a decade if he wins government."

Only 12% of Australian students study a language.  Australia Education is one of the worst in the world at teaching schoolchildren second languages. We are far worse than European or Asian countries.


There is a popular argument that our students must learn to speak and write English first before starting a foreign language. Research has found that second language learning can enhance skills in their first language.


Language teaching requires specialist teachers.  To achieve Mr Abbot's universities need to train a new generation of language teachers. Australia is not isolated from the rest of the world, we need to do more than talk about language learning.


Australians too slow to understand others

Right now Australia has approximately 6700 language teachers in secondary schools. A recent survey was intended to show if there were language teacher shortages. Questions have been asked in parliament about the current supply of language teachers, the past supply of language teachers and Tony Abbott's promise of language teaching in the future. 

Dilemmas of language teacher supply

Under a Coalition Government the following would happen;

"If elected, the Coalition says it would work "urgently'' with the states to make sure at least 40 per cent of Year 12 students take a language within a decade. The proportion doing so now is about 12 per cent; about 6 per cent study one of the four Asian languages."

 Our current Federal Government has recently done the following;

"Last week school education minister Peter Garrett announced funding of $870,000 for the Asia Education Foundation to help put into practice Asian literacy elements of the national curriculum."

Bernard Lane explains why Australia's tertiary institutes are falling behind with their foreign language policies.  Australia's Language Problem Video 

Highlights include;

• 60 or more reports of past years about language learning in Australian education.
• Policies keep chopping and changing
• Australian students do poorly in learning languages
• 12% Year 12 students are currently learning a language other than English
• Only 6% are currently learning an Asian priority language, Chinese Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and Indonesian
• Only 3% of year 12 students are learning Chinese Mandarin
• Of that 90% of those learning Chinese Mandarin are of a Chinese heritage background
• Mandarin hardly exists as a mainstream language in Australian education
• Mixed messages are being received by parents and students
• It is important to learn a language, however in schools language learning is not taken seriously.  This is confusing everyone.
• Language teachers are often running part-time language programs across different schools
• Streaming is a problem
• Students learning Chinese are often discouraged by competing with Chinese heritage speakers
• A profound cultural change is necessary to improve current language teaching

When will serious teaching of Asian languages in Australian schools happen?

Chinese Superman Awesome Hanzi Explanations

Chinese Superman, HorseDraonFish, Chinese Memes...

When I found this I thought it was great...I wish I could make such excellent explanations and present them like this.

InfoGraphics explaining hanzi and sentences in Chinese and English, amusing memes, hanzi explanations....a very different approach to explaining Chinese Characters.

Examples;

Getting a Haircut in Chinese

An introduction to the Sun

Chinese Superman, HorseDraonFish, Chinese Memes...

Classical Chinese Story in which each syllable is pronounced "shi"

A story in which each syllable is pronounced "shi"

施氏食狮史

石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。

氏时时适市视狮。

十时，适十狮适市。

是时，适施氏适市。

氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。

氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。

石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。

石室拭，氏始试食是十狮。

食时，始识是十狮，实十石狮尸。

试释是事。

« Shī Shì shí shī shǐ »

Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.

Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.

Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.

Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.

Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.

Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.

Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.

Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.

Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī, shí shí shí shī shī.

Shì shì shì shì.

« Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den »

In a stone den was a poet Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten.

He often went to the market to look for lions.

At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.

At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market.

He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die.

He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den.

The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it.

After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions.

When he ate, he realized that these ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.

Try to explain this matter.

Listen to the story

How can Australian Education compete with top performing Asian Education systems?

Is Australian education catering to the needs of what will be an Asian led century? 

The link to the report below, from the Grattan Institute, states some facts about Asian education and Australian education.

Four of the top five educations systems are Hong Kong, Shanghai, South Korea and Singapore.  Learning from these successful systems of our near neighbours and using them in Australian classrooms may improve our students lives. 

Catching up: learning from the best school systems in East Asia

Download a Copy of the Summary Report

Download a Copy of the Full Report

Download a Copy of the Media Release

The above report was received well when it was released in February this year. 

However, Nicola Yelland  Professor of Education at Victoria University has a counter argument for the above proposal.  The focus of learning in the East Asian education system is all about performing well in tests. Assumptions have been made that being the "best at testing" is something Australian education should not embrace. This states what we should not do. Yet there is nothing here about what we should do. 

Learning by rote: why Australia should not follow the Asian model of education


So do Australian children need to be able to compete with their Asian peers?  


Is Australian education catering to the needs of what will be an Asian led century?  


Are current Australian education systems encouraging students to connect, learn about and engage with Asia?


How can Australian Education compete with top performing Asian Education systems?