The Demand for Learning Asian Languages in Australia

There has been a sustained recent growth in the demand for foreign language learning in Australia. This development is partly caused by second-generation immigrants wanting to get or stay in touch with the language and culture of their ancestral nation.

Experts believe that, during the European settlement in the 1700s in Australia, indigenous people across the continent spoke around 250 different languages. Nowadays, some of these languages are still used and spoken, however, the truth is that they are slowly disappearing, and experts believe that these indigenous languages are in fact in danger.

Australia, or the Commonwealth of Australia, is located in the South Hemisphere; its population consists of diverse immigrants coming from different countries.  As a result, there are some immigrant languages in Australia that still remain popular and in demand with quite a large number of people. In fact, they may find it worth investing time to learn these languages.

Although Australia’s official language is English, the country’s language schools are experiencing demand for teaching foreign languages, particularly Asian languages. These Asian languages include Mandarin, Japanese, Indonesian and Indian languages. But why is it that the demand for learning Asian languages in Australia is growing?

The Australian government believes that since the world is multilingual, everybody should learn languages in order to learn about different cultures and traditions. Learning languages may help people to be more competent and knowledgeable about seeing the world from a different perspective.

Learning languages may be difficult for some people. However, the benefits of learning languages include a good opportunity to gain effective skills in communication. In addition, the Australian government believes that Australia should be a monolingual country but that they should also accept other cultures and languages, especially from Asian immigrants. Asian immigrants in Australia are rapidly growing in numbers, This is one of the reasons that Australia is giving priority treatment to these new Australians.

In fact, since Australia is a new home for some Asians and some other nationals, thus not all people who migrated to the country use English as their first language. A Korean family for example, are more comfortable in using Korean at home rather than using English as their first language. The same thing may be the case for some other of the Asian nationals who have migrated to Australia.

In Australia’s multicultural society, it is true that some of the future Australians have some Asian blood. However, they have the right as well to learn their ancestral culture and to learn languages that their parents used to speak. In that way, they can be an effective communicator on behalf of the government of Australia.

Learning languages is vitally significant and the learning process would be more effective and easier if the learner or the student begins to learn from a very young age. I truly admire that Australia is giving opportunities for students to learn other languages, and this is a good investment for the country in the near future since almost every day, every government needs linguists. And I can foresee that Australia will have ore future professional linguists than most.

Article Tags: Learning Asian Languages, Learning Asian, Asian Languages, Learning Languages

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