Australia being left behind on Asian languages
Updated
A leading expert on international relations says Australia risks being left behind, unless it acts on improving the bilingual skills of its young.
Professor Michael Wesley of the Asia Institute at Griffith University says Australians risk being stuck in dated jobs and industries of the 20th century, unless it embarks on a multi-billion dollar Asian language literacy plan, within a generation.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Professor Michael Wesley, Asia Institute at Griffith University and incoming Executive Director of The Lowy Institute
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WESLEY: Well there are three reasons really; the first one is that the world after the economic crisis, the world economy will be much more a knowledge economy than it was before the crisis. One of the things we see is that the sectors of the economy that have continued to grow and be vibrant during the crisis are actually the knowledge-intensive sectors of the economy, and they are the sectors that will drive economies out of recession into the future. The second thing that will happen is that the global economy will increasingly be an Asia-centred global economy. We've already seen again that the Asian region remains the most dynamic region in the midst of this crisis, and again will be one of the key drivers of the world economy out of recession. And finally, what we see is that countries that we like to compare ourselves to, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, have actually the drop on us. They've actually been investing in foreign language education to a much greater extent than we have for some years now. So we could end up within a generation, in the position where Europeans and Americans are much better at engaging with the dynamic region to our north than we are, which would be a really frightening prospect I think.
LAM: And Michael Wesley, as you pointed out it will be the Asian century, so Mandarin and Japanese I take it, will be the recommended Asian languages but also Indonesian you say?
WESLEY: Yes they are what we call the "initial target languages," they are the languages of our two largest trading partners and our closest Asian neighbour. So they are the necessary first languages, but the report also recommends than in successive phases of the programme, that the number of Asian languages taught should be expanded to include for example, Korean, Vietnamese, Khmer, Hindi, Bengali and so on and so forth.
LAM: And is it true that it's not just enough for the so-called elite, for under-graduates for uni graduates to pick up a second language, that it's also very useful for the ordinary workers or the future workers of Australia to pick up a second language as well?
WESLEY: Absolutely, I mean what we are finding and have been finding for the past 20 years is that the nature of Australia's commercial engagement with the Asian region is changing. A generation ago it used to be large resource companies and a few other large companies that did all of the commercial engagement with the Asian region. Now they are vastly outnumbered by smaller firms in the service industries, in the knowledge industries, and they need workers who can negotiate and understand the cultures of the countries with which we're doing business.
LAM: So there are cultural and social benefits as well in picking up a second foreign language?
WESLEY: Oh, there sure are. One of the biggest benefits is the realisation to a language learner, that the way that he or she sees the world is very determined by the specifics of the language that they speak. And so one of the big misperceptions of English speakers, mono-lingual English speakers is that the rest of the world sees the world as they do. And that's just not the case. Speakers of different languages see the world in very different ways.
LAM: And Professor Wesley, you're about to take up the position of Executive Director of the Lowy Institute, one of Australia's premier foreign policy think-tanks. Just briefly, what do you think is the major foreign policy concern facing the region?
WESLEY: Well I think the big issue over the next generation or so will be the rise of China and China's increasing economic and strategic weight in the region, how that affects the other countries of the region, how that affects the other great powers of the region such as Japan, the United States, India, and ultimately how it affects the region that Australia finds itself in. So I think understanding China's rise is the big foreign policy challenge of our generation.
