The Rudd Government has decided to test a bilingual schools programme. One would think teaching children the languages of our closest neighbours might not be a controversial idea, but those people have not reckoned on the almighty power of the Daily Telegraph commenters, whose comments on the matter have been numerous and vivid:
I’ll let the last word go to “Zigy”:
#1 by Mr Pastry on 5 November 2009 - 8:27 am
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Rudd is behaving as Mark Latham did. Rudd can speak a second language and as it has made him absolutely marvellous, everyone should be, as marvellous as he. Latham did the same espousing that Reading had made him marvellous and he was going to make sure all children could be as marvellous. I can’t wait till we will get our first porn star prime minister.
#2 by Carla on 5 November 2009 - 9:15 am
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ahhh Tim of Wollongong.. you’re a keeper
#3 by zombiemao on 5 November 2009 - 12:14 pm
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speak the NATIVE language ? Well the native language of the South West is Nyoongar, well Nyoongar dialects anyway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noongar
#4 by Andy B on 6 November 2009 - 12:45 am
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I actually kinda agree with those comments posted. If they are going to focus so much on teaching kids a second language, equal (if not more) effort should be going to English skills.
Call me crazy, but I suspect that learning English is as much as important as learning things like Maths, Science, Computers and whatever other subjects there are in schools these days. Focus on those first, THEN worry about a second language.
#5 by Scott Bridges on 6 November 2009 - 7:27 am
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Learning a non-English language actually assists with English learning. I think it’s crucial for all school children to learn a foreign language, and doing so won’t detract from English learning.
#6 by Mr Pastry on 6 November 2009 - 11:39 am
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Best way to get second languages into a family is marry someone who’s first language is not English – the kids become fluent as they can speak the tongue at home and in everyday situations, rather than the ridiculous “the cat is by the umbrella” technique. Apologies to those who quite like their English speaking spouse, but I think they will understand the reason for divorce is noble.
#7 by Andy B on 6 November 2009 - 3:28 pm
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How would learning a second language actually assist? For students with learning difficulties it would probably be more confusing.
#8 by stace on 6 November 2009 - 3:49 pm
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How would learning a second language actually assist? For students with learning difficulties it would probably be more confusing.
And those Swiss who have to learn French, English and German are dumb as dipsticks.
I learnt two languages, other than English, at school and (apart from making me really up myself) it hasn’t hindered my English at all. The earlier you learn a language, the easier it is to learn other languages later.
There’s something in learning the different syntax of another language that seems to aid in general learning. It actually opens up neural pathways that would otherwise remain closed.
#9 by Scott Bridges on 6 November 2009 - 4:35 pm
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Because we pick up our native language(s) almost by osmosis through listening to others talk, and (hopefully) learn the grammar and technical stuff later in a written form, learning a non-native language from scratch once we’re fluent in our native language(s) forces us to better understand the way our native language(s) are structured. A lot of people “just get” the sentence structure and other technical features of their native languages “because it sounds right” with little or no understanding of the rules that govern those features. It’s very, very hard to learn a new language without explicitly learning those rules.
Plus, what Stace said.
#10 by NR 44 on 22 June 2010 - 9:48 pm
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I think it’s a great idea. There are a lot of advantages to learning more than one language. I live in the Netherlands and my Aussies kids to a local (Dutch) school.
I suspect the biggest barrier to kids in Australia learning a second language (other than heritage languages) will be the attitude of many parents. Kids won’t learn a language unless they consider it useful (and unless they are regularly exposed to it). It is therefore important that the government will need to win over Andy B’s etc of the world (well, actually just the Andy B’s of Australia).