Here’s a list of the press releases put out in relation to THE ASIAN CENTURY – drum roll in background – REPORT.
AUSTRALIA IN THE ASIAN CENTURY MEDIA RELEASES
1. Australia in the Asian Century White Paper: Australia’s roadmap for navigating the Asian century
2. The Asian Century – an Australian opportunity
3. Lifting prosperity in the Asian century
4. Boosting innovation in the Asian century
5. Australia’s infrastructure in the Asian century
6. NBN to facilitate closer ties with Asia
7. Deregulation to drive Australia towards Asian century success
8. Small business to profit in the Asian century
9. A resilient and sustainable Australia in the Asian century
10. White Paper sets course for Asia studies
11. Australian universities to be world’s best in the Asian century
12. Public sector leadership in the Asian century
13. Attracting skilled migrants, tourists and students to Australia in the Asian century
14. Regional Australia to drive stronger links with Asia
15. Asian century grants scheme to fund business development
16. Australia to pursue free trade area of the Asia Pacific
17. Australia to devote more trade and investment resources to Asia
18. Agriculture key to Australia’s role in the Asian century
19. Defence and security in the Asian century
20. Building relationships with our regional partners
21. Cultural diplomacy a vital underpinning for Asian century
You have to laugh. It’s a bit like ringing the school bell and calling in all the children and telling each of them – Jane, Peter, Bill, Sarah … – that they are all connected to the ASIAN CENTURY in their different ways.
And for those with real experience – actually helping their children through school and university – there are no gains from children undertaking languages, certainly Asian ones. My girls did a bit of Indonesian, but so what.
Once you have figured out the marking and weighting system, you would have to be mug to do Mandarin or Japanese unless you happen to be a child who speaks Mandarin or Japanese at home And then there’s the quality of teaching.
When I was first at Flinders, Indonesian language was quite big but as the popularity waned, so did the resources for its teaching fall off. I am pretty sure it was dropped altogether. We have actually gone backwards on this stuff.
It’s as if the Kruddster never left.
This is as vacuous as any of his many pronouncements which amounted to nothing.
I did three years of Indonesian at high school and I can count to five. I have earned my living as a Japanese interpreter for the past 20 years and I taught myself.
Governments understand language acquisition like neanderthals understood volcanos.
McTernan is slipping – he missed a couple:
I blame Tony Abbott’s relentless negativity.
Vacuous BS.
We saw how Gillard & Labor insulted SBY by dropping press releases when his admin was talking to Abbott, Bishop & Morrison.
Diplomatic blunders like that count more than white pagers spun for short term domestic politics.
____________________________
If you want to get your children to learn Mandarin/Indonesian. Get them a nanny from that part of the world to teach them when they are infants and follow up with tutors.
There is a legion of female back-packers coming in from SE asia to do fruitpicking & other work who are very happy to nanny rather than work in orchards.
It is more effective and does not cost much more than standard child care.
Leaving learning a language to high school is way too late. One of the local primary schools here starts teaching mandarin in year 1. Its only about an hour a week, but they also have quite a bit of bilingual signage around as well as integrate lessons about Chinese culture and history into the rest of the curriculum.
I learnt French at high school which I have only very rarely used, never for work related purposes. In retrospect Mandarin would have been a lot more useful given the people I work with regularly now. Didn’t have any Asian history subjects at all which is hopefully different now. Was pretty much just European history back when I was at school.
Yea, they probably want to distinguish between native and non native speakers. Used to have the same problem with European languages.
Here’s a hint for Julia.
Are Japanese considering the compulsory learning of Mandarin? No.
Are Indians learning Cantonese? No.
Are Chinese learning Hindi? No.
Are Indonesians learning Japanese? No.
They are learning and operating in the world language…..exclusively.
That’s English, Julia.
(I do however believe that every public servant should be fluent in the Aboriginal dialect of his choice, or face dismissal).
Funding Asian Language irrelevancy = Pink Batts.
“Governments understand language acquisition like neanderthals understood volcanos.”
Where’s da “like” button on this thing?
The ALP camorra should be reminded that Asia has already been discovered. This vignette from The Drum:
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3805180.html
For those unfamiliar with the name Paul Keating it is alleged that he was the world’s greatest treasurer.
Hopefully minus the corpses…
Just mindless banal shite.
What’s the message – Australia should access growing markets? Jeez, what a novel idea.
What’s next? “Puppies are cute Act 2012″?
Of course in the detail they’ve fluffed it as usual, completely misunderstanding what is required to run a business (or a country for that matter).
Gillard should learn to speak English first before she dictates to anyone about language
Like Chris I learned French in high school. Mandarin, Cantonese or Japanese would have been much more useful, for picking up chicks at the very least.
Meanwhile in other news:
I have this really really strange feeling that McTiernan and Gillard are trying to distract attention from something or other. It must be my imagination. Could it be that gigantic piles of pink fluff call Asian This and Asian That might impede the electorate from noticing? How could I possibly think this, foolish naïve me?
At least The Wombat Whisperer would be under no misapprehension that his latest report would be used for anything more than window dressing and political smoke this time around.
How to destroy a professional legacy – one step at a time.
‘Smart’ people were premoting this when I was in school in the late 80s. Oh, but back then it was Japan specifically. My primary school and in the early 90s, high school, even made us learn Japanese.
In fact, it seems to be a real Labor thing. Remember Paul Keating’s thing for Asia?
Apparently one move the government is considering to promote ‘The Asian Century’ is to provide all ‘working families’ with an annual household income under $100,000 with a quarterly ‘Asian Restaurant Voucher’ that will give them a 25% discount at any Asian eating place.
Heh and when they run out of bread they should just feed their children cake!
Trouble is, becoming fluent in Mandarin, apart from being immensely difficult and beyond most school students, won’t help you in Japan, etc etc. Happily, we speak the world’s main language, and they are coming to us, so to speak.
I read somewhere that more than half of all conversations in English are between two people whose first language is something else. Japanese learn English not just to speak to Americans, but to speak to the Chinese.
Like your statements about the Murray Darling Basin, Chris you don’t know what you are talking about.
Have you seen the price of child care? If you lived in the real world you’d see that being creative and finding a win-win solution means you can offset that in a low cost way.
…but your our government troll…
I’m doing classes at adult education/community college with a number of other people that work in the corporate world.
From what I can see it is a more effective/lower cost method of learning with the teachers being ex-pats who grew up speaking Mandarin & writing in characters (unlike our secondary school teachers who learn Mandarin via the Aus school system).
It is also more effective as corporate types have a goal to reach that is tied to their employment and get to practice with colleges in branch offices in Hong Kong, China, etc.
No doubt that English is now the lingua franca in our region. However that doesn’t mean that its not often advantageous to be able to also speak or understand the local language. Even just a very basic knowledge of the grammatical structure of another language can be useful when trying to interpret the “english” that you may receive in an email.
Incidentally I think the cultural knowledge is just as important as the language. It wouldn’t hurt to have just as much emphasis on Asian history as European history in our school curriculum (maybe it has changed in the last couple of decades).
People are rational and do not see the need to squander resources to pick up a skill which they speculate may give marginal benefit.
For examples on how the Labor Pary has no cultural knowledge refer to the response of Labor to SBY meeting Abbott.
If you get the full childcare benefit and rebate you’ll pay maybe $25-$30 per day. So if you pay the Nanny minimum wage that would last maybe a couple of hours per day. Even if you’re on a very good income you’ll still get the childcare rebate and so pay maybe $60-$70/day. So perhaps equivalent to just under 4 hours per day at minimum wage rates.
As for personal tutors for school age children how cheap do you think you’ll be able to get them?
Well perhaps they should be teaching more Asian history at school?
Not where I live.
You don’t know what you are talking about.
What if you have 2 or 3 children?
Childcare costs around where I live (suburban capital city) is around $80/day. And even if like me your income is too high to get the childcare benefit the childcare rebate covers 50% of out of pocket expenses (up to $7500/child/year). So that can bring it down to around $35/day (depending on how many days per week your child is in care).
In most of the world, and particularly in technical areas, English in various manifestations, is THE common language.
It is the language of mining and petroleum exploration and has been the language of commercial aviation pretty much since the beginning.
That said, having a basic knowledge of another language is handy. Like learning music, learning languages opens up a different set of mental pathways.
Getting into the culture and history behind the language is a major bonus. Much idiomatic conversation in ANY language contains many cultural or historical references. Without these, the language is purely mechanical. Even in daily conversational English, there is a constant “sub-carrier” of references to sport, music, food and beverages, current “affairs” etc. then, on top of that, in specific areas, there is technical jargon from a multitude of fields.
Try working out what is being said during a major theatrical or film set-up or by a bunch of precision machine-tool operators and programmers. It might be in English, (or German or Vietnamese), but it might not make any sense unless you also speak that supplementary jargon.
Sure if you have 3 it may start making sense. And some well off families with that many children do have nannies. But in practice how common is it these days for families to have 3 children under school age at home at the same time? How many families are even having 3 children now?
This is true and a good point, but begs the question: with so many free market terms coined in French (laissez fare, entrepreneur, Economist etc), why are they such a bunch of statist loons who take delight in electing communists?
The idea that Australian teachers are the best primary source for education on Asia is a dangerous fallacy.
The teachers in Australian schools should focus on their area of expertise and not dabble in things they have little experience.
I learned so much more about Asians and Asian history from the Asian o/s students I attended university with than from teachers whose only experience of Asia was a trip to Bali.
PS: See my comment about adult education above. There are many great sources available that are superior to secondary teachers in the community college/adult ed environment.
It makes sense with 2 children in my area which has a high concentration of migrants from Asia. My family values education over pokies/expensive hobbies, we scrimp & save to give our children the best possible start.
Another alternative is to choose a childcare centre which communicates in both Mandarin/English (they are not uncommon if you look).
I find the idea of compulsory training of students in any other language idiotic.
There should probably be some sort of exposure to other languages in school, so that students can follow it up if they find they have a liking for it. But in my experience, some people are good at languages and others aren’t.
Education has to be more about driling the basics and developing an analytical and curious mind than trying to get batch after batch of all-rounders. Effort should be put in to finding a students natural talents and helping them develop that and help them to set their own educational goals. This is what just about every workplace focussed on career development does so I don’t see why education has to be different, particularly in the later years.
The cost of boring students to death is a general dislike of education in generally. So making disinterested students sit through years of language tuition they have no need or interest in is counterproductive.
I guess it’s just more evidence of the general grip of humanities on teaching over more technical subjects.
Along with the thousands of other poor saps who were force-fed German or French at school only later to discover its universal uselessness, we demand our time back. In my business I already deal with Indians and Singaporeans whose English language training is superior to ours. They are motivated to speak English as Suppliers and Buyers.
I think in the past we’ve often left teaching of secondary languages too late (high school). I’d rather more emphasis was put on them in primary school and I agree that especially in high school they should not be compulsory subjects.
As for some people being good at languages, and other not, well some people are good at maths and others not, but people still need good fundamental math skills. Advanced math not so much.
I think the main benefit I got from being taught French was the increased emphasis on grammar. Having a second language to contrast with English clarified quite a few of the concepts.
I’m all for more emphasis on science/maths. But I think there are other things that could be dropped first – some of the social studies subjects seem rather dodgy, and religious education could go (at least in public schools) to free up more time.
Here’s another headline, Judith:
Maths is the universal language, the thing that underpins everything we do. Math and Language (english, reading/writing/spelling/comprehension) are the two fundamental skills that education should be focused on to the exclusion of all others. I agree that advanced math is not for all, but that depends on where you draw the line on ‘veggie maths’ and ‘advanced maths’. Math skills developed earlier allow for abstract problem solving and lay the fundamentals for much more difficult topics.
I’m a big believer in social studies, if it weren’t an indoctrination program for socialism delivered via the teachers union. I can distinctly remember my primary school teachers making excuses for Labor governments. They didn’t quite try and tell us who we should vote for as adults, but they sure did drop some big hints.
Social Studies should be about functioning governments, freedom of speech, history of democracy and at least two semesters warning about the atrocities committed in the name of ‘social justice’. But that’s just me dreaming.
Foreign language skills are fundamentally not necessary for a good education, but should be available for those who want to chase it, at the parents/childs direction and expense, just like music or cricket lessons.
This great book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Forgotten-Wars-Britains-Asian-Empire/dp/0141017384
I have to read it again. Very in depth and covers a lot of ground very quickly.
From Pg 287
“In the absence of formal representation in Taiwan, the Australian Office in Taipei unofficially represents Australia’s interests”
How weak
Wouldn’t Hindi be an Indo-European language?
Here are a few choice takeouts from The Tax System fact sheet:
So, Australian engagement with Asia is contingent upon sovereign State Governments adopting Ken Henry’s tax policies?
WTF?
The knives are out for McKew at the ABC where she’s being grilled in depth, but as far as the Asian Re-election Initiative is concerned, not a hint of a searching question to anybody.
A cynic would certainly find the swag of “big picture” announcements being shot out of various media blunderbusses to be nothing more than unfunded fairy floss that they’ll point to later and ask where the coalition’s big ideas are.
I’m hindifferent to Hindi,
Mandarin gives me the pips,
I find Indonesian windy,
Japanese no good for quips.
Craft a Korean career path,
Dialogue in Tagalog right here,
But they’re all busy learning English
With good reason and good cheer.
That’s a fairly unique view to Australia/NZ and parts of the US. Being reasonably proficient in one or more languages other than the native language is pretty common in other countries, especially developed ones. Incidentally I think some music knowledge/proficiency is an important part of the school curriculum.
In Canada you learn French as part of Canada speaks French. Simply. Clear. Tangible.
In the southern border states of the US you learn Spanish due to the large internal hispanic communities and proximity to latin America. Simply. Clear. Tangible.
In Europe people will learn one of a number of languages but generally German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian as these are the languages of business and government (EU). Simply. Clear. Tangible.
What should Australians focus on? Which should we focus on?
As we do not have a direct border and our immigrant community changes over time there is no obvious candidate.
It’s none of the Government’s business what language our kids speak. They should stick to what they’re good at, sewage and taking the rubbish away.
>That’s a fairly unique view to Australia/NZ and parts of the US.
Nothing wrong with that at all.
Write this out 100 times after class:
Australia does not have to be like other countries
Australia does not have to be like other countries
Australia does not have to be like other countries
Australia does not have to be like other countries
etc…
I met an Indian Scot today. He was virtually unintelligible either in his handwriting or in his speech.
I don’t think forcing school kids to learn an Asian language will result in much other than further degradation in English language skills.
The fact is that Indian and Chinese students come here to study in order to gain citizenship, so they provide a large enough reservoir of Asian language skills for all but sensitive foreign affairs and security needs.
Most scots nowadays are utterly incomprehensible.
Have you ever listened to this genius after a match? Ands that before he’s hit the sauce…
Interesting how it’s The Asian Century; after all it’s not yet even twenty per cent done with.
People started talking about the Asian Century in the late 1960s so its already half over.
Too true.
Not only that, they also have established networks within their home country so if they choose to undertake commerce with the country/region they were born into they have strong networks and understanding of the subtle cultural norms.
Learning a second or third language is intelectually beneficial, even if you never actually practice another language. The discipline exercises the mind, and the different perspective allows a kind of triangulation which clarifies and helps analyse concepts. But unless you are running a government funded translation service, its not a meal ticket.
As we know, East Asians with a Confucian background tend to be highly intelligent, disciplined and motivated, as do the sub continentals. They are not going to be much impressed by some anglo speaking broken Mandarin or Hindi. Neither will they be much impressed by hackneyed white papers from Canberra.
It was once said that the ALP was much better qualified to engage with Asia than the Libs, something allegedly to do with the racism and inflexibility of the conservatives. Nowadays I reckon most all SE and Asian diplomatic establishments now look upon Australia as a ship of fools, drifting aimlessly until a new Pilot can be brought aboard.
Le stylo de ma tante est dans le jardin.
So there.
Meanwhile, tend of thousands of middle-class Chinese families are buying up vast tracts of land in Australia so their kids get a Western education.
And another 500+ million Chinese are desperate to learn to speak English.
If this is the so-called “Asian Century” why are we operating under a European Union Emissions Trading Scheme?
I call bullshit.
The pen of my aunty is down in the garden?
Amen brother! Who are these Australians that don’t like themselves as they are. None that I mix with that’s for sure.
Oh, FFS, pass the sick bag – unflashable hippie turd mango maccallum flicks the switch to hyperbowl:
unflushable…
Why do you go and put your self into direct harm by reading the Dumb Rabz?
That website should be packaged in a bland olive colour with big warnings as it is a real hazard to the mental health of this country.
Pardon Monsieur, une bier, s’il vous plait.
I’ve found this is pretty much all that one needs.
Unflashable too!
Tokes, some people watch QandA, some listen to radio national, I wade through the dumb…
All part of the heroic sacrifices made here by various cats…
Oui, Jannie.
Those who have been around since the early days at Blair’s will recall that the Blogstrop forebears were from Finland, but French used to be a fashionable language to learn at school, and the many places one might find the pen of the aunt is a standard schoolie joke from way back.
You are a better man than I am Rabz.
As has been said before, Mungo Man has been drinking the bong water again.
“As we do not have a direct border and our immigrant community changes over time there is no obvious candidate.”
New Zullandush, or “Sheepish”, obviously…
“Oh, FFS, pass the sick bag – unflashable hippie turd mango maccallum flicks the switch to hyperbowl:”
Whatever happened to hyperbole? So you can’t pronounce it right, so you misspell just to be consistent? Sorry, off with the grammar nazi hat and back to the tinfoil one…
Sorry, tinfoil hat off for a mo…
Hyperbowl, is that like a super-Super Bowl?
It’s how our beloved PM pronounces the word hyperbole.
Are you talking about the real meaning or the Macquarie Dictionary meaning?
Our esteemed and extremely learned (that is not lear-ned) former Education Minister and now PM used the statement hyperbowl in response to a question from Chris Uhlman.
blogstrop thats something I never knew. I have made good pocket money translating Midi Olympique rugby articles for English publication, but never heard that. But then I never did French at school, only Latin and German.
Re Hyperbowl, if its possible to change the definition of a word on the basis of political strategy, why not change the pronunciation and even the spelling?
This guy Henry was Head Of Treasury? For Gods Sake !! Talk about the Patients running the “Mental Services Facility” ? sHEEIt!
is more of a comment on Australia’s university entrance system (atar) than the benefits of studying a second language. By way of comparison , the International Baccalaureate (IB), which is gaining popularity in Oz, requires a second language.
Let them all learn English- its the language of international trade. Much easier to force Chinese kids to learn English- under Communism, you can force anyone to do anything. In a democracy, we have freedom of choice- but then what would the leftoids of Labor know about freedom?
And, when was the last time you heard a labor leader utter the words”By (insert date) no Australian child will……”.
Didn’t believe Hawke, don’t believe Gillard- they’re all out of the same bulltishing mould.
the International Baccalaureate (IB), which is gaining popularity in Oz, requires a second language. It does? Where is that stated?
The International Baccalaureate would appear to be a product of the International Faculty of Inconsequential Studies. SteveC is an example of the calibre and proclivities of their alumni.
Sigh, our Ken is a trick….
A Keynesian dipstick with deep connections to the socialist establishment who is offering his lusts/desires for Australia’s cultural future.
Ken hopes Asian language > cultural compulsions will diminish ideologically incorrect Western cultural values.
Go for it boy, there’s always a collective somewhere.
Doesn’t crap on about the “Asian century” however.
Curious –what foreign language does the PM speak? Is she fluent in her native Gaelic?
says jupes at 9am.
In Comrade Dear Leader (in exile)’s first few weeks he insulted Japan, later China and then the lot of ‘em with his absolutely frabjulous idea that he would lead a new Asian forum, to give the little brown buggers much needed direction as they emerged from their primitive ignorance.
Comrade Bogan Broadasks followed on by waddling around Malaysia and Indonesia pleading to be rescued from her illegal Centrelink seekers. She took a suitcase jammed full of beads and mirrors for their kings or emperors or whatever they are. She also carted her live in boyfriend with her, which went over real big with them.
Her crowning achievement was picking up the phone to Dili to demand they rescue her. President José Ramos-Horta answered, she asked “Are you the Top Man?”, and directed that he sign the East Timor Solution Agreement coming through on his fax machine. She was certain the joint was an Australian colony just like New Guinea.
A day or two later Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão smiled his marvelously cheeky smile for an ABC reporter and said “What agreement?”
It’s difficult to craft a more noticeable example of international maturity than her stunt in Parliament just before visiting the Indians a week or so ago – why wouldn’t they spend their time looking at their watch to see how long before the screeching witch with daddy issues flies out of Bombay?
Now she has discovered the lost city of Atlantis and, all statesmanlike and ever so clever, declares we’ll make a fortune flogging stuff to the poor silly buggers with policies like:
They just took delivery of Cubbie Station for Cripes sake!
I am a bilingual illiterate…..I can’t read in two languages.
If Gillard believes so much in an Asian century, why didn’t she appoint Wong as foreign minister?
Gab:
http://www.ibo.org/diploma/curriculum/
I did karate and can count to ten in Japanese
I can order beer in Japanese, Mandarin and Thai.
I wonder what happened to that young “lady” who was so advanced in her embrace of Asia that she stole beer mats in Balinese? … and abused their coppers in western suburbs Melbourne boganese?
Presumably a deal was quietly done by the sloths in Immigration, to white out her expulsion from Bali, so she could cart her brats off to Disneyland to help them cope with their mother.
Everything I know about Japan I learned from this young woman…
My comment to you Rabz about that young lady is …
No, wait. I’ll be back in a minute to complete that. I just need to review the video again to reaffirm my position.
No hurry, Mick – there are more instructional videos where that one came from!
You are young, mate.
As Gab (and my dear daughter in law) is wont to remind me – I am old, probably past it and fast approaching no-longer-important-to-the economic-good (and therefore deserving of Rule .303 says daughter in law). Do please bear in mind the high cost of Pacemaker maintenance.
Nice tits, eh?
Am clueless as to what you mean @ 11.20am, Mick. I’ll just pout it down to the mutterings of an oldie
JWOW – has huge eyes. She’s very pretty.
Oh I love ya Gab because you are smart like my girls, and near as deadly!
I always enjoy reading your comments, Mick, love them really – but if you ever tell anyone I said that I will deny it vigorously.
Gab: Read a mention of “beer mat mum, Annice Smoel” in Alexander Downer’s piece on “Idiot Aussies” overseas at http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/idiot-aussies-grow-up-and-take-responsibility/story-e6freacl-1225715581105
She pinched a beer mat in Bali, was sprung, abused the cops, got banged up for a while awaiting trial and cried ” ‘cos she’s a mum and misses her daughters”. She left them at home while she went away for a while with her girlfriends to get pithed and play “ugly Aussie” in Kuta (where they surely are, believe me!).
When they let her go she noticed the guilty endorsement on her passport rendered her persona non grata for a holiday to the USA, so she cried again ” ‘cos she’s a mum” and her brats had been cruelly denied their birthright visit to Disneyland.