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Q: Should Australian school children be forced to learn Chinese from their first year at school?
The Australian government's latest push, as part of it's shift away from the US and towards China, is that all Australian school children learn a compulsory "Asian language" (meaning Chinese) from their first year at school.
This is being included as a condition if the states want increased funding for education.
Is there any benefit to an entire country learning a second language, when most business and other international institutions operate in English anyway?
10 years 45 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
give it another 20 years and you will need Arabic to communicate in Australia
Nessquick:
not only there bro, maybe will be needed everywhere around the globe. 
It's probably easier to teach everyone else Chinese than to get 1.3 billion Chinese to speak an understandable English (sorry you English teachers, I just never meet anyone in this country who speaks English well enough so I can recognize it as English)
Shining_brow:
Don't worry Scandi, we don't take it personally.
It's one thing to teach a language, it's entirely another to bother to learn it! And, for the most part, they don't bother to learn.... There's only so much you can do in a classroom for a few hours a week.
Scandinavian:
S_Brow, now you went and did it, you have hurt all of China. But yes, I do recognize that even the best teachers cannot do anything if the students are not motivated to learn or the environment is not geared for it.
Forcing someone to learn is like a woman trying to rape a man.
At a certain point it becomes pointless continuing.
Is that another idea from that Welsh woman they voted in?
Traveler:
But see, Mike, the advantage of the voting system over a dictatorship is that in September, we can vote her out if we don't like the job she's doing.
In China, Jiang Zemin just tries to assassinate leaders he doesn't agree with, because otherwise China is stuck with them for ten years.
Xi Jinping should be very worried. Or maybe Jiang should be...
mike168229:
Coming from a wonderful democracy as I do (U.K), I love the fact that we don't have to assassinate people to get a regime change. However, sometimes, a little shot to the head might have done some good. (George W anyone?).
I think that it is a good idea to learn a second language at school from childhood, it is a common practice in many countries. It would be better to offer more choices though, but I guess that it is easier to setup the infrastructure for only one language rather than offer other options. At least it is a first step
Traveler:
While it is true that the people of most countries learn a second language, that second language is normally English, or one of the other "world languages." The world languages are those that are spoken across continents - English, Spanish, French, Russian and Arabic.
The UN bowed to political pressure from China to classify Chinese as a world language, even though it is not a major language in any country outside Asia (it isn't cross-continental). The International Olympics Committee, and most other international institutions, refused to bow to China's pressure to recognise Chinese as a world language.
I'm in a couple of minds about this.
Should people learn a second (or third, or whatever) language - yes. Forcing them to from 1st grade.. hmmmm.
There has been some good research done (in ?Belgium and Canada) which shows it's effective for increasing brain power, and getting in young (and in a fully immersive environment) is great.
But, how useful will it be? And why specify an asian language?? Sure, Japanese and Chinese may be obvious, but still, so is Spanish, French and (to a much lesser extent now) German. Perhaps Italian?? I do know there are quite a few kids (usually in primary or secondary) who are learning Indonesian.
i also met a yr 9 girl who was learning Mandarin, and I found some of what she learnt to be... well, not overly natural :(
Scandinavian:
It probably doesn't matter what the second language is. The positive aspects of opening up a childs mind to the fact that the world is bigger than what is right outside the windows. As I come from a very small country my native language is pointless seen from a world perspective, still there are universities in China that teach it (I think two) but more to the fact, coming from a small language, learning English as second language is a matter of survival, learning a third language is a matter of general education and when done at high school level (with my teacher) also includes significant introduction to the culture of that language.
Australia does a lot of trade with China and hence, in wanting to make it a compulsory Asian language. Personally, I do not believe that anyone should be forced to take Chinese in Australia as this seems to be politically motivated.
The problem is that it is fast becoming a fashion statement to say that you are doing a second language rather than actually wanting to do it.
In Canada we must take French up until Grade 8. The only reason they force that upon us is because they can make a cultural argument for it as French is an official language in Canada and a good 1/3 of the nation uses it as their first language. However, FORCING kids to learn Mandarin smacks of corporate interference in the school system and for that reason should be stopped.
"We're all going to make you a good little workforce to suit our needs, bwahahaha"
BHGAL:
I studied French, in Canada (BC) for 5 years (grade 8-12) as an option ..... took it cause it was easy for me........................ nowadays, I can usually read a cereal box in French or English ........ my oral Chinese is probably on a par with my French .... can't read/write any Chinese.
I pressured my 20 y.o. son to study a second language, in high school. Asian language or Spanish........ he chose Spanish and did well in the courses..... Now he's contemplating coming to live off Dad in China for a while...... hindsight is such a wonderful view.
I believe a second language is very useful, and the basics can be learned easier when you start younger.................. NO, Australia should not adopt Chinese as a mandatory language learning experience or as an official language.
China is in the process of changing to English..... hurry up China!!!
Why would you force anyone to learn a language? They should be offered more languages to choose from but not forced.
I was against it at first, but then it might help prevent the school kids from becoming bogans in the future. 
RRoy:
but just to piss off the Chinese gov, we should force them to all learn Japanese haha
Forcing anyone to learn Chinese doesn't work - it is too difficult for that. Either someone likes and enjoys doing it or may as well just not even start.
Bo language training should be required unless it is the native language of the particular country where an immigrant is apply for residency or citizenship.
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