Finally someone in the public sphere has said something both sensible
and important in regards to language in this country. In today's Australian, Judith Wheeldon has written an article the on cultural and economic importance of developing a language education policy in this country. According to latest statistics (umm..Wikipedia), there are around 180 languages spoken in Melbourne, yet the majority of this country's inhabitants (read: Anglo-Celts) are monolingual. Surprising as it may seem to monolinguals, this is not the world norm. I recall chatting to a young man, in English, on a bus in Morocco several years ago. Being Morocco, he would have been fluent in both Arabic and French, and possibly Spanish as well. His English was perfect and on his lap was a book written in German. Whilst German might have been an exceptional language for a Moroccan to learn, being fluent in at least three of the other four languages would be the standard. Throughout Africa, the sub-continent and Europe being fluent in multiple languages is common practice.
There's a prevalence within the Anglosphere that the world must come to us. English may, at present, be the dominant global language, but from an Australian perspective our reliance on it getting us by in a global environment is merely riding on the coat-tails of US economic power. This attitude is not only lazy, but deeply detrimental, as Wheeldon points out in her article:
Relying on others to speak to us in our language is giving them a great advantage. They then understand the cultural nuances brought to a discussion while we create the arrogant impression that the other side must do all the hard work of learning our language to communicate with us.There's an amusing little anecdote about when Anglo-Saxon invaders first came to Britain, they immediately declared that the Celtic inhabitants were wealas - foreigners. There's something about this brutal arrogance that is unsurprising given our history as an ethnic group, and one doesn't need to go back to the 4th century to find examples.
The study of language is the most decisive way to gain an understanding of a diverse range cultures. There's a common perception of the "ugly traveller": people who are so obviously out of place in a foreign environment that their behaviour is offensive. This label is most frequently attached to Americans, Australians and the English. You'll never hear of Scandinavians, the Finns or Dutch being described in this way as their education systems stress the importance of learning languages from an early age and make their study compulsory through secondary school. As a result people from these countries exhibit an ease of action within foreign environments.
One doesn't have to speak the language of the specific geographic location to feel comfortable there, however it is study of any non-native language that provides a grounding in an appreciation and respect for difference.
It is a combination of this "you-come-to-us" arrogance and diversity ignorance so common within the Anglosphere that is at the core of the "ugly traveller" characterisation. This monolingualism breeds a mono-culturalism that is in direct conflict with today's globalised world. Engagement with the wider world is not only essential, but inevitable. There is no other policy perusal other than a full and enthusiastic embracing of it. And yet at the moment Australians are so insular that they feel it necessary to form ghettos in England - a country with no language barrier and an almost identical culture - it's quite frankly pathetic (hello to all my Acton readers). This village mentality is now dangerously obsolete.
Opposition leader Kevin Rudd (a fluent Mandarin speaker) has been talking about an "education revolution" as part of his alternative government policy, yet has only revealed minor details at this stage. Let us hope that his revolution recognises the importance of a significant language policy and that he will be able to sell this to what I suspect might unfortunately be a suspicious electorate.
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