Yeah, the policy is for more funding, which would allow for more students to learn these languages.
I donāt think anybody has said in this debate that LOTE learning in schools is a negative - whether that be Japanese, Chinese, French whatever - or should be discontinuedā¦
Or that the learning of a familyās native language within their own household or family situation is a negative.
The issue stems back to an election promise in the millions to prioritise the learning of languages other than English ā¦ in a country where business, government, education amongst many of other thousands of things ā¦ is done in English.
Baffling.
Pragmatically, this is about defence, intelligence, and security. Itās being framed as something fuzzy and sentimental. It is not.
I read an article about it a while ago. Basically all the Australians who speak certain security-critical languages - Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, Indonesian etc - are recent immigrants from those countries. Thatās something that makes security people twitchy, having to rely for translation services, interpretation of communication intercepts etc etc on people whose loyalties might be split between Australia and the old country.
This is basically a defence policy. Build up a body of people who are Australian citizens, who were born and grew up in Australia and who are loyal to Australia, who are comfortably bilingual.
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As an aside from this current discussion, but whilst staying on topicā¦I cannot see why this needed to be announced in the lead up to the election.
No one is de prioritising English. Where are you getting that from???
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Am I missing something, or are we talking about .003% of budget spending here?
About the same percentage of my yearly wage Iād spend on a single coffee.
Donāt think itāll achieve much, but both governments waste far more money on far worse things. Bit of non-story.
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robo debt was pretty illegal
I didnāt get asked, but had a valid reason. I imagine the main reason most were there for was convenience.
There were a few there that were travelling. either already outside electorate or going to be away.
Same here.
Mum and dad specifically did not speak maltese in front of us boys.
Mum said that she didnāt want us to talk āfunnyā when were outside playing with other k8ds in the street.
In a strange way she was right for the times.
I speak maltese very well in spite of this.
My cousins in malta think i speak strangely.
Remembering in all this , the only maltese i heard was from 1949 and didnāt alter as it would have had i been born overseas.
Overall i think it is a stupid idea for the government to propose this .
Waste of money and divisive policy when we have enough problems as it is.
The labor party has to stop trying to micromanage their pet ideologies.
I will be voting labor this election as i have done all my life.
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Fair points. I just donāt see it as taking away anything, like learning English. I think our kids are better for learning other languages in a more globalised world.
Itās only divides if you choose you let it or think there are ulterior motives. I just see it as a policy to increase bilingualism.
Itās a policy that would have zero impact on my decision come election time.
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Political party announces policy before an election, the audacity.
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Such a trite response.
I cannot see the logic of announcing a policy which can further add to the divisiveness of the election when it is supposedly such a small dollar outlay.
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The fact that funding to learn a second language can be seen as ādivisiveā is a far bigger issue than the funding itself.
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Not sure this is the purpose - and Iām probably late to the party here - I thought it was just reintroducing an component of education that has been ripped out of the curriculum. Second language, third language, all part of a much healthier education that not only āmultiplies your opportunitiesā vocationally but opens up worlds of thought and understanding. The Humanities dare I say it.
I hate that in my final high school years it was taken away from me by an anti-education sentiment that was only just starting to show itself.
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When a lot of the talk about the election is on cost of living expenses, swinging voters are hardly likely to change their minds based on this policy.
The way it came into the conversation here today was based on it helping people learn their parents language.
It wasnāt framed as a reintroduction of something that had been taken away but as a niche policy that was aimed at a very small section of the community.
Maybe the way it was (is being) sold is the issue here.
Quite correct.
What a waste, do you know how many commuter carparks you can pork barrel with $25M that may or may not be built, or how many $3M blocks of land you can purchase at 10 times the value from valued supporters, oh forget that one, $25M isnāt quite enough.
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Why and how is it divisive?
There are schools that currently teach other languages, many already getting some government funds, that will see a tiny bit more funding.
It helps within communities and helps when elderly immigrants need government services. Learning a language promotes general learning as well.
If our English standards at school are struggling, it aināt just because of migrant kids.
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Itās probably just a re-announcement of previous funding with a different spin put on it.
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Yeah I think thatās just how Blitz has framed it. Iām happy to hear about policy. Iād rather be hearing about environmental policy that isnāt utter bent over to foreign corps and allowing them to devastate our country type though. Nothing else really matters in the short to long.
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@Chris_1993 posted the policy