New Zealand opens opportunities for children to learn Mandarin Chinese

In 2010 all 7-10 year old children will have the opportunity to learn another language including Mandarin Chinese.

Learning a language brings positive benefits

More New Zealanders may be speaking another language in the years to come, thanks to an upcoming initiative that will require a second language to be offered to all students in Years 7-10. The new curriculum, which comes into effect in 2010 in New Zealand schools, states that all children should receive the opportunity to learn another language. Promoting a multi-lingual society is a priority for the government as it benefits international trade and the economy, and promotes positive interaction between cultures in our communities. Many educators also believe that learning another language can increase the potential for success in other subjects at school.

West Auckland resident Tom Essex was introduced to Chinese, Japanese and German as an 11 year-old at Te Atatu Intermediate School, and decided to continue studying the Chinese language at Rutherford High School. "I guess I had a bit of fascination with China, so I decided on Chinese," he says. Although widely reputed to be a difficult language to learn, Tom says it "wasn't too difficult" because he started learning at a young age. He says that although his parents don't speak a second language, they were very supportive and this was something that helped his progress.

Learning a second language is beneficial for a number of reasons, says Tom.
Not only does it help people become more aware of the outside world, but it also develops empathy for other cultures.

“It broadens your horizons and opens up a whole new section of society that you might not previously have associated with,” he says, “and in the case of Chinese, I've suddenly gained access to nearly a third of the world's population.”

KEVIN Rudd has called on Australians to .. make their nation the most Asia-literate country in the West.

In a major speech in Singapore, the Prime Minister declared his dream of Australian children learning Chinese or Japanese and reaching out to the region.

"I am committed to making Australia the most Asia-literate country in the collective West," he announced.

Labor went to the last election promising $62 million for new Asian language courses in schools.

But Mr Rudd's new promise raises the commitment and there is sure to be a push for extra funding.

Mr Rudd last night said the time had come for Australians to be more active in Asia.

"My vision is for the next generation of Australian businessmen and women, economists, accountants, lawyers, architects, artists, film-makers and performers to develop language skills which open their region to them," he said.

The call came as Mr Rudd tried to rev up his plan for a new regional body called the Asia Pacific Community.

Mr Rudd outlined the proposal two months ago and has been selling it during his recent tour of China, South Korea and Singapore.

The Opposition have been scathing of the plan, calling it a flop, and there has been no groundswell of major support from Asian countries.

But Mr Rudd has hit back, saying there are no major "roadblocks" to the idea and saying it was a long-term project.

The speech came after Mr Rudd and Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday signed a new defence deal for greater cooperation between the two nations.

Singapore is due to soon send a medical team to work with Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Earlier in the day, Mr Rudd opened a new junior section of Australian International School Singapore where he spoke to children about the value of Asian languages.

Mr Rudd speaks Mandarin, which he uses often when touring in the region and did it again yesterday at a press conference.

It was Rudd's first prime ministerial visit to Singapore and he has now visited most of the major nations in Asia - including China and Japan twice.

Children stuck with English only langauge skills will find themselves less valuable in the job marketplace

Security Language Initiative" to "dramatically increase the number of Americans learning, speaking and teaching critical-need foreign languages. Foreign language skills are essential to engaging foreign governments and peoples, especially in critical world regions, to promote understanding, convey respect for other cultures, and encourage reform. These skills are also fundamental to the economic competitiveness and security interests of the nation."

Sounds like there's something on which Bush and Obama agree: Nothing could be more dangerous for an America already losing its edge in the world than to teach its children to disdain other languages and distrust other cultures, to skip geography, to forget about travel abroad. If the Chinese, the Indians, the Brazilians and the Russians are busy learning English so they can do business with us, doesn't it behoove us to learn their languages, too? (In China, all elementary school students must study English.) At a time when the West is threatened by Arab jihadists, don't we need many more intelligence agents and soldiers who speak Arabic?

While activists alarmed about illegal immigration have spent the last decade supporting "English-only" codes and decrying the loss of cultural touchstones associated with western Europe, the actual harm to the nation lies in our refusal to acknowledge the growing economic competitiveness of other countries. South Koreans aren't shunning English. It's one more weapon in their arsenal as they advance in commerce, engineering and the sciences.

So the next time you hear some smart-mouth pundit acting as though foreign language fluency is a sign of decadence or an unbecoming Frenchy-ness, don't fall for it. That pundit likely has a passport. If he has college-age kids, he has probably worked hard to help them study abroad.

Do as he does, not as he says. Enroll your kids in Spanish or Russian or Mandarin classes.

"[At] no time in the history of Chinese international schools has there been such a dynamic and explosive growth

of international schools as what’s happening here in China right now," Frerking said.Students enrolled in these facilities receive educations equivalent to elite private schools in the United States and Europe in part because they are modeled on predominately British and American curriculums, offering both International Baccalaureate (IB) and Advanced Placement (AP) programs. Students also generally come from affluent families who emphasize the importance of education.

International schools in Asia mostly began as small facilities intended for the children of diplomats or missionaries. However, as economic expansion attracted multinational businesses to Asia, the number of students in international schools rose dramatically. These facilities have now evolved into centers for expatriate communities and are vital tools for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).