We are illiterate

It is time Australians awoke to the fact that we are largely illiterate.

We need to have a debate about this deficit which Australia faces in the twenty-first century. And then we must find serious solutions which will actually work.

Australians are largely illiterate in the eyes of the Chinese.

Yet learning to read and write Chinese is commonplace for millions of young people around the world.

Tutors and academic lecturers in our Australian universities still labour under the misapprehension that their language is difficult, and that non-Chinese generally struggle to learn it.

Chinese is not a difficult language. It is not just for the academically able or those identified as having superior intellectual ability. Chinese is common and accessible.

It is time that people in positions of authority, across our educational systems throughout Australia, became aware of this.

There are children and adults in this country who are learning Chinese easily – because of practical commonsense teaching.

However, these Australians are learning mainly outside the educational systems.

Why is this so?

When you enter an Australian school the teachers who are in the languages faculty are usually European language trained. This is no basis for learning and teaching the tonal spoken languages of Asian countries such as China.

Mandarin Chinese is tonal and to master the speech students need to be taught in rhymes and not songs. Students must be able to hear the language and to pronounce it clearly using the tonal variations.

How can anyone hear and master tonal variations when the music of a song intrudes? Of course this is not an issue for French or German language learning.

In our schools, most heads and classroom teachers are monolingual.

This is very unfortunate because it means that school leaders find it practically difficult to embrace the learning of Chinese. They usually have little linguistic experience themselves beyond English.

The teaching staff on whom principals and head teachers rely also have very little knowledge or understanding as to how to implement a good solid Chinese language programme.

Chinese language is not just about learning to have conversations in Mandarin or Cantonese. It is also about literacy.

Written Chinese is composed of strokes arranged into characters and these provide many clues to the meaning of the texts we read.

Yet the curricula which are standard in the education systems around Australia impose barriers for young Australians who want to gain basic literacy in Chinese.

Chinese literacy cannot be taught universally whilst our curricula overly emphasize spoken languages. Why is Chinese education confined within the languages curriculum? It is also accessible as art.

Written Chinese is visual in a way English and other European languages can never be. The nearest similar languages are old Egyptian, Sumerian and Hittite. Yet these languages are seen as mysterious and ancient.

Some pictorial and ideographic languages are gone but Chinese is certainly not dead. Written Chinese is very sophisticated, yet based on simple rules which children can and do grasp.

Chinese writing is very much alive and in use.

Chinese writing continues to be used in everyday life and commerce, and on the internet, by more than a billion individuals.

Throughout Asia, people are well aware of Chinese influence.

Many citizens of our neighbouring countries learn Chinese whilst Australians languish in the outdated complacency that English is sufficient for our futures.

Australian young people will need more than just English to survive and be capable happy citizens with some control over their own futures.

It is time we as a nation opened up our minds. We need to put in place the appropriate conditions and structures which are necessary to promote Chinese literacy.

We owe it to our Australian children to provide them with education which will properly prepare them for their futures.

Welcome to the Asian Century.