An Asian language in every school.

[Mother Goose]

All schools have to teach a 2nd language, I wasn't aware that it had to be an Asian language though. The primary school DD goes to teach Japanese but they are part of a program where Japanese university students come over to teach in schools. Another school in this area teach Auslan as their 2nd language. The high school my DS and DD1 go to teach Japanese and German, the students choose 1 when they start year 7.

I think it's awesome that a school teaches Auslan! It seems something that is often overlooked...

I actually found it really hard to find a school that taught my chosen language. At my first high school, I had the choice of Japanese, German, or French. I loved Japanese but when I moved to another State, I had to travel 45 min to attend a school that taught Japanese... most of the schools only taught French and German.

I know that where I went to school in NSW, there was a large demographic of Vietnamese people moving to the area, so the school then offered Vietnamese as a language.

I personally feel that a language should be offered but there should be more than one offered in High Schools. Whatever the language, it should try and fit in with the School's aims/values/ethos/specialty. For example, if the school has a strong Cooking Program (which I've seen a few schools have as part of a work ed program), French makes sense to me as I'm told that is the language used universally in international kitchens (but maybe someone lead me up the garden path with that one!).

But I do feel that the language should be taught by someone who is fluent in both English and the language being taught. I was taught Japanese by a teacher who had little understanding of the language - as a result, my whole year 10 class failed because she was unable to teach us adequately. So if it can't be taught adequately, it shouldn't be taught at all... but that's my view.

I would also like to see some links between the languages Primary Schools teach and the local High Schools. My DD is learning Italian at school - it is compulsory...but none of the local High Schools offer it...

[Rowellen]

But I do feel that the language should be taught by someone who is fluent in both English and the language being taught. I was taught Japanese by a teacher who had little understanding of the language - as a result, my whole year 10 class failed because she was unable to teach us adequately. So if it can't be taught adequately, it shouldn't be taught at all... but that's my view.

This is so true. I had excellent japanese teachers in years 8-10 but changed schools. I really wanted to continue Japanese so went to the only one in the area that offered it. Waste of time. My year 11 teacher spent most of the time whinging about his year 8 CE class & my year 12 teacher just wrote sentences from the teachers guide up on the board. Needless to say, my plans to continue on in uni dropped & now I can't remember much except hello, goodbye, please & can count to 10

THe school DS will be going to offers Japanese so it will be interesting to see how much comes back to me