Smh 9/3/07.

Every child in Australia should learn mandarin(chinese) or bahasa indonesia until year 12, Amanda Vanstone believes.
A minister for 11 years until january, senator vanstone said a nation wide language program would benefit australia for generations.
''If i was in charge of australia,i would ensure that every child from year 1 was either learning mandarin or bahasa. There would be no way around it,and they would learn it all the way through school, otherwise  they just wouldnt progress."

It has given more weight to my indonesian/chinese invasion theory.
She wants our Australian children to be collaborators.
Surrender before they even mobilise.

But making it compulsory thats just wrong.
Only a small number of Australians will go to indonesia or china in their lifetimes.

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Its already compulsory that was my point, it was compulsory to learn a language when I was at school and it still is today. Seeing as it is compulsory why not make it relevant. A large number of Australians are likely to do business with Indonesians or Chinese in their lives is the way I see it.

It was compulsory in yr7 and 8 for me, i learned a bit of Deutsch.  But after that in yr 9 it was no-longer
compulsory and so i chose another subject.
But making it compulsory from yr1 to year 12 thats wrong.
Forcing young Australian boys and girls to learn another language in an ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY is multiculturism at its worse.
At least by the time they've reached yr 7,8,9 they can make the decision themselves if they want to continue or not, they choose to pursue an ''Exotic language'' or a European language should they elect to.
Im glad she was thrown out of office, and ive heard that all the states dissaprove of her idea.

Then why wasnt i forced to learn Arabic or Vietnamese???

Oh thats right, there wasnt many arabs or gooks around when i was in year 7!
How fast they must breed.

I think it is a good idea. You don't have to invoke multiculturalism. It makes good business sense. We have to face the fact that we will always be a small player in a large SE Asian market, and one that already stands out like a sore thumb. We don't want to be relying on the people we do business with to know our language. That puts us at a big disadvantage.

I learnt German in high school and I am very glad that I did. My only concern is that these other languages are far harder to learn, especially Chinese. German is about as close as you can get to English while still being a different language. If students don't make much progress they won't be as motivated.

You can make the same argument about most subjects, especially when you move on to high school. You cannot tell as a child what the world will be like and what sort of business you will be in in 20 years time.

The first few years should be compulsory, and then further study in high school elective, just like everything else.