Foreign language learning in Australia is in serious decline, as we are well into the second decade of the so-called Asian Century.

About 40 per cent of students studied a foreign language in the 1960s. That number is now closer to 10 per cent, including students who are native speakers of a language other than English.

But in almost all the OECD countries, apart from Australia, students finish school with at least one foreign language.

Kurt Mullane, the executive director of the Asia Education Foundation, said “one of our great challenges is our monolingual mindset”.

“We think English will be enough, that it’s got us this far and it will treat us well into the future,” he said. “But the world has changed rapidly. If you are a monolingual speaker these days, you are well and truly in a minority in a global context. Our education sector is still playing catch up to that.” More.

See: The Sydney Morning Herald

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