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Next Gen Literacies

Are Aboriginal languages really useless in the workplace?

By March 19, 2018116 Comments6 min read11,228 views

Click on this image to view video about the role of English and local languages in the educational experiences of Aboriginal children in remote communities

Editor’s Note: March 21 is Harmony Day in Australia, coinciding with the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. On this occasion we examine how beliefs that Aboriginal languages are “nice to have” but basically useless in the “real” world of work and education disadvantage Aboriginal people in remote communities. Our contributor Brendan Kavanagh explores this linguistic disadvantage in employment in the text below, and in education in this video.

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In a 2007 article in The Australian, Aboriginal activist Noel Pearson put forward six policy recommendations pertaining to Aboriginal languages. He identified such languages as “inherently valuable as part of the country’s rich heritage” and “the primary words by which the Australian land and seascape is named and described.” However, Pearson argued for a “separate domain within indigenous communities for cultural and linguistic education from the Western education domain”, reasoning that “the primary purpose of schools is for our children to obtain a mainstream, Western education.”

This dichotomy is often established: local language is for the home; English is for the outside world. One is for culture; the other is for jobs. Such a perspective has pervaded the debate over bilingual education in remote Aboriginal schools since the mid-1970s, with early bilingual programmes established on the principles of connecting with one’s heritage and identity, as well as recognising and upholding basic Indigenous rights.

Conversely, the case for English-speaking classrooms draws upon the economic argument, positioning English as the pathway toward real jobs in the broader Australian workplace – an argument that supports the current four hours of mandatory English-only classes in all Northern Territory schools, as I explain in this 10-minute video about the schooling experiences of aboriginal children in remote communities. The assumption is that for an Aboriginal school-leaver, finding their way in the world means leaving their land, family, language and culture to pursue “real” opportunities within urban mainstream Australia. This perception is perpetuated in a policy report, which goes so far as to label local Indigenous identified positions, such as Aboriginal Health Workers, Assistant Teachers and Aboriginal Community Police Officers, as “pretend jobs” that lack equivalent positions in mainstream Australia. Drawing equivalencies to an “apartheid” system, the report paints their existence as a politically correct excuse for hiring Aboriginal people into inferior positions that lack the level of education required of nurses, teachers and police officers.

While it is true that such positions are not identical to mainstream positions, this is because the roles require a different and unique set of knowledge and skills, without which a community school, clinic or police station cannot operate. These include an understanding of the community’s social structure, appropriate cultural practices that do not offend the client, and, most importantly, the ability to communicate information in the vernacular. Such specialist skills cannot be learnt by outsiders through a mainstream education model.

Health clinic in a remote NT community (Source: ABC)

The role of an Aboriginal Health Worker is a pertinent example. Statistics show that in remote Indigenous communities, 55% of adults are smokers and the average person consumes 24% of their sugar intake from soft drinks, a rate which is twice that of the non-Indigenous population. Hearing and vision problems are also prevalent among children due to lack of basic access to hygiene. The expensive solution is to treat the problems at the symptom by flying in qualified specialists to treat diabetes, lung cancer, otitis media and trachoma. This option can require high wages, travel allowance and expensive chartered flights. Nevertheless, it is potentially ineffective, as many community members require a level of trust before they are willing to attend a medical appointment.

The most efficient and effective method is to treat the problem at the cause. Using language skills, an Aboriginal Health Worker can develop local health messages to convince people to give up smoking, eat healthier and wash their children’s ears and eyes. They can convince patients to attend appointments, and with enough training, can interpret complex medical jargon. These skills can be essential for suicide prevention, promoting sexual health and providing other vital health messages such as how to prevent lead poisoning by hunting with steel bullets instead of lead ones. Over the long term, Aboriginal Health Workers save money and, more importantly, save lives.

An Aboriginal Teacher’s Assistant is fundamental to a community’s future. Teaching roles in communities are often temporary stepping stones for graduate teachers with limited experience and no exposure to Indigenous culture, as I show in the video . In such a system, where there is a cultural risk to both the teacher and the students, it is vital that the Teacher’s Assistants act as cultural brokers. Their ability to communicate culturally appropriate content into the vernacular helps to deliver educational outcomes that an Aboriginal community actually wants. A study with 1,000 participants across remote Australia found that Aboriginal community members preferred educational outcomes to focus on “learning the local language” and “being strong in both worlds”, more than such mainstream goals as “economic participation”.

Aboriginal Community Police Officers (ACPO) arguably play the most crucial role, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners accounted for over a quarter (27% or 10,596 prisoners) of the total Australian prisoner population in 2016. An ACPO’s ability to speak in local language opens a channel of communication between community members and law enforcement, allowing them to understand the law, cooperate with the law and follow the law. As active participants of the legal system, they will view law enforcement as a useful means of strengthening the community by maintaining traditional culture through social order. Without this channel of communication, law enforcement is more likely to be viewed as a form of imperialism enforced by foreigners who speak a different language and lack an understanding of existing social structures. Keeping people on the right side of the law saves money, as the cost of imprisonment is approximately $305 per person per day, a figure that greatly exceeds the cost of hiring an ACPO.

These are just a few of the real jobs in which language skills are essential in the workforce. The cashiers at the local store are the only staff members who can communicate directly with clients to meet their needs. The artists at the art centre communicate their culture to the outside world, which in turn generates a real income. Aboriginal rangers can develop environmental health messages for their fellow community members to look after country.

Yet English literacy based on NAPLAN testing is our primary determinant for Aboriginal educational outcomes, as exemplified in the 2017 Closing the Gap Report, and argued in the above-mentioned 2012 Indigenous education report as part of its criticism of Indigenous identified positions. But studies have shown NAPLAN to be a linguistically and culturally inappropriate measure of achievement in remote Indigenous schools, filled with reading activities that present irrelevant and unfamiliar contexts, such as “going to the cinema” or “delivering newspapers”. Reading exercises rarely reflect the context of working in a community position, so rather than labelling Indigenous positions as “pretend jobs”, the argument could be made that the tests represent “pretend learning”.

The idea that local languages are irrelevant to the workplace is a self-fulfilling prophecy; the English-speaking workplace only sustains itself because local people are not skilled into positions of management. While it is true that language is important for preserving cultural identity, we should also argue that it is an essential tool for operating in the local economy. School curricula should not sideline language as a superfluous add-on, but embed it into student career paths in health, law, education, commerce and all other fields that are relevant to building a strong community.

Brendan Kavanagh

Author Brendan Kavanagh

Brendan Kavanagh has over ten years’ experience in training, assessment, resource development, and teaching English as a Second Language. He has worked extensively in China, as well as Australia’s Northern Territory. This year, Brendan has started his own resource development company, Highway Learning, which aims to provide training resources to Indigenous workers within the Northern Territory’s remote communities. Brendan is currently studying a Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University, and has previously completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy through Charles Sturt University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Professional and Creative Writing through Deakin University, majoring in Mandarin. He has a strong love of language and currently studies Eastern and Central Arrernte at the Alice Springs Language Centre.

More posts by Brendan Kavanagh

Join the discussion 116 Comments

  • Nazzia says:

    I completely agree with the sentiment of wanting to promote and preserve regional languages, but having worked in a corporate setting in Australia as well as India, I have noticed that the number of speakers of a language influences whether those languages can be practical in the workplace. In India, there are several offices where people can still get by without English, but the more global the company is the rarer the use of English becomes. In a country like Australia, this becomes even more true.

  • Sasha Sunshine says:

    I agree that English has become the dominant language in not only education but for professional areas as well. Due to this, the importance of indigenous languages and cultures are facing the threat of becoming extinct. It isn’t about picking one over the other, both can exist at the same time. Indigenous people have lost a lot and would definitely appreciate being able to keep their language and culture intact.

  • Thi Thanh Huyen Do says:

    A better understanding of Indigenous languages and culture was suggested as a way to improve the communications between non Indigenous and Indigenous Australians who are working in the area of Indigenous affairs. The communities who speak their Indigenous language as their first language need to expect other Australians to learn to appreciate and respect Aboriginal languages and aspects of history and culture within their school education and in general Australian life. Particularly those non Indigenous people living and working within these remote communities and high status public and political figures in Australian society.

  • Saichon says:

    It is not about one particular culture is better than one another culture, but it is safe to say that language is a sign of power and every language should not be left behind. Since English is dominant language in Australia, it is obvious that indigenous people and aboriginal languages are slowly swallowed. It raises me some aspects about Thai dialects and languages of minority groups in Thailand also need to be protected. As linguistic field is pretty new in my home country, wisdom and knowledge of minority groups are in danger. It brings some aspects that when people have power, they should not leave other people behind, especially, “people”, who are the original of culture and value, who are the root of who they are, should be protected.

  • Rajendra Prasad Kandel says:

    Language is definitely more than the medium of communication; its a significant cultural heritage as well. Aboriginal people have their own distinct
    language, culture, costume, social structure, rites, and rituals. Each of them is appreciative and complementary to each other for creating the Aboriginal community’s own respective socio-cultural identity. They can be better expressed in their mother tongue; their language better represents ” the complexity, context and the wave’ of their community because Aboriginal language, I think, has emerged and developed from Aboriginal people’s ages-long association with particular land, culture and human relationship. That’s why their language better recognizes ‘the depth and the diversity’ of their culture.
    Even in our country Nepal, there are 59 officially recognized indigenous communities; among them, Gurung, Magar, Newar, Tharu, Rai, Limbu, Sherpa, Chepang are the major ones. They speak their own respective language within their communities so that they can understand their social structure, culture, their origins of land, have smooth communication and connection with their community members. Simultaneously, most of them speak the Nepali language as well because it is, one the one hand, medium of instruction in educational institutions and on the other hand its a lingua-franca and official language that connects all Nepali people from diverse linguistic backgrounds. Also, we learn the English language for efficient communication with the people outside the country.
    With this experience, I can say that the use of aboriginal languages in the local context like in the local market, administrative offices, legal bodies, and in the basic level of education, enhances the self-confidence of aboriginal people. It even facilitates the transition from monolingualism to bio/multilingualism because , practically, to celebrate broad context, aboriginal people should acquire the language of wider communication.

  • Irene Nguyen says:

    This article significantly addresses a big concern about the balance between the employment-oriented and culture-retained language curriculum development. As this whole world has been increasingly Westernizing, English has ultimately played its dominant role within mostly the aspects of life, especially the occupation. However, it should be thoroughly considered when English ( or a certain foreign language) is introduced in one’s education program to see whether that language indeed meets the learners’ needs and expectations. Also, the booming of English learning has been likely to invade and throw a threat to other original language counterparts. This comes to be an alarm on the matter of conserving one’s community identity as language partly contributes to a particular culture and ethnicity.

  • Pramanandra Joshi says:

    This article raises the crux of the language discourse of these days. In the present scenario English became dominant language all over the world, since it is an international language. In this article writer shows the plight of aboriginal language in the Australia. Aboriginal languages are disappearing in the shadow of English language. In this context aboriginal languages are limited only in home, there is no space in work place for aboriginal language. For example in Nepal there are many aboriginal languages such as Maithili, Tharu, Gurung, Bhojpuri, Doteli and other which do not have space in workplace but only limited in home. To preserve aboriginal language we have to take action. Ignoring English is also impossible in this age, so we have to preserve aboriginal language by accepting the use of English language.

  • Chi Tam Nguyen says:

    This article gave a significant concern about the co-existence of languages in the context of Vietnamese schools. What would result if some schools in remoted areas where people speak other languages rather than Vietnamese? There could be such great issues for any teacher of ESL/EFL who want to teach English to those students without any understanding about their languages. Is there any similarities or differences between the students’ language and the English counterpart which could be a barrier for the teachers? I point I want to make here is that the teachers should make intensive investigations regarding the languages spoken by their students before making any decision to work in this workplace.

  • Sue says:

    It is a challenge for aboriginal languages to survive in English-dominant Australia. It is the similar case with many countries around the world, where people learn and apply the country’s dominant language in school and workplace.It is efficient and effective to use same language(dominant language(s) in a country) to deal with work and contribute to economic development. As a result, it decreases the presence of minority languages in use, and even worse, these language could be less and less active and die out eventually. Languages are cultural heritage of nations, once disappear, they never come back. protecting these minority languages and maintaining them active is not only a challenge for linguists and also for the policy-makers. I think in some sense, governments play a more significant role in promoting minority languages as a means to contribute to the local economy and culture. Therefore, these languages could be preserved and active and passed down to the next generations.

  • Summer Dang says:

    The blog post has raised people’s awareness of the relevance of Aboriginal language in particular and vernaculars in general to society activities and community development. It is of utmost importance that the purpose of schooling for Indigenous children should be focused to facilitate them with relevant knowledge and training essential in future practical working place, rather than unsuitable textbook content and irrelevant exam questions to their social and cultural experience. This example, in my opinion, would also encourages curriculum composers in other countries where there also is a compilation of multiple ethnic minorities living together, such as Vietnam, to adjust their national educational program in order to benefit citizens in both worlds.

  • Alisa says:

    I don’t know much about the history of Australia. It seems that Australia has a sad history on indigenous issues and their culture has been eliminated. While minority education (indigenous education) respects their history and culture, it is more important to integrate them into a wider society. If a squatting requirement requires the use of indigenous teachers to teach Aboriginal students, the source of the teacher is too scarce. I don’t think this will achieve the goal of education.

  • yofa says:

    I deeply am saddened by this minority language phenomenon experienced by the Aboriginal community or any other minority groups out there -including my own country- however, I will definitely be, at the same time, hypocritical if I say that I object the idea of English as a working-world language. English has been protracted in that superior position for a very long time and it is little we can help. Thus, if asked what we can do, I think having a raised awareness of the issue already serves great impact and thanks to Brendan to be that awareness-raising agent and make me feel that I need to start taking actions to save my own vernacular.

  • Xin Zhang says:

    Thanks for Brendan for sharing his ideas. The problem of mainstream language and minority language also exits in China. China is a country which has many different minorities. Mandarin is regarded as the first language and children must learn it in their very young age. It means that ethnic people must use mandarin and their own local language. As result, ethnic people speak mandarin at school or work place for communicating instead of minority language. The local language is only used at home, which may cause consequence of destroying the diversity of Chinese language. Because mandarin can be learned by everyone, but local language is learned only by local people. In addition, advanced conditions in cities attract many people to stay in cities, the local language is used less than before. When it comes to the occupation in the local work place, there are fewer people who have a deep understanding about the local language and culture. After reading this article, i am worried about the language usage in our country. We cannot lose the language diversity, they represent different cultures. Different language is treasure in each country.

  • Sofia says:

    This post reminds of a sad but true story of aboriginal languages. For example, in Vietnam, as the country is developing, aboriginal people or the minority need to study the mainstream language to merge into the majority, with a hope to find a job and make a living in big cities. Thanks to the mainstream language that they can find a job, access to better education and health, make a living in big cities. However, the aboriginal language will soon be at the edge of extinction if no one speaks it anymore. Even though the aboriginal language is worthy to reserve but it is hard to do so because it does not help the speakers to get the basic needs: money as the mainstream does.

  • Ana says:

    This is piece is very inspirational; it saddens me to learn the way that minority groups such as aboriginal communities are treated in post-colonial Australia. I did not have much knowledge about how literacy policies are implemented in remote aboriginal communities but the author touches on some key points that are hard to argue against. It seems that Western societies have difficulties appreciating the value of diverse languages, and the idea that English in the only valuable language is a deep flawed a hegemonic concept. It makes much more sense that in remote aboriginal communities’ individuals learn their own language in a school setting. This way people can be empowered to strengthen their communities and create work opportunities using their own language, as opposed to impose English and the mainstream Australian way of living.

  • Mia says:

    Hi Brendan,
    Thank you for your sharing. Mandarin has been widely promoted in my country, China. But in my hometown, Chongqing, we communicate in dialect as well as mandarin. Because dialect makes our communication more convenient and even increases a lot of intimacy, especially when communicating with some old people. I quite agree with Australia in preserving native languages because it is a good way to preserve culture. I’m learning English now to understand English culture and gain knowledge, but dialects and mandarin are closer to my life.

  • Kim Thanh Duong says:

    What an article! Thankyou for sharing those ideas with us. When I finished the last word, the image of ethnic groups in my homeland suddenly crossed to my mind. In Vietnam, “Kinh” language is spoken by nearly 80% of the whole population and other minority languages are spoken by the rest. And I do believe and hope that such languages should be preserved for their cultural values. I know that languages cannot protect themselves but they need the humans’ hands. What I mean is we need those who devote their life to bridging linguistic gaps and beatifying minority languages and raising awareness of people of hidden beauty and values of such languages. Additionally, there should be more programmes or policies on teaching minority languages at public educational institutions.
    I do think it is also the case of Aboriginal language.

  • Stacey says:

    Hi Brendan,
    Thank you for sharing this interesting topic.
    Some countries such as Australia and New Zealand have attached great deal of value on Aboriginal culture and fully acknowledge the significance of Aboriginal languages.
    In my country, China, we also have similar situation about minorities’ culture and language. However, since the promotion of Putonghua (the promotion of Mandarin as the national language of China), an increasing number of workplaces have required practitioners to speak Mandarin rather than local dialects or minority languages. The status of mainstream language and minority languages is absolutely unequal in the workplace. Additionally, schools’ education does not place much importance on minority languages. In southern regions of China, dialects such as Cantonese, Hokkien, Wu are not as widely spoken as before, especially by young people. It is becoming an issue how to preserve such languages and cultures.

  • Teufeld says:

    Using mainstream language in society and using minority language at home is a common phenomenon in countries that have more than one language. Using mainstream language helps all people to communicate and understand each other, so the society can develop. However, for minority language speakers, they only can speak their own language at home, it may lead a misunderstanding that only mainstream is useful, and they may not want their children to learn minority language, which may lead minority languages to die out.

  • Joseph says:

    Thank you for your wonderful post. I have lived in two societies that have different views toward education to Indigenous people. I believe Australia has a very understanding approach towards education to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islander people. The Australian government have respected the values of Indigenous people. Although as Brendan has mentioned in his video, there are still problems that need to be solved toward education to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islander people. Nevertheless, I think the Australian government will respectfully solve these problems to both indigenous people and its community. In contrast, the Japanese government has many on-going problems towards the education of Japanese indigenous people called Ainu. As an individual, I wonder why the Japanese government doesn’t promote Ainu culture. However, I also understand that the Japanese government is trying to promote their way of group harmony. As an individual who lived in Australian and Japanese cultures, I wonder why there is such a big difference between educational and cultural views towards the indigenous language and group.

  • Jasmine says:

    I agree that Aboriginal language is important for preserving and protecting cultural identity and it is an important means that can enable the Aboriginals to smoothly get involved in the workplace. As Brendan said, the Aboriginal people can work as Aboriginal health workers, Aboriginal community police officers, Aboriginal teacher assistant as they are able to communicate in the vernacular and understand the community social structure and cultural practices. NAPLAN might not culturally appropriate for measuring Aboriginal students’ literacy skills, therefore educators should work with Aboriginal teacher assistant and also attempt to deeply understand the actual needs of Aboriginal communities.

  • Thuong Tran says:

    I do not think the language or vernacular of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island will be completely overwhelmed by modern English. I am Vietnamese, as a foreigner here and every time I go to Town Hall I am frequently impressed by the Aboriginal dot-pattern sold there. I really like them because they reflect a unique Aboriginal culture. I consider them as a kind of semiotic language displaying exotic difference. In my opinion, although we are facing with a mainstream of English language dominance, which also in turn we are welcoming the new in our language and culture, such as English as Lingua Franca which is defined as a variety of English where multicultural communities nowadays create and negotiate in a globalized world context. To sum up, I suppose that we are afraid of that we will lost our own culture and integrate and dissolve into other dominant civilization in which English as a mainstream, but we forgot that we are living in a world full of dynamic and complex culture. We should admit that language and culture need their own evolvement as time passing by, and ready to welcome a new version of this.

  • Andrea Andreou says:

    Measures such as the Naplan need to be revised for their suitability of content, not only in respect to Aboriginal students, but for others who come from language backgrounds other than English. Some students use their first language in the home and English, only at school. There are many students who actually live in two or three worlds. ‘Harmony Day’ is a significant new mark for Australia to celebrate cultural diversity and community inclusiveness. Although shifts have been made to analyse the gap and struggle for urban and remote Aboriginal communities, within a westernised society the ‘one size fits all’ approach to education still prevails. Language and cultures should not be separated. Aboriginal languages can be used in the workplace, as it is through direct language translations that Aboriginals can get access to adequate services and information. Greater recognition of the diversity of our indigeneous cultures is necessary, perhaps starting with teacher education. Educators should have an in-depth understanding of the needs of Aboriginal communities, instead of being allocated to teaching positions which enable them to ‘get a foot in the door’ or encounter a ‘real Aboriginal’. To encounter someone is to get to know one’s true background and personal identity.

  • N. P. says:

    This research blog post brings to the fore a potentially culturally and socially damaging issue of the disregard of ethnic vernaculars that are likely prevalent in a great many countries, including my motherland of Vietnam. If a member of an ethnic community is to lead a “normal” life and prosper, he or she will have almost no choice but to leave behind his or her native heath for the mainstream areas where the dominant language of Vietnamese (Kinh) is the norm and where better access to employment, education, health care, etc. is available.

    This article has prompted me to learn more about the vernaculars spoken in my country, which I never really even gave a second thought to before. Only just now, after a little research, did it dawn on me how linguistically diverse Vietnam is, but sadly almost a third of these ethnic languages are considered threatened ( https://www.ethnologue.com/country/vn/languages ). Should no appropriate and timely policies be put in place soon, a rich part of our country’s culture will be irretrievably lost along with the extinction of endangered vernaculars.

  • fidjicz says:

    I feel like there has been done so much damage to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Peoples that I am not sure it can be undone. All those communities, no matter how small, are entitled to preserve their language and pass it onto next generations. Not only from the linguistic point of view but It all goes down to the Lost Generation and other problems that are the consequence of the influence of the Western white people. A couple of my visits to the Red Centre have left me with a long-lasting impact. I have seen literally struggling people whose health was invisibly deteriorating as the consequence of “Western diet” – highly processed, high in fat, sugar and salt. Teenagers and young adults are forced to travel to Alice Springs and Darwin to find jobs because “it is expected”, it is a Western way. They suffer there away from their extended families and often they cannot see any other solution than suicides (which are weekly occurrences and their rates have been so underrated that it is shameful). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Peoples have been around for thousands of years living in harmony with nature but they have suffered horribly over the past hundred or so years since white men arrived.

  • Mary says:

    Since I am new to Australia and am wildly uninformed of the cultural and educational struggles faced by the Aboriginal people, I feel it would be wise to refer to a similar situation faced by Native Americans in the United States, rather than risk stating an uneducated opinion on Australian aboriginal life. The U.S. education is heavily standardized and most public school students spend the entirety of their years mastering English, but Native Americans typically live on reservations where they are not held to the same standard in terms of academic achievement. It was not until I developed a close bond with a friend from the Rocky Boy tribe in Montana did I realize how severely underfunded, and ill-equipped schools on the reservation are.
    It seems Aboriginals, regardless of their nationality, have been subjugated, not only to subpar education standards but stripped of the ability to find their place in an ever-changing post-colonization world that continually withholds vital aspects needed to level the playing field – in this case a quality education with access to resources outside their community, which is integral to maintaining the well-being of those who are forced, by outsiders, to reside on small parcels of shrinking land. While these issues stem from such small parts of the world, the injustices faced by Natives is a growing epidemic, of what seems to be, global proportions. The question is, how do we begin, as outsiders, to resolve the issues faced by Natives?

  • Quang Huy Nguyen says:

    Hi Brendan, I concur with your points. this article raises an important issue in the use of English and other vernaculars. Actually, this phenomenon does not only take place in Australia but also in other countries like Vietnam and China, where the mainstream language is of great dominance while other venaculars are dying out, even being on the verge of disappearance.
    Therefore, I believe that the principal point here is how people can preserve such languages to preserve their cultural identities. The article prompts me to wonder what and how teachers can do to bridge the gaps between the mainstream language and minority languages. For a teacher, it is imperative that he or she needs to be aware of the cultural discrepancies, hence an insight of students’ L1 can enable teachers to understand students’ culture and identity better.

  • Leo says:

    That mainstream language is used at work and minority language is used at home is quite true in my country where we have more than one languages. Vietnamese is the mainstream language in Vietnam, of course, so students are taught Vietnamese at schools. However, children in ethnic groups also learn their own language by communicating with their community. It is undeniable that each ethnic group has their own culture and language is the way they can express their culture. Imagine one day they – ethnic people – do not use their language any more, so their cultural values and their history that was written in their language will be never understood by the next generation. Or let take an example in Australia. Vietnamese people who have jobs or study here have to speak English at work or universities because English is the mainstream language here. How can they use Vietnamese at work where no one understands that? But when they go home, they speak Vietnamese with their family. Anyway, language is used to communicate, so using suitable language at the right time and place to achieve the most effective communication is really appreciated.

  • PJ says:

    Really thank you, Brendan, for your amazing post. A lot of concerns were running through my mind while reading the post. Obviously, the language as well as the culture is something truly vital to the Aboriginal existence. To me, education always plays an essential part in any community’s development whether it is in remote areas or not. Since people gain knowledge to develop self or social cognition, perceive skills which benefit to their selves and communities. Then, how the indigenous can approach education in a sense of attending school and learning modern concepts of present-day life if it is not delivered in their local language? In my country, in some minority communities, children are encouraged to learn the mainstream language at school together with their own local language to be able to expand knowledge in different fields such as economics, law, engineering, technology which are useful for their future work and not feel isolated when they get into bigger “world”.

  • luwen huang says:

    In social activities, the mainstream language is the common language and an important communication tool used by the members of society. Mainstream languages ​​are dominant in learning and work. Minority languages ​​are used in a smaller range than the mainstream language in society. The reason for this is mainly related to the identity of the language users. On the one hand, in order to be a member of a community, an individual needs to learn to use the language that is used in the community. On the other hand, the identity of the person can also be identified by the language that she or he uses. Minority languages ​​are used in a smaller area. In addition, most people do not learn to use a minority language in order to become a member of the community. Users of minority languages ​​use mainstream languages ​​in order to better communicate with other members of society. Such a relationship between mainstream languages and the minority languages has led to a minority language being at a disadvantage in social communication.

  • Dee says:

    Hi Brendan, thank you for your wonderful post!
    One thing that catches my attention is the educational values and beliefs of the aboriginal people. According to the post, the author states that these people value local culture rather than economical activities with outside world, which allows me to feel how strong their identity is because I usually take the view that the small social groups have to study or follow what the bigger groups do so as to keep up with them. Probably, this common sense stems from what happens in my country’s context. In fact, there is only 10%-around 10 millions- of the aboriginal people in my country. Most of these people is inclined to communicate and socialise in education, economy, or with the non-abroginal groups, and this trend has been increasing from years to years. Therefore, It is relatively surprising for me to know that the aboriginal people put their culture above all other values.

    • Loulou says:

      It can’t be denied that language is one of the main factors that shapes the culture value of a community. And the case of Aboriginal people not only take place in Australia but in my home country – Vietnam as well. In Vietnam, the mainstream language is “kinh” language, while other venaculars only exist in ethnic minorities and disappearing. It can be seen that the individuals’ role in this case is to preserve such languages to protect their culture values. And I believes in some cases Vietnamese people are doing the right things to maintain the culture values which are reflecting via the bilingual education in some highland areas, the introduction of new policies which encourage ethnic people to learn mainstream languages so they can integrate with “kinh” people in several aspects of the society like economic, technology and so on.

  • alfa says:

    I agree with all the points discussed in the article. It is truly a shame how Aboriginal languages can be disregarded depending on contexts. A part of the article that piqued my interest was the idea of NAPLAN. The notion of “pretend learning” being inflicted on the children and providing contextualised texts that are irrelevant to their cultures and disregarding linguistic diversity. NAPLAN has, in my opinion, unfortunately, become a social measure of a child’s literacy and numeracy ability that is based on the stimulus provided in the examinations. This completely disregards an Indigenous child’s upbringing and the type of literature the child has been exposed to. Nevertheless, I hope to see an improvement and a wider appreciation for Aboriginal languages.

  • Milo Han says:

    The issue about mainstream language and minorities’s one happens in many nations including my country – Vietnam. In Vietnam, the mainstream is Vietnamese and each minority group has their own language. Because Vietnamese is the most dominant language in Vietnam, this language brings supremacy for mainstream citizens. In contrast, as minority languages are mainly used in the ethnic groups, which will make minority people feel themselves inferior. Moreover, whilst every citizens have to learn mainstream language, just ethnic people learn their minority languages. This leads to the imbalance between mainstream language and minority language. With the advancement of modernisation and social progress, the influx of ethnic people moves to cities to look for high-salary jobs and a better life; thus, they often do not want to come back their mountainous or remote places. I think that minority languages in Vietnam will be endangered in the future.

  • Jamie says:

    Thank you for your article, Brendan.
    I agree with you that Aboriginal languages should not be considered merely as a means to preserve culture but a potential tool that could be used in workplace. Your examples of three different jobs have shown the prospects of Aboriginal languages in economy. Yet, I am still concerned about how we can promote the learning of Aboriginal languages and keep them from dying out while other more popular languages could bring more job opportunities. The assimilation of Aboriginal people into Western culture, together with the flux of immigrants from other countries, has narrowed down the number of purely Aboriginal communities that require linguistically specialized public workers. At the moment, these jobs still prevails, but how sure can we be about their availability in the next 10 or 20 years when the young generations who are learning Aboriginal languages at school will start working?

  • Amal says:

    Hi everyone,

    I agree with you that some languages are discriminated due to their lack of economic power. In my country in every government dealing and education we use Arabic language, which is the official language. However, nowadays many companies perceive English as more valuable, so they require English language. Consequently, those people who know English will gain more benefit and higher positions in those companies. This trend may lead to more people treating Arabic as a “home” language and those who don’t know English only can find lower paid jobs.

  • DrHandstand says:

    I think the writer has hit the nail right on the head with regards to local aboriginal languages in the workplace. I have also experienced working with local communities and young adults developing English language skills, particularly with literacy skills, in Hawaii. Sadly, at least on the island I live/lived, native Hawaiian is almost non-existent. Why has this been allowed to happen? Arrogance and greed will no doubt play a part. Local languages should be openly fostered and promoted not only for the cultural identity aspect but also for the respect and greater long-term benefits such respect would bring to a community, society and nation overall.

  • Kina says:

    This post really brings such an important issue into the forefront. I found a few things particularly interesting, especially the idea that ‘pretend jobs’ exist for indigenous people from rural areas due to the fact that they lack the level of education for employment in certain fields. I believe that there could be a solution to assist in this domain, which would include the use of a more relevant, culturally specific NAPLAN that represents their culture, language and context. By offering comprehension activities, reading and writing tasks in English and their indigenous languages, in which mimic their world and their surroundings, as well as expand their world views in ways in which they understand and can make sense out of, would improve literacy and language skills of the students. Children and adults could reach the level of education required for the particular jobs in their community such as police officers, teaching assistants and nurses. And with that, their knowledge of that community, its structure and practices, as well as their communication skills, would (in my opinion) make a better professional for that community.

  • Odno says:

    This article seems practical and that kind of circumstances happen in many countries. In my opinion, it should be considered and the decision ought to be depend on whether that language pertains to aboriginal nations. In Australia, this language and culture belong to the nation who has lived for thousands years and of course this language should be preserved. In terms of indvidual perspective, being bilingual create much opportunity for brain and cognitive development as well as even financial benefit (if both languages are used commonly this bilingual person has really advantage getting a highly-paid job). For a country and a nation it is sensitive issue and it should be taken meticulously and seriously.

  • Mark says:

    Thanks for an interesting article Brendan,
    It’s disappointing to see media and policy reports painting aboriginal culture and language in an inferior light to that of Western culture and English. The economic argument, that the children in these communities need a Western education with an emphasis on English to prepare them for the ‘real’ world and make them viable as employees in a Western business context is superfluous if they desire to remain a part of their community following schooling, and potentially find a job that contributes to their locality. In these communities, knowledge of the local language and culture is probably more valuable than that of English and Western culture, especially in the context of being an effective worker or public servant.
    By highlighting economic issues in indigenous communities and linking them to ‘below par’ results with regards to Western education benchmarks, and even downplaying the validity of local indigenous identified job positions, such government reports are downplaying how important knowledge of indigenous culture and language is to the local economy and workforce of these very communities. As opposed to negative reports in media and government that emphasize economic concerns, I would like to see more work done by the government, and even the media, in regards to celebrating and advocating the language and culture of Australia’s First Peoples.

  • Alex P. says:

    Articles like these lift the rug and expose all that is swept under it and I commend the author. This article highlights and reminds us of our moral responsibilities to the first people of this land. Government intervention seems to be present, but I ask with what intentions. How much of it is based on the prolongation of their culture and how much eradication? We are happy to parade Australia’s cultural heritage in front of the world media, yet we quickly forget about the real issues. Assessments should genuinely reflect the learners’ current and target needs and this may be applicable to all the underprivileged sectors.

  • Judy says:

    This was an interesting article because I grew up in a society where my L1 (Japanese) is used predominantly in our daily life and at work and English tends to be regarded simply as a subject to learn at school or at least as an additional skill. I guess this is one factor that has influenced our strong identity as Japanese. However, this does not mean that Aboriginal people should learn English as many Japanese people do. Japan has had relatively strong economy to survive as a country with the use of L1 only while English-speaking is dominant at workplaces in Australia, so improving Aboriginal people’s English skills must be really important for them. Therefore, I think English education should not be forced without cultural and contextual consideration, but rather it should be promoted as an ESL alongside with education in their L1, preserving their own culture and identity.

  • Abbie says:

    There are also different dialects (such as Hakka) and Aboriginal languages in my country, Taiwan, and the speakers also used to be required to learn Mandarin in order to “live well”. Fortunately, our government had decided to develop different cultures in tourism and therefore in education. After few years of the promotion of the policy, Hakka and Aboriginal people have established their own TV channel and annual festivals that could draw people’s attention to know their culture and the government value their culture more than before. It is really important of government to support Aboriginal’s language and education in order to maintain and develop their culture. Although there’s still a journey to go for Aboriginal people in Australia, it’s never too late to start!

  • Keelan says:

    Hi Brendan, I totally agree with the point you’re making here. It is true that the English language is extremely dominant in the working world today. But then, to what extent do we define that ‘world’? To me, it should not be (figuratively) located within linguistic boundaries as that would compromise the opportunities to reach out to a larger public, who happen to speak a number of languages and vernaculars other than English, like the examples of social workers and teachers you give. I think apart from that purpose, an understanding of those languages and vernaculars also helps professionals tackle issues better in culturally appropriate ways. As teachers, if we are teaching students who do not share our L1 nor are sufficiently proficient in English to communicate effectively with us, knowing their L1 can be a great advantage – it does not only help solve misunderstandings, both linguistically and culturally, but also help us understand our students’ cultural identity so much better!

  • Giang says:

    I think not only Australia but other countries also have the same problems with the mainstream language and minorities’ ones. In Vietnam, for example, ethnic people have to both languages (their local and the mainstream Vietnamese). The attention to the mainstream language has given superiority to ‘mainstream’ people while making ethnic people feel inferior. Local languages are learned by only local people while the mainstream Vietnamese is learned by almost everyone. Sadly, the modern and convenient lifestyle of the ‘mainstream’ population in the delta has attracted many ethnic people who originally come from mountainous areas to stay in the delta and refuse to come back to the less developed remote areas. Therefore, when it comes to occupations in the local communities, there are only a few people who have enough understanding of the local language and cultural practices to handle the tasks. After reading this post, I’m really worried about the future of minority groups in my countries because I don’t think Vietnam has any serious action plan to tackle this issue.

  • This is not only a question of how useful Aboriginal languages are in an Australian workplace, but a combination of complex factors of legal, political, social and cultural issues within a multicultural Australian setting.
    While it has been deemed as “a huge step toward reconciliation” immersing in Aboriginal languages with New South Wales haled as leading the way to creating communities of schools that will share teaching resources as well as offering significant numbers of primary school children the chance to learn Wiradjuri (1500 primary school children were learning this language in 2015), Gumbaynggir (286 primary school children learning this language) and Bundjalung (351 learners) in NSW government schools from 2015 onwards, there are significant gaps that fall short of reaching the goal to Aboriginal language workplace immersion.
    The Australian law does not recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The Australian Constitution still does not mention Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. The Indigenous Australians and Law electives studied at the university level makes for a solid grounding of historical timelines and research papers on Aboriginal social policies, but they are not compulsory to learn and nor do they entail learning an Aboriginal language or even a glimpse of the Aboriginal language history. The laws and the Australian political system (namely the Australian policies) do not make room for Aboriginal Australians to be legally identified as important. If they did, then there would be an explosion of changes that would not only create workplaces of harmony but also workplaces of variety.
    Therefore, the glimmer of hope is now through the Framework for Aboriginal languages and Torres Strait Islander languages (the Framework) in the first national curriculum document – foundation to year 10 – to provide a solid way forward for the education system to continue pursuing Aboriginal languages for school children to first learn and then bring those languages into the Australian workplace (this would at least make for a wise strategy of being able to implement Aboriginal languages into Australian workplaces).
    By categorising any Aboriginal language as “useless” in a workplace is debasing, degrading and a subtle way of erasing the first peoples of Australia.

    References:
    https://www.reconciliation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Recognising-Aboriginal-and-Torres-Strait-Islander-people-in-the-Australian-Constitution.pdf

    https://www.smh.com.au/education/the-aboriginal-language-taught-more-than-spanish-in-nsw-schools-20180914-p503r3.htm

    https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/culture/topic/indigenous-australian-languages

    http://education.abc.net.au/newsandarticles/blog/-/b/2290623/it-s-a-great-time-to-be-teaching-indigenous-australian-languages-

    https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/languages/framework-for-aboriginal-languages-and-torres-strait-islander-languages/what-is-the-framework/

  • Siqi Wang says:

    This is indeed an impressive article, and for me, it raises the significant question of preserving indigenous culture. Though it is true that learning the official lingua franca such as English can lead to a great deal more opportunities in the outside world, indigenous culture including language, social conventions and artifacts should not be overlooked. These are the priceless cultural heritage and efforts should be made to protect them from dying away during the course of so-called “modern development”. As mentioned in this article, by learning both aboriginal language and English, one can act as a bridge connecting the two communities and facilitate mutual development. In addition, in communities with strong emotional attachment to its cultural inheritance, people may respond better to trust than to scientific facts. Especially in the medical contexts, it is likely that patients would prefer the doctor who speaks their own dialects to the one who has published numerous relevant research papers.

  • KyKy says:

    This is a great article raising questions to linguists about indigenous language. Personally, learning aboriginal languages is an important part of understanding our history. If local language, culture and history are not taught and celebrated here, then where in the world will this occur? Furthermore, this is in direct contrast to the teaching of Indigenous languages in remote communities. In these communities often it is the first language of students and by using it in the early learning environment it helps consolidate language development at an important age.

  • Xinyue Ji says:

    This essay shows that the disadvantages of language in occupation. I agree with the opinion presented in the essay. Languages are significant tool in the social economy and we can’t say that local language isn’t accordance with the workplace. For instance, in China, some people in remote areas can only speak their dialect and when they go to cities to find jobs, it ‘s big problem that they can’t speak mandarin. Thus, like what the research claims, schools should embed the language teaching into law, eduction, business and so on.

  • Anas says:

    My knowledge of the Aboriginal culture is very limited as my English language learning experience in Australia has been mostly academic with topics such as environment, economic development, jobs, health and well-being, etc. After reading the article, especially the second last paragraph, “But studies have shown NAPLAN to be a linguistically and culturally inappropriate measure of achievement in remote Indigenous schools, filled with reading activities that present irrelevant and unfamiliar contexts, such as “going to the cinema” or “delivering newspapers”, I have realised something. The language learning experiences of the Aboriginals may (or may not), as I am making assumptions here, be similar to the international students’ classroom experience here in the fact that, the reading activities, for example, are at times unfamiliar to us, in terms of concept and critical thinking requirements. There have been many times when we had to read, discuss and write about issues that were conceptually foreign to us. For most of us, with the high tuition fees and family’s expectations, we copy and memorise specific ideas and keywords in order to be able to produce something either orally or in writing, all in the name for a piece of paper. This reading has been an eye-opener and reflective for me.

  • qianxin says:

    The topics that aboriginal language is useless in the workplace were too absolute, which cannot apply for all the country or areas. I think the aboriginal languages is still useful in some workplaces, although most of the offices are using the main language. Take the example of China, there are fifty-six nations in China and over fifty dialects are used in different areas of China. The department such as bank, hospital and the public services place still using the dialects because it is hard for the older people who cannot speak mandarin.

  • zhongliang lin says:

    I agree with the point of this article that although the language is important to protect cultural identity, we should not lose sight of the importance of its operation in the local economy. School education should embed language into the career path of students in education, law, health, business, and all other areas related to creating better communities. In fact, Australian Aboriginal languages and Chinese local dialects are facing the similar situation, most people only speak Mandarin in the workplace in China. That leads to a lot of issues when people work in a dialect speaking area.

  • Mengyao APPL941 says:

    Yes, I found that the thought which figured out by this article also reminds me of the dialect, because in my country the government promotes people speak Mandarin. Maybe for the government, make sure one official language beneficial for administration. everyone should learn standard Chinese under the literacy policies. If someone can only speak dialect, they will be treated as illiteracy or owing low level of education. But when people to do some work in specific places, like the rural area, dialect can work as a very effective communication tool, even the work result is better than speaking in Mandarin.

  • Adia says:

    I couldn’t agree more that indigenous languages are as important as national or international languages. Especially in making certain development. Such as economic or social development. It is clear that the power of languages makes the development of communities possible because people are educated and interacted through languages. This is when literacy can be used to create development in communities. However, the development in certain community may differ from others because they come from different cultural or historical backgrounds and it can affect the aspects they need to develop in their community. Thus, I agree with what have been suggested by the author of this article that indigenous people can be educated with the contextualized and relevant materials, so it can meet their needs and the outcomes will be helpful for their own communities. Most importantly, the development of their individual and social prosperity can be achieved and at the same time, they also can preserve their own language as their cultural heritage and identity.

  • hasa says:

    This article is really interesting and controversial in a way I thought. In terms of using Aboriginal language in working places, it might be difficult for those who are used to speak Aboriginal language in their daily life. However, at the same time, it may be significant that those Aboriginal language can be valued in terms of recording history of Aboriginal people as traditional arts. For example, in my country there are some minority who speak different language. They are not supposed to speak their own language but common language in my country which means that their language is not as useful as common language but their language are not devalued in terms of arts and culture since they have recorded precious history.

  • Kim says:

    The sense of belonging seems to be quite strong in this article which is reflected by the aboriginal people and its language, culture and land.
    While it is true that aboriginal language, like many other ethnic’s languages, is valuable, aboriginal people might need to open the door for the government and others as wider as possible to help them improve their prosperity, and one of the ways is improving the literacy of the community starting from the school children. This is because being literate should not jeopardize the local value and culture yet should make them become a more valuable part of the community who, according to the article, can use the language skills, for instance, to bring benefits to their community and bridge many good programs of the government such as health, law enforcement, education and so on, gives them more power to develop themselves and minimize the gap between the non-indigenous people as well.

  • AN says:

    This was indeed an interesting read, reflecting on the dominance of the English language over many (extinguishing) native languages around the world. As a Malaysian, I have not really given much thought over the various indigenous languages facing extinction in my country- until after reading this article. The primary reason for the predominance of English and Bahasa Malaysia (especially within Peninsular Malaysia) is the multiethnic population- a common language for the purpose of communication- due to which proficiency in these two languages, as well as Mandarin and Tamil as common native languages, is assured through the Malaysian education system. Most indigenous languages (Balau, Batek, Bidayuh, Sian, etc.) are limited to regions within the east of Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak), and are in the face of extinction. Several researches on indigenous languages in Sarawak claim that these languages are losing their hold in daily communication in favour of more widely used languages in the society. To date, out of 112 indigenous languages, 110 are endangered and 2 have extinct.

  • Hasnahana says:

    Language plays an important role to build harmony in every spare of life and in every situation. This article is so informative and inspires me to think about the aboriginal languages of my country ( Bangladesh). to me, every language has its own diversity and beauty which is a reflection of the tradition, culture, and history and these languages should be preserved and valued properly to preserve the cultural and historical identity. It is really frustrating that the aboriginal communities of Australia are deprived of their basic rights like education, healthcare, and jobs. And it is the common scenarios all over the world which should be resolved very soon.

  • Naive* says:

    It’s great to read this article and watch the video as the author has raised an undeniable problem. This also reminds me of the situation in Vietnam where ‘Kinh’ language (Vietnamese) dominates all other aboriginal languages. Aboriginal people in Vietnam nowadays grow up learning not only their mother tongue, but also ‘Kinh’ language and they master both the languages when they become mature. Therefore, they have the same opportunities as ‘Kinh’ people for jobs and living. However, before getting this success, the leaders working in remotes areas had to master aboriginal languages also.

  • Fern says:

    The insightful article opens our eyes to the plight of reducing the aboriginal culture and its people to a mere art form and a didgeridoo played at tourist locations. By looking at the average aboriginal that we see in everyday life on the street, it is clearly evident that they are barred from enjoying a normal life that other Australians do and this article explains how. Most significantly, health care, law and order and education are three fields that aboriginal people can be trained to make a huge positive impact on the indigenous community of Australia.
    Although there are and have been many voices raised, Australia is still far behind expectations of upholding the oldest group of people to inhabit planet earth. In comparison, I believe that New Zealand has taken a much more progressive course of action in including its indigenous Maori people in to their sociocultural spheres.

  • Shaher Mohammed Shaher Asiri says:

    I think, it is important to be aware of a range of cultural differences that may impact on the workplace, it is just as important to remember that each person is an individual and there the differences among Indigenous and non-indigneous Australian in terms of lingustic and culture.
    these difference create struggle for remote area to communicate or understand with non-indigenous. Teaching and learning local language help to maintain their cultures and values that each individual is proud of his/her identity.

  • Ary says:

    Initially I’d like to dedicate my appreciation to such an informative and educative piece of work from the author. The context being discussed, again, provided arguments, along with supportive and factual evidence, to the understanding that literacy is a tool of power and is among keys to education/knowledge. In the situation which the language used in the society is determined by the policy/law makers and enforcers, it is inevitable that speakers of other languages hardly have any other choice but to make do; living harmoniously is, then, a puzzle that cannot be solved simply by “chairs” considering language barrier is just a minutiae while, in fact, it is not.

  • Sirin says:

    As someone with a Turkish family background, I can relate to the problems and concerns mentioned in the article. My parents also grew up in small villages, where I’ve spent several weeks so far during my summers. Dialects and local varieties are preserved by villagers and life is basically isolated from the city in all ways. Children go to school in the village, medical assistance exists and grocery needs can also be fulfilled locally. Until a certain career is pursued, people usually stay within their local community.
    Eastern Turkey, for instance, has big Kurdish-speaking communities, who exclusively socialise with their own local people, hardly learning the official language throughout their lives and hence struggling when it comes to finding a job. It is difficult to find accurate solutions in both cases, as both cultures, Aboriginal and Kurdish, have suffered from oppression. It is surely important to preserve their cultures and languages, nonetheless, active participation within society usually functions most successfully over one official language.

  • Nana says:

    The case of aboriginals in the remote Australia about education seems quite similar to other cases in countries like Colombia where there is also a high number of aboriginal languages that sincerely very few people is interested in learning them (including me) and the main reason seems to be financial; apparently learning an aboriginal language does not help you to produce money. Many consider that it is easy to teach aboriginal the official language of their country rather than learning theirs; even when learning an aboriginal language may bring us a big knowledge about their culture, traditions and idiosyncrasy. Normally governments do not give the adequate attention to the education of aboriginal groups as they are a minority.

  • 123 says:

    By highlighting the gap between Indigenous and mainstream literacy rates, Kavanagh links English literacy with power. Limited literacy skills isolate Indigenous Australians from mainstream Australia, a cycle perpetuated by diminished access to higher education, employment and political visibility. Dr Anita Heiss, renowned Indigenous Australian author, put it best: “Literacy is essential to Aboriginal people’s self-determination. If we cannot read we cannot make the decisions that inevitably impact our lives” (Indigenous Literacy Foundation, 2018, “Who we are”).

    Indigenous Literacy Foundation (2018). Who we are. Retrieved August 3, 2018, from https://www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au/who-we-are

  • Thi Bach Tuyet Nguyen says:

    In this article, it is stated that the Aboriginal language is for culture whereas English is for jobs. As language not only preserves cultural identity but also develops the local economy. For instance, Aboriginal Health Worker can raise people’s awareness towards health problem thanks to language skills. Like Vietnam, the government try to have access languages in areas of ethnic minority to be used in different fields like education though the Kinh language still remains dominant in every aspects of life in our country.

  • Ngoc Hiep Nguyen says:

    The article illustrates the importance of Aboriginal languages not only in isolated local communities but also in a broader world. They are not only “language for the home”, but also “language for the outside world”. As far as I am concerned, although aboriginal languages ( within certain minority communities) are not widely used, it is impossible for the standard languages to replace them in certain situations. The Aboriginal language in Australia as perpetuated in this article is a good case in point. The Aboriginal language is effectively applied in many work places which are typical to such occupations as healthcare staffs, cashiers, police officers, and so forth. Additionally, it seems to me that there’s always a dichotomy between the modern and the backward in every facet of life, and languages are not the exception.

  • salam moussa oghli says:

    It was such an influential article as it efficiently challenged the educational system which has unfortunately become a mere box-ticking routine across various educational intuitions that stripped education from its humane core objectives.
    When I worked at AEMP centres with refugees from my Middle Eastern background, the majority of the students who were in the lower classes were not engaged with the teaching materials nor used methods, the teachers were being drained with too much prep work, and the students counted on their attendance to receive their fortnightly Centrelink payments. Moreover, they were not aware of what opportunities this new home offered and what they can achieve because of the unsuccessful ways of conveying these essential pieces of information for a confused, culture-shocked new settler. We have seen how a lot of the refugees stay in certain areas, progress very slowly and greatly count on governmental benefits with lack of ambition and aspiration. That is why, as the article suggests, we need to address the issue of “pretend learning” and start working on true, goal oriented, communicative teaching where we are sincerely aware of the starting point to truly reach to our objective; real jobs and a powerful, self-efficient community.

  • Thi Bach Tuyet Nguyen says:

    I am impressed by the way the Aboriginal language and its comparison with English analysed. To be specific, Aboriginal people can use language skills at their workplace for some kinds of jobs such as police officers, teaching assistants, health workers and many more whereas the Aboriginal language is preserved for cultural identity. Then, learning the Aboriginal language is useful for learners to communicate with others and maintain its culture as well. In the article entitled “Literacy and the differential value of knowledge “, it is said that Aboriginal people obviously lived in Australia but the land did not belong to them. Therefore, we should preserve the Aboriginal language, respect its values.

  • Orpheus says:

    I am now living in the central highlands of Vietnam in which there are many ethnic minority groups who are indigenous to this land. While Vietnamese is the official language of the Vietnamese (Kinh), it is the second language to these ethnic minorities people. The problem is that when they have some problems related to health and need to go to a hospital, they could not explain their health conditions to the doctors because they cannot speak the official language well. Therefore, the authority established many classes that teach the doctors and staffs the language spoken by these minority groups, so that they can interact effectively with the patients. At the same time, the government also send teachers of Vietnamese to the mountainous and remote areas to teach Vietnamese to the people living there, so they can be able to use the national language to communicate with everyone, helping them to achieve their own aims as a member of a community.

  • Yang says:

    Link to the last article “Erasing diversity”, I totally agree with the points that the aboriginal languages are for ‘home’ and English is for ‘outside world’. Same situation in China, the language diversity is a common phenomenon spread around whole Chinese land. Mandarin is the ‘outside’ language which mainly uses for communicating with different people; the aboriginal languages are the ‘home’ language which we use to communicate with the people who can speak the same or who from the same ‘home’ (which is the same language system, or can be allocated by the same pronunciation system). With the tendency that English is being the main language which mainly uses in education and business, however, unfortunately that in many countries, they haven’t noticed the disappearance of language diversity.

  • Nasser says:

    The article validly points out those issues that might arise as a consequence of undermining local languages. Similar to the indigenous Australians’ experience of the domination of English, Iranian minority ethnic groups, which do not speak the official language of the country, have suffered the supremacy of Persian language.
    For instance, among more than 75 languages and dialects spoken in Iran, Azari is the second most spoken language in the country after Persian (Seifi, 2014). Nevertheless, students who speak Azari, underperform since their language is officially banned at school. They struggle in reading as well as writing and speaking skills in Farsi. This is mainly because the language they use for oral communication with people from their ethnic group is Azari. Not only are they literary discriminated, but they also find it hard to socially and culturally integrate with members of other communities. In light of this, the restriction of linguistic rights could have a detrimental impact on education and socialisation. Encouraging recognition of local languages seems to be the response to the challenge.

  • Farzaneh Morovati says:

    Hello,

    This research blog post reminded me of some specific places in my country which are far-fetched villages with specific languages ( near to extinction). The young people of those places have left their homes and have come to big cities to make wider communications and earn money. Making broad communications has become the dominant factor of living in the modern life and solidarity of some communities just makes them more distant from widely acceptable frames, so preserving the values and local customs of communities (like the Aboriginals) would be demanding for their local people. What is really interesting is that Aboriginal people are defending their identity and community although it may not be to their benefits. The power of literacy and cultural diversity is clear as well. In my opinion, there must be a balance in preserving the local values and keeping international communications, since it is worthy to preserve the old traditions in this fast pacing world which nearly everything is heading towards less diversity (giving less credits to powerless populations/communities) in order to make communications and business more conveniently than before.

    Thank you
    Farzaneh Morovati

  • Luis Torres Vasquez says:

    This article and video explore accurately the problem of the Western education dominance in Australia. However, it is impossible for me not to relate it to the current status of indigenous and minority languages in Peru. Despite the government’s efforts in developing legislation (http://www.minedu.gob.pe/campanias/lenguas-originarias-del-peru.php) which seeks to protect and preserve indigenous languages, or even the apparent futile work done by NGOs in the matter of language preservation; mainstream positions are still winning the battle, having Spanish, English or any other European language as the ones Peruvian speakers must use. The English (or German, French, and so on) prestige may be explained by the effect of international linguistic necessity that this language has gathered around it due to economic reasons at first. Nevertheless, the Spanish supremacy over aboriginal languages notoriously resides in more obscure motives: racism and social segregation. As Bendezú illustrates when talking about the current status of Quechua (https://elcomercio.pe/peru/futuro-lenguas-nativas-peru-noticia-455237), in 1961 33% of Peruvians had Quechua as their mother tongue, by 2007 the number reduced to 11% only. This dramatic reduction, as an example of the situation of all aboriginal languages (Quechua is the one that has more speakers), has led Webb (as quoted in Bendezú, 2017) claim that Quechua and Aymara will lose more speakers and that other minority languages will disappear. Moreover, unbelievably Lima has around 72 thousand of Quechua speakers, the largest number of speakers of it in Peru; however, no one uses it and it is not taught in schools in Peru’s capital. Perhaps this rather pessimistic view, despite de efforts cited, may be strengthened by what Webb (https://elcomercio.pe/opinion/columnistas/futuro-quechua-richard-webb-292022) documented in his article when talking about how people from the highlands think about their own language: When a couple in Cuzco, Peru was asked why they had attended a talk about a bilingual education program which was going to benefit their children, they replied that they did not want their children to learn Quechua, “si permitimos que eso suceda, nuestros hijos seguirán viviendo en este país sin ser parte de él” (if we allow that to happen, our children will keep living in a country without being part of it). This last quote is strikingly brutal as clear. The government’s work is not being effective enough all across the country, and the perception of aboriginal languages is still the same: they are a sociocultural stigma for many.

  • Fee says:

    Hi all.

    I was looking at adding a 3rd language to my repertoire only recently, and having done some interpreter training I was looking at how difficult particular languages are, for a native English speaker. The most commonly used scale that I’ve seen used throughout the years was the FSI (foreign services institute) scale https://www.state.gov/m/fsi/sls/c78549.htm which essentially grades languages into 4 categories based on how linguistically and culturally different they are from English, making them more or less difficulty for a native English speaker to learn. The languages with a closer cultural and linguistic relationship to English, French and German for example, are only category 1 or 2, whereas the languages that don’t share a common ancestor and have significant linguistic differences and are more distant fall into the much more difficult categories 3 or 4. I do want to emphasis that the higher tier languages on that scale are not inherently more difficult, the difficulty is for ‘native English speakers’ based on how culturally and linguistically similar those languages are to English. A language being more similar to your first language makes it easier to learn. And so the works in the inverse as well, with English being more or less difficult based on how similar it is to the learner’s mother tongue or second language that they have become fluent in.

    Applying this to Australian Aboriginal languages, this then demonstrates how difficult learning English as a second language is for these students and adult learners, with 17% of Indigenous Australians reporting that they did not speak English well or at all on the most recent census: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/lookup/2076.0main+features902011 this will be the situation for some students. Given how dissimilar the languages are with no recent common ancestor, learning English without full immersion (only 4 hours a day as per the Northern Territory policy) would be incredibly difficult. 4 hours a day sounds like a lot, but looking at the average number of hours the FSI spends training a learning of a category 3 or 4 language, we are looking at many years of devoted study. And that’s simply learning the English language, let alone using the English language to learn which requires a higher level of proficiency. And that is in addition to the paucity of resources available. All of which are reasons why those jobs are so valid and required, individuals fluent in both languages and cultures have a valuable and necessary skill that required a multitude of hours to hone, and which is required to deliver vital services to a large proportion of our society.

  • Natalie Estrella says:

    I found both the article and the video to be very insightful commentary on the situation for literacy and health standards within Aboriginal Australia. As the article in particular alludes to, this is a very complex issue resulting from the invasion of a culture and political decisions of the past that lacked an appreciation for and respect of the indigenous language and culture. I agree with Brendan that it is crucial for positions to be made available in areas such as healthcare and education for aboriginal people to provide services within the aboriginal communities for aboriginal people. As Brendan mentions, this is a matter of trust, something of which I understand to be of great importance within the Aboriginal culture. It is only when this level of respect is given to the Aboriginal culture and language that we can hope to see improvements in these areas of society.

  • Lai Ng says:

    It just explains the equivalent importance of putting L1 and L2 in our main stream curriculum. There should be no boundary between local language and English. They both serve the purpose of communication in the vernacular. In the example of helping and developing better Aboriginal community, L1 serves not only communication but the constructive bond building between government sectors and the people. Sharing same language helps to understand the context of each other. The advantages are immense and essential for effective commmunication.

  • QX says:

    The topics that the aboriginal language is useless in the workplace were too absolute, which cannot apply to all the country or areas. I think the aboriginal languages are still used in some workplaces, although most of the offices are using the main language. Take the example of China, there are fifty-six nations in China and over fifty dialects are used in different areas of China. The department such as bank, hospital and the public services place still using the dialects because it is hard for the older people who cannot speak Mandarin.

  • AzPc says:

    It is true that one model for teaching language cannot be used for all the communities and cultural groups. especially for the local people that they have a really different education system as the model. In this example, oral education was used to teach children for thousands of years and it is obvious that it cannot be just changed recently. Although Australia is a multilingual and multicultural country, it does not mean that everyone should follow the English-based western education system to learn literacy.

  • Siyi Wu says:

    This article is closely connecting with the last paper. There is a significant question for most of counties: choosing culture or choosing living. It should be considered that English is really important for everywhere in Australia and too be honest, Aboriginal language cannot be used now. But it does not mean that Aboriginal language is not useful. It is actually the inheritance of culture. Most of counties focus on the individuals` living but ignore the historical culture, which is not right. Both culture and living should be developed and assisted.

  • Luv says:

    At this point in life it is difficult to justify the practices of non-indigenous people who in their desire to acquire power and land, decided to take over the lands that belong to others and impose language, religion, beliefs and many more things, without the slightest intention of considering learning, adapting or listening to what these subjected groups have the right to say. By saying that aboriginal people need to be integrated into society is disrespectful in its deeper meaning of the word itself. It sounds like by teaching them English, the government is doing them a favour to be able to get better opportunities in a system that is ruled by them and that does not favour them at all in any aspect. The language, only, cannot be the one that provides them with better conditions and opportunities and respect. However, language is a powerful tool for any community and it is imperative that indigenous people are given the opportunity to develop communication skills so that they can in turn help to conserve and share their culture, knowledge and language. To achieve this, the mindset of society in general should be changed to appreciate and respect what is out there.

  • Naoya says:

    This article has given me a new insight into significance of Aboriginal languages for indigenous communities for cultural and linguistic education. Admittedly, it is essential for us to put a focus on learning the language commonly used in the workplace. However, it does not mean that other languages used in indigenous areas, such as Aboriginal languages, should be underestimated in terms of career. In fact, in Aboriginal communities, there are demands for those who can communicate with indigenous community members with language skills and deep understandings of their culture to enrich not only the indigenous community but also other communities. In Japan, we are expected to speak standard Japanese, which is usually spoken in Tokyo, for business. Even though there is not any serious issue with Japanese as Aboriginal languages due to the fact that Japan is a monolingual country, this article has given me reconsideration about possibility and importance of regional features in our languages called dialect.

  • Gab says:

    I find this blog post interesting because of its emphasis on how language affects the cultivation of literacy among children (and even adults) in remote places. It reminds me of the privileged positioning of English in my country. Although English is considered the second official language, it puts so power especially in the classroom where students are required to use the language in conversation and uses it as the medium of instruction. The scenario may seem fine in the cities, but not in the outskirts in the country.

    Language, as we know it, is an effective tool in communication and the ultimate goal of communication is understanding. How can there be understanding if the language “foreign” to them is being used? This post made me reflect on three key elements in achieving this goal – ideology, culture, and affective, all of which operate within the language system known to them.

  • Piiigah (kamali) says:

    The life of the aboriginals has always been interesting to me. I always thought that if you call a group of people differently, you force them to believe that they are not a part of society. For example, they call me an international student – we are different to local students, we are even treated differently, even though most of us are from different countries to each other.

    Aboriginals didn’t put effort to learn English as much as they could because in my opinion they don’t want to accept losing their territory and their continent. They view adopting the language as giving in to this.

    And this theory affected their health and their job due to avoiding learning how to live in a modern system and how to come up with the new science and new health methods.

    The power of literacy again here is playing a significant role. And it is a very clear example of lacking in knowledge and its negative influence on the ways of human living, whether it is daily life or work environments.

  • yy says:

    Firstly, the title of the article is not true for me. In my opinion, it depends on the situation which includes the types of the jobs, the place where people workers and the community workers need to contact. For example,in China there are 34 provinces and each province has its own dialect. Mandarin is the main language which almost Chinese can understand. However, there is someone who lives in a small town for the whole life and speaks their own dialect even cannot understand the mandarin. As a result, in the aspect of the service industry such as the bank, hospital, and restaurant, it is necessary to employ the person who knows the aboriginal languages.

  • Haley says:

    I feel that the mainstream and official outlook highlighted in this article, that the type of jobs requiring aboriginal language skills are not ‘real jobs’, is an attitude that needs to be adjusted.

    As the author has highlighted, many services cannot function without these skills. These jobs also meet the definition of the word ‘job’, in that the worker goes to a place, performs a service and gets paid money for it. Aboriginal languages should be considered as an asset to the job, as they are in many other multilingual jobs.

    These jobs are as real as any other and it would seem that an education system that embraced that and was more culturally sensitive may provide better outcomes for these communities.

  • J Ng says:

    In fact, I have never thought of aboriginal language related concerns like the ones raised in the article before. The data in the video made me feel a bit shocked when noticing such a gap between (disadvantaged) indigenous children and non-indigenous children. Reading the article reminded me of the same situation in my home country where the dominant language is higher valued. I agree that indigenous people should be able to communicate a “shared” language throughout the country so that they may be exposed to more opportunities which help improve their living conditions. However, it does not mean aboriginal languages are no longer important and useless because to many people, their languages are the cultural identity of a community which need to be preserved.
    I believe each language has its beauty and significance in terms of recording history and maintaining tradition, so everyone must grow up knowing their language before learning any other languages.
    The examples in the articles also addressed the important role of aboriginal languages in many cases. This can somehow relate to my home countries when aboriginal learners/speakers still get good jobs and contribute to their community in different ways. Therefore, it can be assumed that every language and culture needs to be protected and preserved.

  • Yan Yan says:

    In my opinion, it is necessary to learn several different languages. Aboriginal languages are a symbol of their nation, this is their identity, but learning English can help Aboriginal people better integrate into modern society. Only by gaining communication channels can you better express your views. I agree with the above point that the most important thing for Aboriginal people to learn English is to get the ability to communicate information in the vernacular. This is not a cultural invasion, but a help.

  • Arnon says:

    It can be said that the Aboriginal language is for culture, English is for jobs. In my opinion, Australian people can learn both English and Aboriginal language to maintaining the local job in workplace and the local Aboriginal people can also learn English in order to develop their language and culture, in particular, in the Art workplace. We should think about how literacy can save the local language and to communicate them to the outside or real world.

  • Nidhi Dhir says:

    Undoubtedly language and culture go hand in hand, this article has raised a crucial question about utility of aboriginal language t workplace. in my opinion to keep culture alive, giving importance to aboriginal language is stepping stone. As India is diverse country where each state has its own culture and language government applies three language system under which from primary to Senior secondary Hindi (national language) English (second language) and one regional language is mandatory for students in public as well as private schools. Therefore, the regional languages are still in use in workplaces. English and Hindi languages are bringing unity in diversity and the importance of aboriginal language is given priority.

  • Preeya says:

    Aboriginal or minority languages manifest our former linguistic wealth. In this article, “Are Aboriginal languages really useless in the workplace”. It is true that, in Australia, Aboriginal or minority languages was prohibited by government policies. Just only 60 Aboriginal languages are remained. As a result, some Australia’s culture and history are also lost. According to, the previous article, “Erasing diversity”, I totally agree to maintain traditional Thai language in many reasons because of in Thailand, English as a tool of communication in some workplaces and traditional Thai language was not prohibited by government policies. Learning both English as a foreign language in order to communicate with other people around the world and learning Thai language for protecting Thai culture, history, and values are possible to make. However, in the workplace in Australia, English language as a global language and a tool of communication, communication in English language is important for many goals of businesses such as for people working with colleagues, customers and co-workers from another countries to understand each other; therefore, they can form effective and productive working relationships.

  • yy says:

    I was amazed by this article, it makes me remind the minor group ethnic groups’ languages in Vietnam (there are 54 communities). Kinh people are the dominant ethnic group in Vietnam. Although these languages of the minor ethnic groups seem useless in school or workplace, people should preserve these languages. As they present an aspect of culture as well.

  • Tingting says:

    Conserving aboriginal language plays a significant role in the cultural diversity. English has become the global language in the world; Mandarin is the official language in China. However, in any country in the world, there are always some people speak their native language, and they take the responsibility to pass on it. For example, in some minority regions of China, people are still speaking their own native languages, such as Tibet in China. In particular, some old people who cannot speak mandarin cannot live without their own language. So, for example, Banks, shops, hospitals still need people who speak native languages to work. On the other hand, in order to prevent the disappearance of this indigenous language, the government should encourage local people to use their own language.

  • Au says:

    I enjoy how the suggested ideas are clarified by the specific jobs in detail. I believe it is the good way to connect the minor language with the main language in a country. Furthermore, it is really useful for those who cannot speak the main language. However, I just wonder how long this plan could last. In the post, the author suggested that people who are bilingual in English and Aboriginal can work as Aboriginal Health Workers. This method can help for the older generation who cannot speak English. However, the potential problem is that the young generation will be taught bilingual language at school so in the long term, they do not have the need of from Aboriginal Health Workers.

  • A. Amila Dabare says:

    This article opens my mind. This took me back to my own country. I worked in a rural area where there was severe war. People in that area suffered a lot due to many reasons. Poverty is another reason. So far I have understood that third world countries suffer. There are schools, hospitals and community centres but with poor quality. There are few teachers, doctors and educated people those who came form cities, but they do not stay long. I understood that information pointed out in the above article are similar to my home country. My country, Sri Lanka is a tiny dot in the world.
    This informative text is really useful. Everybody thinks that Australia is a rich country and people have high level of literacy and good health conditions. However, the effort that has been taken for upgrade is appreciated.
    Two months before I did an assignment on NAPLAN writing test. ACARA website clearly say that they prepare the test papers to suit each part of the country and they conduct trial tests. According to this article I have to accept that there are some concerns in regards to this test.
    Indigenous people and their languages are asserts to the country, but there are clearly explained reasons for the necessity of literacy.

  • J.J says:

    It is true that many aboriginal languages are lost. One of the reasons is that the use of aboriginal languages was banned over many years by government policies. For example, in Australia, there were more than 200 aboriginal languages existed; however, only 60 languages are survived. It means that not only some languages have disappeared, but also the Indigenous cultures are also lost which are connected with their history and tradition. However, although I agree to maintain and protect indigenous languages, it is impossible to work without using a common language at the workplace. (It does not mean that indigenous languages are of less value than English and it is problematic to educate and employ people). This is because the workplace is not a place for conversation with family or friends, but a place where people should communicate and exchange exact information with various people without making any misunderstanding.

    • J Ng says:

      I was quite surprised when reading your comment regarding the number of aboriginal languages in Australia. As I’m now a part of the community, I do want to know a bit more about Australian culture and languages. So, please share if you may have more interesting information related to the disappearing of any Australian traditions and languages (perhaps which you find most important and are there any consequences or effects of such lost?). I’ll really appreciate! Thank you.

  • Machiko says:

    In this fast-paced society where efficiency and communication are put more priority, I realize the difficulty to spread the cultures of aborigine people once they have been dominated by another major country. Now that English has become widespread as a common international language, it is almost impossible to make their language outpace English because of its uniqueness. Nevertheless, it is still possible to keep aboriginal cultures alive as long as we show respect and comprehend the values of indigenous people. Therefore, we should appreciate the significance of their cultures. Without our ancestors, it would be highly unlikely to maintain the foundation of our society.

  • Tamanna says:

    There is no doubt that the culture of Australian English is more advanced that aboriginal culture. But for me, it is important to keep alive own culture of an individual. In my country, Bangladesh, there are many aboriginal people. Earlier they were neglected by the educated people. Recently government take initiatives for retain their language and culture. Aboriginal people were deprived of education in previous days. But new schools are being opened for them on their locality where children learn their own language along with Bangla. I think, learning indigenous language is very important for children to retain their culture and better communication with the outer world.

  • gab88 says:

    I think this blog has some great take home points about societies expectation and the cultural gap. More Often than not, this world we live in, likes to treat the problem not the cause, providing Band-Aid solutions, as it was mentioned in the article.
    Sometimes, if a perceived problem is reoccurring and doesn’t fit in to ‘western’ norms like in the article with Trackton community’s children at school and their failing grades from early on, it can cause a spiral affect that will repeat for generations.
    Though with that being said, being Australian I have notice a shift in cultural awareness in communities, for example, I used to live in a Suburb in Sydney called Ashfield and the cultural demographic has shifted in the area from European to Asian. I had an incident where I had to go give a statement at the local police station and on a particular occasion I had a chat with an Asian police man (new to the force) telling me why he was posted in Ashfield, in a nut shell it was basically due to the rise of the Chinese population in the area as he was able to communicate with them and understand them culturally. Maybe awareness is slowly growing.

  • Thuy Linh Nguyen says:

    This situation of Aboriginal Community is the same as many ethnic groups in Vietnam. In Vietnam, there are 54 communities, in which Kinh accounts for 86 percent of the total population and speaks Vietnamese, the official language in Vietnam. Meanwhile, other minorities speak their own languages, including Thái, Mông, Tày, Nùng, Khmer, Gia Rai, Ê đê, Hoa, Chăm. To develop awareness, knowledge and the quality of life in the regions where ethnic groups live, the government in Vietnam also ask for the help of local people as they know the languages and understand the communities’ culture. Moreover, some ethnic languages, such as hái, Hoa, Khmer, Chăm, Ê-đê, Tày-Nùng, Cơ ho chữ Lào, are used in classes.
    Thuy Linh Nguyen

  • Pegah Marandi says:

    Dear all,

    It seems that in all countries the matter of “Indigenous” and “New” cultures clashes. Reading this article reminded me of different tribes in Iran, my country, such as “Kurds,” “Lors,” and “Turks” who are still fighting with the contemporary culture and the government to nail as an independent cultures. Indigenous cultures and languages are of vital importance for they were the first who were borne out of the novel culture and language; the new culture such as post post modern culture and language follow them. When new culture treats the Aboriginal for instance in Australia as one who is not as well-disciplined and well mannered person as an ordinary one is, it leads to anger and annoyance for them. They believe that they were the first tribe and group who lived in Australia for thousands of years and now they are considered as outcasts and minorities. As Brendan in his video clip mentioned, that can be one reason of cultural gap seen vividly amid Indigenous and New, Westernised cultures. On the whole, all the groups, tribes, and languages should be identified as same, so the child from new generation can maintain his/ her culture and language from thousand of years preceding his/ her era.

    With regards,
    Pegah

  • Abe says:

    In my country, Colombia, there are currently 60 aboriginal languages spoken. The government has been making major efforts in implementing bilingual education (Aboriginal language – Spanish) as it is mandated in the country’s constitution. This has been done through ethnolinguistic programs that focus on each of the cases and attempt to highlight the importance of aboriginal language over Spanish. However these attempts have not been very successful. This means that the dominance of Spanish is driving most of these languages to extinction as their speakers often see Spanish as more ‘modern and useful’ than their native languages.

    In the following link there is some interesting information about the context of my country regarding aboriginal languages: https://www.pri.org/stories/2011-05-15/colombia-saving-dying-languages

    • Thank you for the link to the interesting article!
      It seems to me that the metaphor of language death often obscures the violence involved in the process. The article at least alludes to the fact that language loss doesn’t just happen but is the result of centuries of colonization and dispossession.

  • Ss says:

    We couldn’t say that the English-speaking countries’ culture (in this text mainly refer to Australia ) is better than Aboriginal culture, but we may argue that English-speaking communities’ culture is more advanced than Aboriginal culture. However, this argument doesn’t mean racial discrimination.
    The article makes me think about the real situation happened in me own county— China. In China, the importance of learning English is even higher than learning our own language. There are so many reasons why Chinese people pay so much attention to English language learning. Maybe because of the globalisation, people who can speak fluent English may have more opportunities to work in a multinational corporations. Maybe because most of the scientific inventions are more likely to first publish in English, we need to master English in order to keep in touch with the world. However, whatever the reason is, it must because the benefits of learning English are greater than the disadvantages.
    Then, let’s go back to this articles. For most Aboriginal people, especially young people, learning English may lead them to have a better life. Because they may have more opportunities to find a job, earn more money, or even have a better health status. Therefore, helping Aboriginal people learning English is a good policy, while at the same time, it is also important for the goverment to consider how to keep the original culture of indigenous which can be seen as an important identity of Australia.

  • Rochelle says:

    This is an impressive insight for me to rethink about the importance of the indigenous’ culture, language and existence in the community. It is inevitable that people will tend to think that it may not be that important to learn this language as it might not be popular or widely used. However, coming from a multilingual country, Singapore, I feel that it is crucial and essential for an individual to keep the “roots” of his or her culture and respect it. For example, when I was in Singapore, it is mandatory for us to learn two languages (English and mother tongue language) and we are taught in some dialects as well like Cantonese. Thus, when I come to Australia, a lot of people are surprised on why do I know so many languages and it not only help in tightening the bond with people from different countries in a new environment, it helps me get a job easily in because I am multilingual. Therefore, I believe that learning an indigenous language is not a bad thing after all, it brings in the culture, the perspective of the people and the heritage values.

  • Wendie LIU says:

    I am really amazed by the contributor’s excellent performance in giving such an impressive presentation and the critical writing of this passage about the argumentation of the necessary using of the aboriginal language in Australia. From my point of view, as a foreigner in Australia, I agree that continuing the maintenance and delivery of the various aboriginal languages in the northern territory is more likely to be viewed as a favorable way for the Australian government to preserve the indigenous cultural and linguistic diversity. What’s more, the inheritance of the aboriginal languages could mainly boost the society stability, followed by the amelioration of the local educational and medical systems, the improvement of people’s recognition toward law enforcement and the lifting rate of the dwellers’ literacy and numeracy.
    In China, there is a slightly different from the situation in Australia, since China is one of the most populous countries in the world, the knowledge in almost every province was mainly taught in Mandarin, while outside the classroom, the students could also get access to their local dialects due to their indigenous language environment around them, undoubtedly most of them are available to be educated to learn them from daily practices when they were very little. Besides, in my hometown, being equipped with diverse vernaculars is largely regarded as being greatly advantaged in hunting for a decent job in the future, since no matter what languages or vernaculars they seem to be viewed as different windows, once you opened them, a completely different world will be shown in front of you.

  • Thet says:

    The article inspires me to consider form its title. The notion of a language, being useless in the workplace can be implied that there are few staff members of that language community in the workplace and few business firms owned by Aborigines. This inference might lead to the question of why this issue is happening: whether the speakers of those Aboriginal languages cannot have either equitable access to education or inclusion in the education system or prosperity in economic sectors. As coming from a diverse language country, Myanmar with 135 ethnic groups and “a total of 111 spoken languages” (Source: http://lib.nagaokaut.ac.jp/ kiyou/data/language/ g19/ G19_11.pdf), it is recognised that language plays a vital role in building respect and harmony in every context, including the workplace.
    In my opinion, any language could be useful in its own ways: specifically, interacting with its community members and preserving their identities wherever they are.

  • Cami says:

    The reality of education influencing different language communities and regions differently and the necessity of different kinds of education for different people in the same nation was interesting. In the cities people can choose to home school their children, or send them to Montessori schools or even specialist French, Japanese, etc. immersion language high schools or even sports high schools. In the cities it seems like educational choices are quite varied however in the regional areas things are not that easy. It would be great for Aboriginal people to be able to have more of a say in their educational systems and curriculums and be able to include more culturally relevant subjects. Sometimes comparisons are drawn between New Zealand schools where children are expose to Maori language, and Australian schools where we are not exposed to Aboriginal languages. The difficulty that stems from having so many different Aboriginal languages means that it is harder to develop a national curriculum and smaller organisations would be required to organise curriculums for the language and culture for that area. However, if this was to translate to increase individual and community mental and social well-being then costs for the development of such projects could well be offset by gains in healthcare and healthy social participation. I have heard of some schools incorporating the local language into their curriculums but there is still a long way to go.

  • Van Le says:

    As reading this article, I found it not only interesting but also informative and convincing. It reminds me of other minor ethnic groups’ languages in Vietnam – my home country (in Vietnam, there are 54 ethnic groups). I used to think that they were just the languages those people use at home and at school or at work with Kinh people (the dominant ethic group that constitutes the majority of Vietnamese population), these languages are useless. However, now I realized that these languages play fundamental role in contributing and building a strong and harmonious community as without people who can speak these languages, there would be less connections, inefficient services and sustainable development in those communities, which also affect negatively to the whole country. People working in different geographical and ethnical communities should be able to speak different vernacular so that they can build trust and offer better service for the local people.

  • Karly says:

    Article provides a great illustration that knowledge of Aboriginal or minority languages may not necessarily be useless in a workplace. Fundamentally as long as there are communities present who utilise said minority or Aboriginal languages, an innate need for workers to need to be proficient in these languages will exist. Inevitably, the need to be literate in these languages is quite niche, however it appears that to outright dismiss the usefulness or utility of the ability to speak aboriginal or minority languages is a little naive.

  • Li says:

    I am really impressed by this reading. It is true that English as a lingua franca in Australia is increasingly used by many people in many areas such as law, education or medical system. It is still significantly important to protect aboriginal community’s culture and language. Their languages are not useless. In contrast, aboriginal languages should be regarded as an essential way to convey the aboriginal community’s message to other communities. Also, The aboriginal languages should be related to the mainstreaming language and community in order to protect every community.

  • Laura says:

    Thanks for this post – it really provides a strong case for re-thinking the way we value not only minority languages, but the people doing the important work of bridging linguistic and cultural divides. A definite weakness in the argument for limited preservation for reasons of “heritage” only is that it may contribute towards this idea that speakers of the language have an English deficit, as English is expected to be used in other domains, rather than question why those interacting with them don’t have the language skills needed to do so, or undervalue the linguistic/cultural brokers who help them do this.

  • Gegentuul says:

    Really enjoyed reading this blog and watching the video! Cultural brokers are needed so much from the two worlds to save lives, save money and more importantly to re-energize a community. This blog also reminds me of Rashid and Bolad https://www.languageonthemove.com/cultural-brokering/

    • Excellent article! Really enjoyed reading it; relevant in so many other contexts.Tove Skutnabb-Kangas

      • Yongqi says:

        Hi everyone,
        Thanks Brendan for sharing this insighful post. The amazing reading has provided some impressive points for me to think about. Firstly, ‘mainstream’ languages do have a negative influence on the minority languages. For example, in China, kids are required to learn the standard Madarain when they are very young. Nowadays, more children are speaking Madarain not only at school but also at home which is actually destroying the diversity of Chinese dialects. As we all know, language delivers more than just the meaning of words. It can also be the bridge to connect the communication between multi cultures. Secondly, it is helpful to remind linguistic teachers that they are playing a key role in language teaching and culture transmission to their students. Linguistic teachers should possess the awareness that it is important for them to pass both language knowledge and cultural knowledge to their learners. In addition, after reading this post, I would say that L1 languistic teachers may have their own strengths to explain and convey the culture better.

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