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We are illiterate

By Jennifer Grant - posted Thursday, 3 May 2012


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chinese writing is very much alive and in use.

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

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About the Author

Since Jennifer Grant was sent to China in the 1970s, on a full Australian government scholarship, she has been bilingual in Mandarin and English. She is also literate in Chinese, which means that she can read and write the language which all Chinese use regardless of dialect spoken.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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