darkless

Hi all,

Bit of advise if I may.

I have been contacted by the school my stepson Nathan will attend when we get to Perth (Duncraig SHS) who have asked whether Nathan wants to do French or Indonesian as his LOTE.

He is currently studying French at his school in the UK, but only since he started secondary school in Sept and so this seems the obvious option for him. However he did ask me how useful Indonesian will be - To be honest I dont know the answer - Is Indonesian any use in an international business environment?

He was hoping to do Japaneese, but they dont do it at that school.

Anyone got any thoughts or pearls of wisdom for him?

tonyk38

I think learning any language is a bonus, but then I'm biased, because I love languages. Bahasa Malay the Lingua Franca of Indonesia is relatively easy compared with French, and of course is widely spoken in said country which is not a million miles from Aus. I don't know how useful French would be to the average Aussie. It's spoken in French Polynesia and would probably be useful in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, otherwise I don't know.

If he is good at languages, then encourage it. Sorry to preach, but I was never encouraged at languages by my Mum even though she speaks Gaelic and French. Odd.....

If he ever gets the chance to study Japanese then he should. It's a useful business language to learn with a wonderfully complex writing system!

Ceri

Selamat petang,

It's useful if you're intending to do a lot of business in Indonesia , or even rural villages/parts of Malaysia ( most people in the cities in Malaysia KL and places like Johor Barhu can speak English, they do business in English) a lot of the older folk can't .

I can speak very basic Malay, just enough to get me by ( oral, my written is bad ) . I learnt from the locals , I especially learnt the swear words ( I want to know what people are saying is my trouble)

I was always in and out of Malaysia, so decided to try and learn a bit, and being in Sing there was always people who spoke it fluently as a first, or second language and could help me out with a query of pronunciation

You try even ordering something as simple as milk in your coffee when you can't speak the language in these small villages ( my cow impression was not very good lol although funny to the village children) . Not a huge diff between Indonesian and Malaysian,speak one, you'll understand the other. I'd say It's a pretty easy language to learn if you like the language . Hubby never bothered, he just wanted to know the swearing , but even he picked up some of it in the end.
I personally think it's far easier than French.

French don't ask me, I was never any good at it. I dislike the language , so I couldn't ( wouldn't ) learn it. And I've never needed to speak French either. I think that is half the battle in learning languages, you've got to like the actual language, the sound of the words.. just like music.

Japanese would be good, but I can't tell you if any schools do teach it here.

Regarding languages and business , in my experiences most of Asia when dealing with each other ( ie two different languages) deal in English. for an example an Indonesian and a Chinese person/company they will communicate in English to get themselves understood . We dealt with companies in China a lot on the phone from Sing , they speak excellent English in the business world. Some of the Japanese companies are the worst ones to deal with. Their English tends to be so poor. So if you are intending doing business in Asia, I would say Japanese is the most useful one. But you say that the school does not teach it. Pity, as I think that one is far the best one to learn for business.

Siren & Brian

Hey there!

I am fluent in french and have yet to find an opportunity to use it here in Oz (cept when speaking to my children.)

I also have a teen in Duncraig SHS and she's told me that the time that they actually spend learning the language is so minimal as to be virtually useless.
Unless you plan on supplimenting the schools curricular with a tutor to keep up the language (someone to practice it with) then it is most likely that the language won't stick.

She was a bit disappointed that she didn't get further before the course was over.

Left to me, I would choose French, but ONLY because it is the language of my kids home province and they might require it later on in life. On top of that, they have already been schooled in French for a number of years. They would be expanding their skills.. not developing them from scratch.

As your son has already begun French lessons.. perhaps expanding on those would be best?

Siren

ABCDiamond

In my local area, three local schools teach; Japanese, Indonesian and German. One language at each school.

jad n rich

Indonesians taught because its the language of one of our biggest and closest neighbours.

Japanese is a very difficult language to learn and as Siren said the time dedicated to languages here is so little ( someone now points out their kids get 100 hours a week ) that many schools have gone for another asian language that is percieved as easier.

darkless

Thanks for the replies,

Humm, still unsure what is gonna be best for him. I think it is almost impossible to know whether he will ever need to live or work in Malaysia, after all he is only 12.

I didn't realise that they hardly spend any time on languages. I dunno if doing French would be better or not - if they start from scratch and dont do much of it, then he could take a couple of terms for them to catch up to where he is at now.

Can anyone quantify the amount of time spent per week on languages so i can compare that to what he does now?

Siren & Brian

Just asked my daughter who informs me that it is 2 periods a week which is 2 hours total.

darkless

Cheers for that. I will find out how much Nath does does and compare it.

How does your daughter like Duncraig? Did she have any problems settling in?

Dave

HiddenPaw

Should your son ever want to work in Europe, a second European language would be a huge bonus. I am not sure if French is classed as an "official" language of the EU but it is certainly one of the two most prominent, alongside English. (French is also the offical language of the IOC, although with Sydney 2000 long gone, probably not much help now).

Since French is Latin-based, it can be a key stepping stone to learning other romance languages (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc). Once you understand the grammar concepts of one, it's very easy to adapt to the others. Don't forget it's widely used in the Carribean and Africa as well as French Polynesia and parts of Indo-China & Canada.

I used French as a stepping stone for doing a Spanish degree and later taking up Italian. It made learning these two so much easier.

Siren & Brian

Actually, Chloe is an aussie through and through. We are a Brady Bunch family with my 2 kids immigrating with me and Brian and his two kids dinky di's.
She says that she quite likes the school and has no problems to speak of. It does have a very good reputation and eventually, all of our kids will go there.

Siren

JAJ

And Spanish is becoming increasingly important for working in the U.S.

Jeremy