Euroasia: Language, Culture and Travel

DID YOU KNOW?

• China is Australia’s largest two-way trading partner.
• In 2008 there were 66,000 Chinese nationals studying in Australia, the largest contingent of Australia’s international student population.
• Only 2.5% of Australian year 12 students study Chinese, and 94% of them are first language speakers

Source: Asia Education Foundation (2009) “An Australian curriculum for the 21st century”, winter 2009.

Vancouver

Economist Intelligence Unit just announced their list of most liveable cities in the world.  Vancouver came out tops. The City of Sails was ranked the 12th best city to live in. Wellington is ranked 23rd. This is a poor showing for Auckland compared to the April 09 announcement by Mercer that Auckland is the 4th most liveable city in the world. According to Wikipedia, the EIU and Mercer surveys are the most authoritative surveys of liveable cities.

When Mercer announced the list of most liveable cities for 2009, the Aussie paper Daily Telegraph headline was “Auckland beats out Sydney in Worldwide Quality of Living Survey“. If there is one thing the Aussies hate more than losing, it’s getting beaten by the Kiwis.  Anyway, the latest survey from EIU released this week will surely make the Aussies happy.  Their 3 major cities, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth all rank within the top 10 list.

These most liveable city surveys look at factors like stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, infrastructure etc in deciding the rankings.

I think most people choose to emigrate to New Zealand because of one or both of these reasons:

1) Clean and green environment, generally safe ie. great quality of life

2) Children’s education

Auckland

As more and more people get burned out living in the larger European and Asian cities, I’m sure the appeal of New Zealand will only increase. Most migrants end up in Auckland, largely because it’s a good compromise. Auckland may be the big smoke in a South Pacific context, but not really if compared to the major European and Asian cities.  1.4m is approximately the population of an average Shanghai suburb.

Living in Auckland is about getting the best of both worlds.  Easy access to some of the most beautiful spots in the world, reasonable climate, and generally good quality of life. These reasons will surely keep people coming.

Immigration policy should focus on facilitating easy access for skilled migrants. We also need to define skills pretty widely. Smart people may not have university degrees. In fact the majority of the self-made billionaires on the Fortune Magazine Rich List don’t either. Current immigration policy makes it difficult for people who may not be well qualified but could add a lot of value to New Zealand to be granted residency.

EIU’s list of most liveable cities in the world 2009:

Auckland ranked 12th

VISION! This is so important. And vision doesn’t just happen. Strong leadership is critical. Which is why I’m pretty impressed with what Australia is doing. Our mates held the Australia 2020 Summit over the weekend.

The Summit brought together community leaders, business people and ordinary folk, to talk about the best ideas for building a modern Australia ready for the challenges of the 21st century.

What’s most impressive from a language-learning perspective is that delegates to the national security and future prosperity stream called for a radical ramping up of language skills. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith declared the goal “a most important thing”.

“We have to make Australia’s understanding of Asian literacy and Asian culture almost second nature to us,” Mr Smith said.

“This is a most important thing we can do, not just from an international relations point of view but also from our young schoolchildren’s point of view.”

I suppose anyone who has heard Kevin Rudd speak in Mandarin would not be surprised at Australia’s stance. I was totally impressed when I first caught a youtube clip of Kevin Rudd’s speech at Beijing University. He even managed a joke in Mandarin.

And for those of you who understand Mandarin, check this out:

Kevin Rudd talking about himself in Mandarin

Australia’s 2020 vision for languages is inspiring. They would like to see every student in Australia learning a foreign language within 12 years. For a group of people with disparate interests to arrive at a goal like this is pretty remarkable: “to ensure that the major languages and cultures of our region are no longer foreign to Australians but are familiar and mainstreamed into Australian society”.

Now, if anyone wants to sign up for a foreign language class, we have classes starting next week!