IN 15 years the Myanmar language could be taught widely in Australian schools and universities – if the Australian government acts on the recommendations of a report into developing Asian language literacy.
The report, issued on June 10 by Griffith University’s Asia Institute, has called for the Australian government to spend more than AU$11 billion (US$8.9 billion) on a three-stage Asian literacy program that would quadruple the number of students studying an Asian language.
The Building an Asia-Literate Australia report said Australia needs half of its population competent in an Asian language within the next 30 years or it risks falling behind other Western countries.
Myanmar would be included under phase three of the plan – along with Vietnamese, Thai, Farsi, Bengali, Khmer and Lao – which would be implemented after 15 years.
Japanese, Indonesian and Mandarin Chinese would be targeted in phase one, while Hindi, Korean and Arabic would be added under phase two, according to the report, which was authored by international relations professor Michael Wesley.
Professor Kent Anderson, the director of the Faculty of Asian Studies at The Australian National University in Canberra, told The Myanmar Times on June 11 that he supported the findings of the report and the phased implementation of language study.
But Dr Anderson said he was “a bit surprised” at the languages included under phase three of the plan, adding that there is currently little demand in Australia for languages such as Myanmar, Khmer and Lao.
“All of these are valid choices, but at that level I don’t think we get much by specifying the language,” he said. “Our experience, being the only university to offer those languages in Australia, is that though we get a fair number of students taking courses about Myanmar in English, the number of students taking Myanmar language courses is very, very small.”
“My suggestion is, rather than being prescriptive at this level, we leave it to schools and citizens to pick what is relevant to them and support those languages.”
This would give the program extra flexibility and allow changes to be made based on demand and usefulness, which are difficult to predict years in advance.
“The ability to predict economic rise beyond a decade is fraught at best and the ability to predict crises is inherently the practice of a nearly impossible art,” Dr Anderson wrote in a post on East Asia Forum.
Bilateral trade between Australia and Myanmar amounted to just AU$49 million ($40 million) in 2007-2008.
But there are some signs of a growing relationship between the two countries, if not between their governments and business communities.
Australia’s humanitarian assistance to Myanmar is expected to be AU$16 million ($13 million) in 2008-2009. It also contributed AU$55 million ($44.5 million) to Cyclone Nargis relief work, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.
