Page 3600 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 13 September 2017
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It is imperative that these courses are available to support social cohesion throughout the territory.
Where there is a language barrier, the contribution of interpreters cannot be understated. Interpreters for those who do not speak English well, and for those in the deaf community, perform an invaluable service. From something as simple as paying a bill to something as complex as consent to a major medical procedure, interpreters assist others to engage with their world. Not only do interpreters bridge a lingual divide; they must also contextualise cultural differences to be effective communicators. Interpreters provide a conduit for others to share in the community, and help guarantee that an individual’s rights are not compromised by an inability to communicate. Of course, often interpreters are formalised, but so often it is informal support provided by family members.
Learning and speaking a different language involves developing intercultural skills and an understanding of diversity. The 2016 census data revealed that over 45 per cent of Canberrans had one or both parents born overseas. In this increasingly globalised society, it is important that we equip the next generation with the skills to enable them to communicate with a diverse set of people.
We have seen our education system already begin to adapt to meet new lingual challenges, with three schools in the ACT offering a bilingual language program: Mawson Primary School, in Mandarin: Telopea Park, in French; and Yarralumla Primary School, in Italian. This is in addition to the curriculum requirements in the ACT public schools policy 2009 which requires all Canberra public schools to provide a language program for a minimum specified time in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Indonesian, Japanese, Chinese or Korean. These eight languages are being taught throughout the territory, as well as Latin and Hindi. The learning of a language other than English is further encouraged under the ACT language policy. The Canberra Liberals support this investment in our children’s futures, and we also support the possible expansion of these eight languages.
The benefits of being bilingual or multilingual have been demonstrated in countless studies. The individual benefits have been proven to include superior problem-solving skills, better focus and concentration, and even delaying the onset of dementia.
This motion calls on the government to continue utilising the ACT Heritage Library’s oral history recording resources to preserve the multilingual inheritance of the ACT. History is recorded in many mother tongues, and each forms part of our cultural heritage and our cultural identity. It is important that we preserve the oral histories of our community in the language which reflects their experience and their culture. In line with the ACT language policy, every effort should be made to preserve the oral histories of our Indigenous community, the foundation of our past.
Another way for the ACT government to encourage social inclusion is the establishment of collections and displays in ACT libraries to promote and protect mother languages. These collections and displays, sometimes referred to as an Ekushey corner, contribute to the promotion and protection of mother languages
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