International Languages Week on NZ Herald
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KenLeong
Aug 16, 2009, 8:26:19 PM8/16/09
to International Languages Week New Zealand (16 - 22 August 2009)
Some of you might have seen this in the Weekend Herald. The launch
went well. Please keep posting your activities here.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10590937
Foreign students mastering Nu Zillund tongue-twisters
4:00AM Saturday Aug 15, 2009
By Lincoln Tan
An Auckland language school has introduced a programme to help
international students speak Kiwi English.
Methods used by the New Zealand Radio Training School to train its
broadcasters are being used to teach foreign students at the National
Technology Institute to say "fush and chups", "fried iggs" and "Nu
Zillund".
Indonesian student Fahami al Weny, 24, who was among the first to take
the course, said it had helped him understand New Zealanders better,
and hoped he would be able to speak with a Kiwi accent in future.
Institute director Isaac Phua said: "Many of the international
students have come with the intention of gaining residency and
settling in New Zealand, this learning to speak Kiwi English is one
way we can help them integrate more easily.
"The biggest barrier faced by immigrants and international students
seeking employment is their accent, and a lack of Kiwi experience. The
speech training is aimed at helping make them more employable."
Kenneth Leong, national co-ordinator for International Languages Week,
said that while it was good for international students and immigrants
to learn to understand Kiwi, it also showed how unaccommodating New
Zealanders were to foreign accents.
"It just demonstrates how New Zealand is not open to foreign
languages, or even to those who speak English differently to
themselves," Mr Leong said.
A Massey University academic said New Zealand was "failing badly" in
getting Kiwis to learn a foreign language - and this was affecting the
country's ability to trade internationally and integrate immigrants
successfully. Professor Paul Spoonley, the university's regional
director at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, said
International Languages Week - being launched in Auckland today - was
a timely reminder on the importance of learning languages "that are
important to us globally".
Local Government Minister Rodney Hide will launch International
Languages Week this afternoon in Parnell.
"Great trading nations, such as Singapore, promote languages that are
important internationally, and languages that are spoken by large
communities that make up their societies but, leaving the two official
languages aside, we really don't have anything by way of an official
language policy in New Zealand," Professor Spoonley said. "These
people will have an added economic advantage when they want to do
business or seek employment in a global environment."
He said many New Zealanders thought English was enough because it "is
the language of the internet", but in the "real world" languages such
as Mandarin and Spanish were just as important.
"If you want a practical example of multiculturalism, it would be in
the promotion of multilingualism - but as a country, we still don't
seem to value multilingualism."
He said the longer immigrants lived here, the more likely they were to
lose their heritage language.
LANGUAGE BARRIERS
Top seven spoken foreign languages
Chinese: 131,466
Samoan: 81,033
French: 53,757
Hindi: 44,589
Tongan: 29,496
Korean: 26,967
Spanish: 21,645
(source: Statistics New Zealand 2006 Census)
Top seven foreign languages at school
French: 28,245
Japanese: 18,157
Spanish: 10,900
German: 6251
Latin: 2339
Samoan: 2311
Chinese: 1891
(source: Ministry of Education)
went well. Please keep posting your activities here.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10590937
Foreign students mastering Nu Zillund tongue-twisters
4:00AM Saturday Aug 15, 2009
By Lincoln Tan
An Auckland language school has introduced a programme to help
international students speak Kiwi English.
Methods used by the New Zealand Radio Training School to train its
broadcasters are being used to teach foreign students at the National
Technology Institute to say "fush and chups", "fried iggs" and "Nu
Zillund".
Indonesian student Fahami al Weny, 24, who was among the first to take
the course, said it had helped him understand New Zealanders better,
and hoped he would be able to speak with a Kiwi accent in future.
Institute director Isaac Phua said: "Many of the international
students have come with the intention of gaining residency and
settling in New Zealand, this learning to speak Kiwi English is one
way we can help them integrate more easily.
"The biggest barrier faced by immigrants and international students
seeking employment is their accent, and a lack of Kiwi experience. The
speech training is aimed at helping make them more employable."
Kenneth Leong, national co-ordinator for International Languages Week,
said that while it was good for international students and immigrants
to learn to understand Kiwi, it also showed how unaccommodating New
Zealanders were to foreign accents.
"It just demonstrates how New Zealand is not open to foreign
languages, or even to those who speak English differently to
themselves," Mr Leong said.
A Massey University academic said New Zealand was "failing badly" in
getting Kiwis to learn a foreign language - and this was affecting the
country's ability to trade internationally and integrate immigrants
successfully. Professor Paul Spoonley, the university's regional
director at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, said
International Languages Week - being launched in Auckland today - was
a timely reminder on the importance of learning languages "that are
important to us globally".
Local Government Minister Rodney Hide will launch International
Languages Week this afternoon in Parnell.
"Great trading nations, such as Singapore, promote languages that are
important internationally, and languages that are spoken by large
communities that make up their societies but, leaving the two official
languages aside, we really don't have anything by way of an official
language policy in New Zealand," Professor Spoonley said. "These
people will have an added economic advantage when they want to do
business or seek employment in a global environment."
He said many New Zealanders thought English was enough because it "is
the language of the internet", but in the "real world" languages such
as Mandarin and Spanish were just as important.
"If you want a practical example of multiculturalism, it would be in
the promotion of multilingualism - but as a country, we still don't
seem to value multilingualism."
He said the longer immigrants lived here, the more likely they were to
lose their heritage language.
LANGUAGE BARRIERS
Top seven spoken foreign languages
Chinese: 131,466
Samoan: 81,033
French: 53,757
Hindi: 44,589
Tongan: 29,496
Korean: 26,967
Spanish: 21,645
(source: Statistics New Zealand 2006 Census)
Top seven foreign languages at school
French: 28,245
Japanese: 18,157
Spanish: 10,900
German: 6251
Latin: 2339
Samoan: 2311
Chinese: 1891
(source: Ministry of Education)
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