Languages for My Future Forum at UWA
"Mono-lingualism is curable!" This advice was given by Professor John Kinder to a UWA lecture theatre filled with Year 10 students last Tuesday 9 May.
After pointing out that while there is around 195 countries in our world, there is nearly 7,000 languages- many more than one per country. In most countries, people speak two or three languages. Mono-lingualism is not the norm in most countries.
Our Year 10 Italian and Indonesian students were amongst the packed lecture theatre that day, and enjoyed hearing from professors from UWA, university students and new graduates, who had the common experience of languages changing their lives.
Our students were inspired by being at UWA, being amongst other language students and hearing of the 'career edge' and opportunities such as international internships and study aboard options from the forum participants. Indonesian students have commented on their speakers below.
.
"Seyma Kaya has a Turkish background and grew up with it as her first language. She learnt Italian in high school and then continued it in university, along with engineering. Her advice was to always explore possibilities and never be closed to new opportunities.
I was excited to hear more about what it was like to learn a language at university, and how the different courses worked. The immersion programs and exchange programs sounded really interesting, especially the idea of studying abroad.
John really thought that being multilingual was a really amazing skill, and reinforced that it opens up a variety of different opportunities that you can use in whatever you want to do in life.
Skills that were mentioned by the speakers from learning languages were being able to adapt to challenges, being persistent and being able to solve problems. They talked about how learning multiple languages helped them to develop into very proficient speakers and communicators, and caused them to have to think analytically and critically about certain things."
Rya Hwight
.
"Colin Wiyoto was born and grew up in Malang, Indonesia, where he spoke Javanese. He moved to Perth when he was 13 years old. When he first moved here, he focused on his English. He then picked up Indonesian again in Years 11 and 12 in a background speakers course.
Colin continued these languages when at university and picked up multiple others such as French, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin and Chinese. He then went on an exchange to France and met life-long friends that he is still in contact with today.
The main piece of advice that I took from Colin's speech was that you don't have to wait until you are fluent in a language to approach a native speaker and speak to them."
Makenzie Hewitt
.
"Brianna Harcus started her language learning journey with Japanese, in order to diversify her knowledge of another country. Learning a WACE language in high school, she was able to advance straight to second year level Japanese at the University of Western Australia.
She did an exchange program in Japan to fully immerse herself into the culture of the country. By taking part in the Japanese exchange she was able to learn to adapt to a new situation, something she could continually apply to her time at University.
Brianna is now majoring in law and studying Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. Learning from Brianna's language experiences was a great way to help with my considerations for the upcoming Year 10 subject selection process. It really opened my eyes to the opportunities languages can open."
Lucy Tobin
.
"Originally, Matt Sachwell didn't really enjoy doing languages and was made to do it throughout high school by his parents. By Year 11, he chose to continue without being forced by his parents. After school Matt began to discover his interest in Indonesian and decided to go to university in Indonesia to complete immersion classes.
Studying Indonesian influenced his work and personal life. This is somewhere he never thought he would be as a Year 8 student, but he is very glad that he continued his studies and now has a great career and a family, thanks to his study of Indonesian.
I was interested in how many languages people can learn! It's amazing how once they learn one language they can't stop. I couldn't believe that one of them learnt seven languages and was able to speak many of them almost fluently."
Charlotte Hendry