Asia view: Asian studies demise could cost NZ dearly

These are not good times in New Zealand for the study of Asian languages and cultures.

The recent announcement by the University of Auckland that its ailing Indonesian language course is under review comes on top of the decision last year by Wellington's Victoria University to withdraw Indonesian courses.

Victoria is also yet to appoint a new director for its Asian Studies Institute, more than a year after the resignation of the previous director.

Waikato University has dropped its Korean courses. And Hindi, spoken by a billion people worldwide, is not formally taught anywhere in the country.

But it is the fate of Indonesian studies that carries the clearest message - New Zealand risks compromising itself economically by not attending to its educational needs.

If the University of Auckland drops Indonesian, as looks likely - only five students completed first-year Indonesian language studies last year - then it will signal the collapse of the language nationwide. It is offered by no other tertiary institutions, and by just one secondary school - Rangitoto College.

Yet Indonesia is consistently among New Zealand's top 20 export markets. It took $483 million in exports last year and is our fastest-growing market.

Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating once said that, over the long term, it was difficult to believe that any country was of more importance to Australia than Indonesia.

Economic and geo-political realities mean New Zealand must reach a similar conclusion about its nearest Asian neighbour.

Tim Groser, executive director of the Asia 2000 Foundation, does not doubt the seriousness of the situation.

A former ambassador to Jakarta with a working knowledge of Bahasa Indonesia, Mr Groser stresses the need for New Zealand to cultivate a core of people who are proficient in the language, and who have a sophisticated understanding of what, after all, is the fourth most populous country in the world.

However, at this stage in the development of the economic relationship with Indonesia, Mr Groser acknowledges that few New Zealand companies would be prepared to employ Indonesia specialists, and he believes that, in comparison with Australia, New Zealand is underperforming in language acquisition.

At present, the survival of individual Asian language and culture courses is largely determined by student demand.

Auckland University's Dean of Arts, Doug Sutton, is aware of the distortions this creates, but he says realignments that are in the country's interest won't occur quickly if the process is driven by an intensely competitive and undifferentiated tertiary education system.

Symptomatic of the lack of an integrated vision is the review of Indonesian at Auckland just three months after the university launched its much-heralded School of Asian Studies. The school's purpose is to offer a diverse programme "relevant to the economic and cultural climate of New Zealand today."

It is unimaginable that tertiary students alone could provide the "invisible hand" necessary to encourage the teaching of appropriate Asian languages and cultures. Nor will measures such as the establishment of a Malay chair at Victoria University, partly financed by the Malaysian Government, or of Korean studies at the University of Auckland by the Korean Foundation.

The former languishes for want of students and the latter was driven by the strength of the Korean economy rather than by the objectives of an integrated programme.

It is also hard to see how any Government-initiated national strategy could succeed where the market has failed - apart from making the teaching of Asian languages compulsory at secondary schools.

Mr Sutton suggests that a "conversation" between academics, business leaders and senior Government officials would be helpful in identifying the language and cultural competencies most needed.

Perhaps a clue lies in the study of Japanese, which last year was taught in 264 secondary schools, the seventh-highest total, in absolute terms, worldwide.

The reason for its popularity is obvious. Over the past two decades or more Japan has been synonymous with Asian prosperity and, perhaps spurred by America's obsession with Japan's economic prowess, New Zealanders have laboured long and hard to engage with its culture. Now, with the focus shifting to China, a similar process is to be expected there.

Indonesia, by contrast, remains for many people an archipelagic Myanmar - snaggy and unpredictable. Consequently, students of Indonesian in New Zealand are thin on the ground.

In the field of Asian studies, it seems, perception is reality. But how long can the formulation of that reality be left to chance?

* Vaughan Yarwood can be contacted at hiero@ihug.co.nz