Lincoln Tan: Learning a second language passport to a better future

Learning a foreign language sounds good, so let's make it happen.

Education Minister Steve Maharey's vision of having a multilingual future for New Zealand would have put him in the league of great statesmen like Pierre Trudeau and Lee Kuan Yew.

But almost immediately after making the announcement that schools will be required to offer a second language, he asked: "Have we got the resources for this? Well, clearly, no."

His lame excuse that New Zealand does not have the resources shows him to be a savvy politician rather than a visionary public servant.

What's so difficult about teaching foreign languages? Just hire more foreign teachers according to your needs, even if this means relaxing immigration controls.

Or source them from teachers within the migrant communities - who have not been able to find work in mainstream schools - but are running classes teaching their mother-tongue to children within their own communities.

I am even aware of foreigners coming to New Zealand to learn a foreign language - yet the minister said we do not have the resources to teach our own.

It is hard to believe that a country that is willing to spend $320 million to upgrade a stadium in preparation for the rugby World Cup in 2011 is not able to invest a fraction of that on the future of its people.

So, will the dream of having a New Zealand society which is able to communicate in more than one language remain that - just a dream?

Having Chinese as one of the languages taught at schools is on the wish list for Maharey, and it is also on the wish list for Nora Yao, director of the Confucius Institute at the Auckland University.

But although the institute offered to teach Mandarin in schools for free, only four schools had taken them up on the offer.

Last year, only 3252 primary and intermediate pupils learned Chinese as a second language and that number would fall to 1481 when they reached secondary school, she said.

Hardly any continued to learn Chinese through to university.

Countries like Canada and Singapore had pushed for their population to be able to speak more than one language, with English as their first language.

Their dreams were driven by the great passion of their former Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau and Lee Kuan Yew.

Trudeau wanted all Canadians to speak English and French, and Lee's drive was to have Singaporeans speak English and Mandarin, Malay or Tamil.

In typical Lee fashion, he made a second language a case of do-or-die for students in Singapore.

I was part of that system, and it is with regret that I did not make the most of it.

If I could turn back the clock, there'd be one thing I would change - I'd take my second language Mandarin lessons at school a lot more seriously.

As someone who struggled with Chinese all his school life, I detested learning the language.

Learning Mandarin was an agony - not only because it was difficult - but coming from an English-streamed Catholic school in Singapore, all things Chinese were considered unfashionable and uncool.

I saw little use for the language also because Mandarin was not spoken at home, and I never used it with friends.

I also resented the fact that Chinese had power over everything I did at school.

We needed to pass Mandarin for entry into pre-university and then university, and it did not matter if you had distinctions in all the other subjects. Such was the education system in Singapore.

I had to go through hours of tortuous tuition.

But the biggest irony was, after leaving the Mandarin madness of Singapore and moving to New Zealand, I found myself regretting not having taken it more seriously.

It is sad being Chinese and not being able to read Chinese scripts, or even being able to converse fluently in Mandarin.

Time and time again I have found myself in many situations at work and socially where being able to speak Chinese may have been helpful.

I did try to re-learn Mandarin from a friend, but I have made little progress from the pathetic "market Chinese" that I speak.

Last month, I met a group of youths from French-speaking Tahiti who came to New Zealand to learn Mandarin.

The Taiwanese community, which ran the month-long intensive Mandarin programme, made learning the language fun through games, dances and drama.

The Tahitian youths were taken on outings to Taiwanese cafes where they ordered their own lunch using the Mandarin they learned. They were given the chance to see the relevance of Mandarin in real life - and the opportunity to use it.

The Taiwanese contributed towards making the learning of their native language captivating, fascinating and interesting.

Unfortunately, the people who benefited were not New Zealand kids, but Tahitian youths.

Meeting the Tahitians was a wake-up call of sorts, and over the past two weeks I have started my own quest for Mandarin classes for my kids.

Ideally, I want them to learn Maori and the Pacific Island languages so they know what their neighbours are saying, and Spanish and French to give them an edge if they ever considered working in Europe.

But if I had to choose only one, it would be Chinese - not only because I think it would link them to their Asian roots and their cultural identity, but I feel that in opportunities, this century belongs to China.

For a country with a limited domestic market and which is totally dependent on exports, New Zealand must have the right connections and New Zealanders must have the linguistic abilities to make friends and clinch deals.

A New Zealander who is deeply rooted in Western ways, yet able to speak a foreign language or two, and who understands other cultures, will have a real advantage in this fiercely competitive business world.