Given that “the absolute numbers are small” and that “offering high-quality bilingual education” is either a cure or the cure, might I then be correct in deducing, as a cheque-wielding parent, that these i m o germane questions arise:

(1) How to affect and effectuate “the supply”, i.e. realize as a first step wide-scale awareness?
(2) What are the catalysts bringing about a system that provides “high-quality bilingual education”?

Please consider in the interests of poor peasants (excuse me – I mean – poor parents, such as I) and in order to create a more harmonious society turning your fine penpersonship (how does one nowadays pen “penmanship”?) and your amazing analytical abilities to alerting the powers that be of the poor outcomes vis-a-vis Australia’s language-tuition status quo tantamount to a fait accompli in multifarious countries in excess of a century and more importantly Ingrid – how to open widespread and systematic consultation that in the first instance acknowledges this farcical fiasco? I mean, most English majors in China for example exit the system unable to verbally communicate in the target language beyond the niceties and that scenario prevailed for me after six years of French language study at school here in Australia

Thanks, Paul! There are, to the best of my knowledge, only five schools in Sydney that offer K-12 bilingual immersion programs (in addition to German, these involve French, Italian and Japanese programs). So, yes, you are right the absolute numbers are small because – to reiterate my point – the supply simply isn’t there. But offering high-quality bilingual education, as I have shown (and the stats are correct :-), can result in real change.

Thanks, Paul! I think you sum up the point quite nicely: many parents will recognize the “we tend to throw up our hands in despair and just go with the flow” when it comes to language education; as long as it is not available/accessible, there is little else one can do …

I’m wondering too on an unrelated point how statistically valid your upbeat conclusions are given the over all numbers involved as distinct from percentages? i don’t mean to sound negative, it’s just a question, I can’t analyse statistics well anyway. Wasn’t it Disraeli (no relation) who attributed that three-types-of-lies story to Mark Twain

Keep up the good work, it’s very interesting; especially at that moment when we have to pay the school fees we find your ideas reverberating

Paul (Adelaide)

‘Something learnt is never a load to carry’ – Italian saying

The suburbs in question, if I recall from my years in Sydney, which generally speaking is an expensive locale throughout anyway, are well heeled aren’t they? Do you think ergo that most middle class Australians, interested or not in languages, with kids from homes whose property values are high are very aware before and-or after the arrival of GISS in their neck of the woods of the holistic, full immersion requirements of successful language teaching? I mean, I taught languages for ten years in China and the outcomes are a fiasco though the parents forking out are unaware of the wasted possibilities; even worse in Japan since WW2 where English tuition has been compulsory for decades and where the fees are even higher

Our kids attend a Montessori school where Italian is taught by an excellent teacher. As parents we delight in the benefits of learning Italian and appreciating the culture but we are very concerned about our boys language study when they move to secondary school, perhaps to a Montessori school across town or in another city. In addition to the holistic requirements of immersion we’re worried about the continuity vis-a-vis the language(s) available at their next school. Enter into this mix Julia Gillard’s excellent White Paper on the Asian century vis-a-vis teaching Mandarin, Japanese, and a few more Asian languages and we tend to throw up our hands in despair and just go with the flow