Tagged: The Conversation

Getty Images   By Geoffrey Miller, University of Otago and Miriam Neigert, University of New England Tim Walz speaks Mandarin. But don’t expect to hear Kamala Harris’ running mate deploying his Chinese language skills on the US election campaign trail. While languages are inextricably interlinked with identity, they are also becoming a political hot potato. In February, Donald Trump warned supporters that migrants “have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing”. And J.D. Vance, now Trump’s own vice-presidential pick, last year proposed an “English Language Unity Act” to make English the official language...

Geoffrey Miller, University of Otago and Miriam Neigert, University of New England As the 2024 academic year begins in Australia and New Zealand, optimism over the state of foreign language learning at universities is in short supply. Languages have taken a post-pandemic battering. In 2023 alone, New Zealand’s Victoria University of Wellington decided to shut down its Greek, Latin and Italian programmes, while the University of Otago in Dunedin opted to discontinue German. In Australia, Sydney’s Macquarie University has proposed cutting five languages altogether – including German, Italian and Russian. Chinese, Croatian, Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese are just some of...