I was quite taken aback about a year ago when I read that Mr Albanese - Prime Minister of Australia - said he wanted the Aboriginal language to be taught in schools. If " The Voice " gets up, you can be sure it will happen.
But how about we teach English first?
What puzzled me is that there are more Indigenous languages in Australia than there are genders - which is saying something. In Australia, there are more than 250 Indigenous languages including around 800 dialects. So I guess it is going to be fun choosing which one they will teach in the school curriculum... and who is going to be the teacher?
Don't get me wrong. I really like the idea of learning different languages. I know a young bloke who can speak 3 languages fluently and is now mastering his fourth - no mean feat for someone still in boyhood. But for some crazy reason, I just don't see that learning one of the 250 native languages of Australia will serve him well. If he happens to leave his area and pop up to Darwin for example, I suspect that the local Indigenous people wouldn't have a clue what he was saying.
So it seems to me that the obvious solution is to teach Creole, pidgin or tok tok.
Kids are already familiar with Tik Tok so Tok Tok is only one vowel removed from familiarity.
Many years ago, in a previous life, I used to work in Papua New Guinea. I picked up sufficient to get around, though I was by no means fluent. However, even a familiar fairy story is understandable and ( dare I say? ) about as intelligible as many young people speaking English today.
Mind you it almost sounds like Chinese to me.... oh wait... perhaps Mandarin would be a better choice given the way things are going in the South Pacific.
I seem to feel that teaching Creole pidgin would be more fun and certainly more use than a language that is too geographically constrained. It would be such an easy learning curve for our younger kids who would pick it up in a heartbeat.
In fact, this video is quite fascinating in explaining the birth of pidgin or Creole.
Anyway, back to language studies in Australia.
Creole in Australian Indigenous communities is not dissimilar to our much loved Ali Mills singing Waltzing Matilda.
I love the Creole of Australia. I truly do.
By all means teach it as a hobby - a pass time or a piece of our history. Absolutely!
But surely, the way things are going, Mr Albanese should be encouraging us all to speak Chinese because , after all, Chinese language is the future.
The Indigenous languages will fade away under Chinese rule.
As will the Indigenous People of Australia.
Men will be canceled. Women will be canceled. Children will be canceled.
The only language we will speak will be what we are ORDERED to speak.
Strine will be gone.
Creole will be gone.
The 250 languages and 800 dialects will be gone.
Tell me, Mr Albanese, what is the point in teaching children one of these dialects when we can't even teach our kids bloody English?
Seriously?
Talk about a waste of space and a waste of time... but then, to be honest, isn't that what modern government is all about?
Just a waste of space, a waste of time and a waste of money?
I want to get back to the old days when we spoke English. Not some derivative of English.
It is becoming just noise, isn't it?
I don't expect any of you to watch all of the videos or even listen to the endless noise that has become " OUR LANGUAGE "
Of course, I freely admit to being a great fan of Ali Mills, the Creole that was borne of Australia and the linguistic delights of all Creole or cross over languages.
But not to the detriment of our accepted language: English.
If we cannot communicate with real words, real English, why should we be promoting learning a language that no one will ever need to know? Why?
Perhaps it is because they want us to lose our ability to communicate in a common language?
After all, they have stopped our social engagement, our facial recognition, our ability to communicate in written words.
Perhaps our language is the last piece of the puzzle?
Who knows?
But what I do know, deep in my heart, is that to ask someone is not to aks and it is time to forget teaching race, rioting and rebellion.
It is time to get back to reading, writing and arithmetic.
And a bit of language on the side.
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