A call for language consistency
As the child of post WW2 immigrants I grew up understanding the European languages of my parents.
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English, however, was the language spoken within our house and around our dinner table with other immigrant friends.
My parents were imparting some of their culture, like an added spice to a good stew, whilst also embracing the existing one of their adopted country.
So it’s with dismay these days that everywhere I travel within Oz – Sydney, Adelaide, Bowral – I hear Chinese immigrants speaking Chinese on the main streets, within supermarkets and hospitals, and I assume it’s the spoken language at home.
Please speak English, I wish to say, but can’t – not “politically correct” apparently.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m a staunch advocate of multiculturalism done well, and have supported the Royal Australians for Refugees (RARsh) in their good work.
I just feel that we may be losing the plot as to what is Australia’s mainstream language, and that has implications both serious and comic.
For instance, a family post grad member was marking Uni papers on the weekend, many of the students being Asian.
“What’s that upside down sentence mean?” she wondered, not knowing whether to laugh or pull her hair out.
And when my mother developed an ulcer on her foot, the Chinese Registered Nurse in her Adelaide nursing home couldn’t find the right words to describe it.
“Is it red, swollen, discharging, smells bad?” I asked her. Is it a boil, bite, ulcer, an alien bursting out? I wondered. She couldn’t tell me.
Now, as she’s supposed to be the medical descriptor of signs and symptoms relayed to a doctor, how is that going to be effective?
“Ayee, is just a bit red,” she says to Dr Dishy.
“Keep an eye on it, I’ll be in tomorrow”, he replies. And the foot drops off.
Perhaps it’s time for a newly drawn up Federal code for Australia’s mainstream language.
English, Chinese, Italian as spoken in Tuscany, whatever.
Just make sure all citizens are fluent in it, please.
What do you think?