With international borders largely closed and travel bans likely to be in place for some time yet, one might be forgiven for questioning the value of learning a foreign language. But record enrolments in Japanese studies at the University of New England tell a different story.
Japanese is a popular subject at UNE, and staff are delighted to observe a recent increase in student numbers - and Japanese convenor Dr Gwyn McClelland believes this underlines its increasing relevance to our business and personal lives.
"The global COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of the continuing importance of global relationships and interaction, and just how multilingual Australian society is," Gwyn says. "We are global citizens, engaging with local and international communities. The need to strengthen those relationships, for economic and social purposes, means that languages will continue to be important and perhaps even more so.
"Japan is Australia's second-largest trading partner and language is vital to understanding the cultural contexts in which that trade occurs. Understanding Japan also helps us to better understand China, as part of three-way diplomacy - a fact highlighted during Australia's recent trade issues with that country."
UNE Japanese convenor, Dr Gwyn McClelland.
With a proud 30-year tradition of teaching Japanese Studies and considerable online expertise, UNE is well placed to cater to this year's large cohort. It includes Australians in Japan and Chinese international students studying online in China who want to improve their speaking proficiency right through to more senior students with ambitions of one day teaching English in Japan.
"Some students simply have a personal interest in Japanese culture, while others are interested in future interpreting, teaching or business opportunities," Gwyn says. "Despite not being able to travel right now, they can use a variety of apps, online videos and resources to help develop their language skills. There is a real sense of community within our first-years, although they are geographically disparate, and they are creating study groups using Zoom, Facebook and Discord, and taking full advantage of our online forums."
Having a second or even third language (a large number of UNE's current students are studying another language concurrently with Japanese or are already multilingual) will make these future graduates highly attractive to employees, according to Gwyn.
Employers today are looking for employees who understand culturally diverse workplaces and who demonstrate that they are prepared to continue learning.
"The development of cross-cultural skills gives a person the ability to move into other communities, to be observant and thoughtful about how they engage."
'Learn a language, learn a culture'
His study of Japanese at UNE certainly equipped Danial Newman well for his future employment and a satisfying personal life in a country he's always dreamed about. After completing a Bachelor of Information Technology/Bachelor of Teaching several years ago, he began his Japanese studies on campus, before moving to Japan and reverting to online study. He's been an assistant English teacher at an elementary school in Fukuoka City, Kyushu, for the past four years, having spent the previous five years on the Japanese Government's Japan Exchange and Teaching program.
"When you learn a language, you learn about a different culture; the two are just so intertwined," Danial says. "You also start to see your own country and culture through a different lens."
And he doesn't see international travel restrictions as an impediment. "Even if you can't visit Japan straight away because of COVID-19, there's still all the media you can access, and you can use the language as a tool to learn about Japan from afar," Danial says.
"There will always be a place for humans who can speak more than one language and I'm not surprised by the high enrolments at UNE. Learning a language is becoming more and more useful in business."
