Sam Lim (Tangney, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

More than 28 per cent of people in Tangney speak a language other than English at home. The top 10 languages used at home in Tangney include Mandarin, Cantonese, Indonesian, Tamil, Punjabi, Malayalam, Korean, Hindi, Italian and Arabic. The languages of my childhood included Mandarin, Teochew, Hokkien and Malay. But being multilingual has actually provided me with lots of opportunity to connect with so many people. Language has shaped who I am.

I want to praise the 13 community language schools in Tangney that teach languages such as Punjabi, Tamil, Arabic and Hungarian. These schools have received the federal government's Community Language School grants to help strengthen their ability to help young Australians learn a language other than English. Oberthur Primary School is a public Chinese-English bilingual school in Tangney. The school has a commitment to languages that is unmatched in the whole of Tangney. Fifteen years ago the Oberthur Primary School Principal, Tim Bamber researched a bilingual program in Melbourne, and spent a lot of time with researchers learning about the advantages of the bilingual brain. With the community's support, Oberthur Primary School started its Chinese immersion program for students from pre-primary to year 6. I would like to praise the whole school community for their efforts in language learning—the students, parents and all the school staff, many whom do not speak English or Chinese but who help and give support to the whole school.

I want to stress the importance of learning languages. Learning languages has helped to bridge the divides. Languages connect us with one another. Parents often list the reasons learning languages is so important—for employment opportunities, and for connecting with heritage and culture. Learning a language, even as an adult, is a good thing for a healthy brain. Lifelong bilingualism acts as a mental workout, but it is also for friendship. It is a shared experience that cannot be translated. It is a bond with our fellow Aussies and fellow humans. I encourage our community, young or old, to learn a language.

I would like to say 'thank you' in a few languages: xiexie, terima kasih, nandri, cam on.