Australia's woeful Asian languages literacy is failing us

Australia is losing ground in Asia—literally. According to ABC analysis by Laura Tingle, enrollments in Asian languages are in sharp decline, and with them goes Australia's ability to build deep ties across the region. Without speakers of Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, and Korean, Australia risks becoming a neighbor that can't speak the language. The consequences ripple across diplomacy, trade, and soft power—areas where language skills open doors.

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