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- 16 March 2004
Community Languages
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Page: 7276
The Hon. TONY BURKE [9.17 p.m.]: I have fast discovered that an occupational hazard for members of Parliament is, after turning up at an event, discovering from reading the program that we are supposed to make a speech. It happened to me on the weekend, when I was fortunate to attend the Dionysios Solonos awards, which recognise Higher School Certificate students who have excelled in both modern Greek and classical Greek studies.
The Hon. Henry Tsang: And it is St Patrick's Day this weekend.
The Hon. TONY BURKE: I acknowledge the interjection. St Patrick's Day is tomorrow. The fact that the parade is always held on a weekend does not mean St Patrick's Day is always on a weekend.
The Hon. John Ryan: It is week-long weekend, really, isn't it?
The Hon. TONY BURKE: That is right—part of the St Patrick's season.
The Hon. Duncan Gay: You would be one of the Irish Burkes, wouldn't you?
The Hon. TONY BURKE: In recognising the work of the students I referred to the myth of translation. So often we reach out for assistance to translate a word. One of the great values of the study of community languages as part of the education syllabus is that the student will be confronted with the reality that in one sense translation is a myth. For a whole range of words, ways of expressing emotions and identifying concepts, there cannot be a real translation from one language to another. I recall discussing with a Greek friend the Greek word "endaxi". He attempted different English words and phrases to try to explain its meaning, but ended up saying, "No. It just means endaxi." Similarly, at the weekend Vrasidas Karalis referred to the word "filotimo", which is used to describe an inner urge to do something, or a strong feeling, but many clumsy attempts at its translation to English show that it only really lives within the Greek language.
I think of my own heritage—which the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Duncan Gay, was kind enough to refer to. I am proudly of Irish background. For understandable historical reasons, Gaelic as a language and its living history essentially have been lost to the Irish community in Australia. A whole set of emotions and ways of expressing oneself were simply lost to an entire community. It is important that generation after generation of many Australian communities maintain their language in a way that my community certainly did not. As an example, I was speaking only today with Dr Thai Bao, who referred to the Vietnamese word "you" and the difficulties of trying to translate its many meanings into English. It has myriad meanings in the Vietnamese language, in which it identifies a whole range of respectful relationships for which there is simply no English parallel. Also, the Fijian language has more than 150 pronouns that define quite precisely the differences in relationships between the speaker and the listener, yet there is no way to translate them in the English language.
So it is important to our many Australian communities that they keep going their own community language. But it is important also that Parliament recognise not only that these languages are valuable to the communities that speak them, but that those languages describe emotions and define concepts that cannot be expressed or defined by the English language. Their existence is maintained within Australian communities through keeping vital those community languages. I commend the teachers who teach community languages in the schools. I commend the students—particularly those whom I met on the weekend, who had excelled in the learning of their community language, the Greek language. In particular I congratulate the parents for their discipline in maintaining a language which is not only important to them, but which is of value to each and every one of us.
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