Friends in Australia will have a worry, especially when they first come out shopping, eating or communicating with their neighbors, afraid that their poor or not fluent English will cause trouble for others.
In fact, this is not only from China's partners will face the same problem, other countries will face the same problem.
In September 2018, Senator Pauline Hanson of Queensland gave a speech entitled "Protect Our Australia Way of Life (protects our Australian lifestyle".
In his speech, Senator Pauline Hanson said Australia's multiculturalism has attracted more and more immigrants from all over the world to live and breed their next generation in Australia. But it is this multiculturalism that has led to a growing number of people in Australia who are not fluent or speak English at all, with an estimated population of more than 1 million. She believes immigrants need to improve their reading, communication and writing skills if they want to develop Australia's economic and culture better and faster.
However, Senator Hanson's views were soon slapped on the face by The Conversation, Australia's mainstream media platform.
The Conversation's Fact and Check team recently conducted a survey of what Senator Hanson called a "low English language proficiency of 1 million people in Australia." They believe bilingual residents in Australia have significantly improved their English level between 2006 and 2016.
The The Conversation investigation team came to the conclusion in a few ways.
1. The Australian Census data report shows that only 820000 people lack the ability to speak English.
In its annual report for 2016-2017, published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (Australian Bureau of Statistics), it can be found that about 4.9 million of Australia's current inhabitants use languages other than English at home. Among them, only eight hundred and twenty thousand people are not able to speak English. So the senator's fear that the 1 million population cannot communicate fluently in English does not exist.
(photo source: The Conversation)
2. Between 2006 and 2016, the English language proficiency of bilingual residents improved significantly.
A survey of data from 2006, 2011 and 2016 found that the proportion of bilinguals living in English "bad" or "not at all" fell from 17.5 percent in 2006 to 16.6 percent in 2016.
(photo source: The Conversation)
(photo source: The Conversation)
The conversation also said the language threshold is rising, both for ordinary immigrants and for studying in Australia, so there are no difficulties for Australian society because of what Senator Hanson says is growing.
So friends in Australia don't have to worry too much about their English. After all, most people come to work or study in Australia through painful IELTS, TOEFL or other language exams. Qualification in these languages is sufficient to demonstrate the language competence of each partner.
If there are still friends who feel that their English language ability is still insufficient, we can suggest that we should make up for the clumsiness after all by designating a reasonable English learning plan according to our actual situation.
Finally, I wish you all a pleasant life and study in Australia, and face life with a positive attitude every day.