Stuff.co.nz – NICOLA WOLFE
“Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world, by number of native speakers, followed by Spanish and then English. The percentage of the global population that grew up speaking English as its first language is also thought to be declining, while an increasing number of people now speak more than one language. The Confucius Institute NZ, a Chinese Government funded language school, told TVNZ that about 80 per cent of our New Zealand children finish school without learning another language other than English, and that would put the next generation in an awkward position…St Kevin’s College principal Paul Olsen said second languages are already part of school curriculum anyway. “We are trying to build global citizens and we encourage them to learn the language of our local culture, Pasifika and Maori, and those countries we trade with.””(more)