Page 4264 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 21 September 2011
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MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: That is a reflection on the chair.
ACT Community Languages Association
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (8.38): I rise tonight to talk about the ACT Community Language Schools Association dinner that was conducted on 3 September. It was attended by me and a number of members from the Assembly including Ms Burch and Mr Hargreaves, as well as senators for the ACT. It was a splendid dinner, well represented by all the foreign language schools in the ACT. Probably the best thing I can do is to read some comments from the association’s newsletter, from the president, Javad Mehr:
Our Community Language Schools are testimony to the value so many people in our community place to the gift of languages and cultural diversity. The gift of languages is of immense value, not only to the students, but also to our multicultural society and Canberra future prosperity, both socially and economically.
Perhaps most importantly the gift of languages brings with it greater understanding and harmony in our world. Students of languages gain a deeper understanding of the world around them: an understanding of other peoples and their way of thinking; an understanding of commonalities and differences, and of global connections and patterns across our world.
He says more in the newsletter. I think they are great words that he expresses, and certainly that was the sentiment on the night. I would like to take this opportunity to recognise many of the schools that contribute so much to the ACT, including the ACT Cambodian Language School represented by Darin Men, the ACT German Language School represented by Ron Hackney, the Ailsa Saturday School and Ken Griffiths, Isaac Cotter from the ANZ Maori Culture School of Dreams, Fuxin Li from the Australian School of Contemporary Chinese, Zillur Rahman from the Bangla Language and Cultural School, Jeroen Splinter from the Canberra Dutch School, Hanna-Mari Latham from the Canberra Finnish School, Sarah Weissman from the Canberra Hebrew School, Santosh Gupta from the Canberra Hindi School, Sumaiya Quasim from the Canberra Islamic School; Chihiro Hunter from the Canberra Japanese Supplementary School, Bal Nahl from the Canberra Khalsa Punjabi School, Jacob Chong from the Canberra Korean School, Mrs Vijitha Lokusooriya from the Canberra School of Sri Lankan Language and Dance, Dr Jeya Jeyasingham from the Canberra Tamil School, Loan Pham from the Canberra Vietnamese School, Dr P Muthaih from the Chennai Tamil School, Amber Ali from the CIC Community School, Marija Frketic from the Croatian Ethnic School, Peter Pan from the EAAS Chinese School, Lyn Ning from the FCCCI Chinese School, Wendy Yu from the Grace Chinese School, Giuliana Komnacki from the Italian Language School, Ester Kyaw from the Kaw Lah School, Diwani Velasquez from Learning Filipino Together, Biljana Petrova from the Macedonian School St Kliment Ohrid, Mohamed Hammoud from the Middle East School, Cheam from the Mon Language and Cultural School, Javad Mehr from the Persian Language School, Eva Roslan from the Polish Language School, Elena Sione from the Samoan Language School, Sofie Fogden from the Scandinavian School in Canberra, Jayantha Kottege
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