Pauline Hanson posted the Greens sign on Facebook to note her objection to it. Photo: Pauline Hanson Facebook.
Pauline Hanson didn’t like it when she discovered the Greens had put up a Farrer by-election sign in Punjabi. Her view was simple: if you live in Australia, political communication should be in English.
It’s an argument that sounds reasonable on the surface – but falls apart pretty quickly when you think about how people actually live, learn and participate in a new country.
Ms Hanson is right to say people who move to Australia should learn our language. We wouldn’t function as a nation if everyone who migrated here only spoke their native tongue.
But it doesn’t follow that newcomers should have to abandon their own language, nor that Australians can’t ever meet them halfway. One Nation often champions free speech; it’s an odd place to start policing which language that speech can be delivered in.
It’s worth putting yourself in an immigrant’s shoes when considering this debate.
I moved to South America in 2007, where I lived and worked for two years as an English teacher. Those of us who come from English speaking countries are lucky – we can get by anywhere. But I felt it was disrespectful not to learn the local language.
As an arts graduate with a modest level of intelligence, I found learning a foreign language bloody hard. I’d sit through four-hour lessons on verb conjugations and sentence structures and still walk out unable to confidently order a cafe con leche.
My first year was frustrating, particularly because my dark skin meant I blended in with locals. People assumed I was a native speaker – and when I didn’t understand them, they didn’t assume I was learning, they thought I was mentally challenged.
In my second year, I stumbled onto something that actually helped. One of my favourite bands growing up, Cypress Hill, had recorded Spanish versions of their hits. Humming along to Loco en El Coco (Insane in the Brain) helped me pick up rhythm and patterns in a way textbooks never could.
After about 24 months, I was conversational, but not comfortable. I still struggled with the subtleties and nuances. I’d tell people I was pregnant (embarazada) when I meant to say I was embarrassed, a mistake that tends to raise eyebrows.
So I always appreciated it when something important or sensitive was communicated in English. It didn’t stop me learning Spanish, it just meant I actually understood what mattered.
Politics is complicated enough in your first language.
The Greens would face a tough time convincing socially conservative, pro-business Indians to vote for them in Griffith and Albury. You can’t blame them for attempting to communicate in Punjabi – they’re already culturally a long way apart, so they don’t want their message getting lost in translation.
In the end, a sign in another language doesn’t hurt anyone. It doesn’t stop people learning English, and it doesn’t weaken the country.
In a diverse nation built on migration, people making the effort to speak another language isn’t a problem – it’s just one more thing that makes Australia great.
