Asian Language Crisis Grips Australia(2/3)

"Even with the rise of China then I think there's something about Australia being a resource supplier. China comes to us. We don't really have to beat down the doors and learn their culture and language in order to get business, Americans, if they want to do well in China, would have to work a little bit harder in terms of learning language and culture than Australians."

Australia does business very successfully in English with most of its trading partners.
But as the world's economic power shifts to emerging regions such as Asia, Australia's language gap could soon be exposed.

Dilip Dutta from the faculty of economics and business at Sydney University says that language skills can enhance trading opportunities.

Pippa McCowage, a 22-year-old economics student, says many young Australians have a half-hearted approach to foreign languages, and that the language curriculum often is weak.

"While it is encouraged in high school to learn another language, it's not really seen to me as a realistic expectation that you will have to speak it."