As Australia’s relationship with China expands, improved China literacy and a grasp of the Chinese language are becoming increasingly important. Despite this, studies indicate the numbers of fluent non-native speakers and learners of Chinese at all stages of education remain low. Why aren’t more students taking up the challenge of learning Chinese and achieving fluency? What can be done to encourage students to begin and continue their study of Chinese? Does Australia face unique difficulties?

Tom Shugg, Director and Co-Founder of My Education Group, joins Simone van Nieuwenhuizen, Project and Research Officer at the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) at the University of Technology Sydney to discuss the future of Chinese language teaching and learning in Australia.