Every time New Zealand becoming bilingual comes up as a topic online, I find myself responding to the same arguments. The most recent time this happened I felt particularly inspired, so I wrote a really long comment responding to most of these points, which I will post here. I'm sure there are more points I've forgotten, so I'll continue to update this post with updates.
The comment I wrote is as follows:
Let me respond right now to every argument I see come up every time this issue is discussed:
1. "Children should be able to learn programming languages instead!"
Programming languages are something to be taught as part of computing and mathematics—not as a replacement for a spoken language. If you learn to use one foreign language then stop, that's pretty normal. If you learn to use one programming language then stop, then you're a terrible programmer who no one will ever hire.
2. "We should teach them a useful language, like Chinese!"
There are a couple of issues with this argument:
First of all, it's always suggested by people who are monolingual, who therefore don't understand that learning a language has an inherent value regardless of whether you can conduct trade in it.
And the language people suggest we learn instead always seems to be Chinese, ostensibly for trade reasons. Although it doesn't seem very practical to teach Chinese for trade when Chinese people already speak English--how do you think they've conducted trade until now? The languages of China are incredibly interesting, and they're part of the heritage of many New Zealanders--they're just not a practical choice when it comes to choosing a language to teach to every child from primary school.
The other problem with suggesting an international language be taught instead of New Zealand's national languages--assuming you can decide on one--is that it's expensive. When their services are in demand everywhere in the world, teachers of a language will be looking to teach somewhere with competitive wages. I'm not suggesting by any means that we should be underpaying our teachers--simply that New Zealand has an effective monopoly on demand for the services of teachers of our national languages, and as such we could pay regular teaching wages to language teachers.
3. "Let the kids pick a language!"
The discussion around languages in schools is always about whether it should be taught in primary school, as students already have the option in high school to choose the languages they learn.
Currently we do not allow primary school students to choose the subjects they learn at school, and I don't see why language should be any different (although a good argument could be made for allowing the choice of both Te Reo Maori and NZSL).
What's more is, as anyone who has ever learned a language beyond their native one will tell you, learning a second language makes it easier to learn a third, and a fourth, and so on. The more you learn about how languages work through learning another language, the better you will be at learning more of them. If students chose the language they learned in primary school, you'll end up with students starting from scratch with a language at every year level, never advancing very far. If the end goal is to have students learn the language of their choice, I think it would be far more effective to have them learn Te Reo, so they can use those skills to learn their third language with greater ease in high school.
4. "Why should we want to be multilingual anyway?"
Besides the cultural value of learning a language, and the enhanced job prospects that come with it, being multilingual is good for brain health: increasing brain functionality, helping to stave off Alzheimer's and dementia, improving memory, and improving your understanding of your native language (source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10126883/Why-learn-a-foreign-language-Benefits-of-bilingualism.html).
Learning a second language also helps with empathy and humility--being bad at a language can be a humbling experience, as being a smartass in a language you're not good in usually results in being put in your place. It also helps people who speak English as their second language feel more at ease around you--the person you're speaking to knows what it's like to be bad at their second language, so if you make mistakes, they'll understand.
That's all that comes to mind at the moment, but I'm sure there are more arguments that will come to mind later.
