Language

Today I saw a short comment posted on mX [free newspaper] which I personally find it quite uncomfortable. Briefly, the author of that message made a complaint about people not speaking english on train, and he/she is unhappy about the situation where people don't speak english much in Australia.

I doubt the true intention of the author, as he/she simply made a comment without much elaboration...

As I was reading the message, I was also thinking of another rather interesting phenomenon:

In China (and other Asian countries?), Chinese will be amazed by the fact that a white guy could speak fluent Chinese, but none of them will deliver the same amount of amazement by the fact a Chinese could speak fluent English.

However, in Australia, Australians are not amazed by the fact that a Chinese could speak fluent English.

Maybe not every Australian would think in the same way as the above mentioned author, but I am pretty sure that the majority of them don't quite understand the difficulty of learning something academically in another language.

Then again, if Asian students come to Australia in order to study, learning english is naturally one of the purposes. What's the point for them to come here if they always hang out with people from same country all the time and not using english much?

Such a paradox, I am tired now and don't really want to think much about it...