Jialong, 93, says he's living proof that there's no age limit on learning English

Jialong Meng, 93, is learning English with his peers to make living in Australia more enjoyable and easier to navigate.

Key Points

• A group of senior migrants in Melbourne's east says it's never too late to learn a foreign language.
• ABS data suggests that over 30 per cent of people with low English proficiency in Australia are aged 65 or over.
• Despite their low English proficiency, a report shows Chinese Australians over 60 have the strongest sense of belonging to Australia out of any other age group.

Every Tuesday at 9.30am, Jialong Meng, 93, attends a local community centre in Blackburn, in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, for English classes.

This morning, the group of seniors, most over the age of 70, are role-playing a conversation with a "customs officer" under the guidance of their language teacher.

"Australia is an English-speaking country, and it's not going to work if you don't know English at all,” said Mr Meng, who moved to Australia from Shanghai in 1998.

Learning English has made my life easier. I can understand the bank's interest rate and the tax deduction from learning English.

Jialong Meng

The English class is hosted by the Pines Senior Citizens Centre for older Chinese migrants. Source: SBS / Yuye Lu

In Australia, living with limited English is not unusual for many newcomers, especially for seniors from CALD communities.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2021 Census data, around 3.4 per cent of the nation's population (872,000) spoke English not well or not at all, with over 30 per cent of them aged 65 or over (266,000).

Data suggests Mandarin speakers represented the largest group with low English proficiency in Australia (176,000), with about one in four of these aged 65 or over.

ABS data shows that people who spoke Mandarin were the largest group with low English proficiency (176,000) in Australia. Credit: ABS

The English teacher and his students

Seventy-eight-year-old Hangjian Xu is Mr Meng’s "study buddy" in their English class organised by the Pines Senior Citizens Centre founded in 2005 to help Chinese senior migrants adjust to life in Australia.

Ms Xu said she found it challenging to communicate with locals, even though she had been learning English for a few years after settling in Australia in 2015.

"The pronunciation is not quite standard. It is Australian English," she said.

I understood what the teacher said in class, but I couldn't understand a word when I went to the shopping centre.

Hangjian Xu

Mr Meng (left) and Ms Xu (right) practising English conversation in class. Source: SBS / Yuye Lu

The textbook used in the English class at the Pines Senior Citizens Centre. Source: SBS / Yuye Lu

William Lok, who migrated to Australia from Malaysia when he was 17, has been teaching senior migrants at the centre since 2009.

As the only English teacher there, Mr Lok, 79, teaches the students 500 commonly use words and daily conversation. He said he planned to teach for as long as he could.

“I just do what I can. I'm trying to teach them conversation. The most important thing in learning every language is (that) you use it for sentences,” Mr Lok said.

At the end of the day, it's not how much you learn, it's how well you learn it.

William Lok, English teacher

English teacher, William Lok, has been teaching for free for 14 years. Source: SBS / Nicole Gong

How will English proficiency affect day-to-day life for migrants?

Dr Jennifer Hsu, lead author of the Lowy Institute's latest "Being Chinese in Australia" report, said that English might not be a barrier for senior migrants in cities with large Chinese populations.

“In major metropolitan areas such as Sydney and Melbourne, it is possible to get by on limited English language skills as there are significant pockets of Chinese communities,” Ms Hsu said.

Dr Jennifer Hsu says her latest report shows that Chinese-Australians’ senses of belonging to their local communities increased in 2022. Credit: Supplied

The report is part of the Lowy Institute's third, consecutive national public opinion survey on the Chinese community in Australia and involved 1,200 Chinese Australians, with nine per cent of those aged over 60.

Dr Hsu told SBS Chinese that 81 per cent of the Chinese-Australians over 60 surveyed reported having a “great” or “moderate” sense of belonging to Australia, which was the highest of any age group with the median figure being 75 per cent.

“There’s a broad correlation between a greater sense of belonging to Australia and length of time spent in the country,” she said.

An English Corner was set up in Box Hill to help immigrants practise English. Source: SBS / Nicole Gong

A new study released by HSBC compares the sense of belonging of new immigrants in China and Australia.

It reported that nearly a third (29 per cent) of migrants moving to China learnt a local language to enhance their sense of belonging, compared to only 20 per cent in Australia.

Wenlan Zhang, a 79-year-old Chinese migrant who has been living in Box Hill, Melbourne, for 13 years told SBS Chinese that she hardly used English in daily life although she was still learning it.

“We live in Box Hill, which is a large Chinese community, and we usually have contact with Chinese people. So speaking little English is not a problem for me,” Ms Zhang said.

Wenlan Zhang has been living in Box Hill since she moved to Australia in 2010. Source: SBS / Yuye Lu

According to the ABS 2021 Census data, 33.9 per cent of people living in Box Hill speak Mandarin, a 5.6 per cent increase since 2016 (28.2 per cent).

The data also shows that 22.8 per cent of people in Box Hill reported using a language other than English at home, an increase of 21.6 per cent since 2016.

'They are motivated to learn'

Besides taking English classes at the Pines Senior Citizens Centre, Ms Zhang has also enrolled at the Adult Multicultural Education Services (AMES), which provides bilingual English courses for those who have low speaking and listening skills.

AMES Australia spokesperson, Laurie Nowell, told SBS Chinese that there were around 2,000 people enrolled in English classes, including Parent Visa holders of Chinese migrants already established in Australia.

They are motivated to learn because they want to make the most of their retirement in Australia and learn about the culture.

Laurie Nowell, AMES Australia spokesperson

Attendees at the AMES Box Hill English classes Open Day in December 2022. Credit: Supplied

Mr Nowell said that the AMES had designed the Parent Visa courses to equip people with what they needed for everyday tasks and to navigate society.

"(It teaches) Things like the language needed to access health care and other services or to go shopping or to talk to their childrens’ or grandchildrens’ teachers," he said.

SBS Chinese understands that over 56,000 students participated in the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) provided by the government in 2021-22, with the highest percentage of students from China and nearly one in five students aged over 55.

A spokesperson from the Department of Home Affairs told SBS Chinese that the government had committed to deliver a new AMEP business model from 1 January, 2025.

"The new AMEP business model will provide greater flexibility and enhanced client and teacher supports to further improve English language, employment and settlement outcomes for AMEP clients," the spokesperson added.

Ms Xu said that she would continue to study English regardless of whether she spoke it fluently or not.

"I'm happy to learn anything new because I'm naturally curious. Whether I can grasp it is another thing," said the 78-year-old.