Despite Indonesia being one of Australia’s closest neighbours, figures indicate Australian students are showing little interest in studying the language, leading to predictions that Indonesian studies might be completely wiped out from Australian universities in a decade, writes Samantha Turnbull for The World Today.

An Australian government travel warning issued after the Bali bombings discouraged most Australian universities from sending their students to Indonesia. Professor Tim Lindsey, an expert in Indonesian law at the University of Melbourne, and a fluent speaker of the language, said it has been one contributor to the demise of Indonesian studies in Australian institutions.

“If children can’t get an immersion opportunity to study a foreign language, that will limit their capacity and it’s a reasonable decision, I think, for parents and children to make, that without immersion, their capacity to learn a foreign language will be weakened,” he said. 
Full report on the ABC site