Many races, many tongues

By BRONWYN SELL

If we had lost the Second World War, we were once warned, we would all be speaking German or Japanese now.

More than 50 years on, the chances of finding a German speaker in Auckland are pretty low, unless you live out west or on Waiheke Island. We are much more likely to be talking in Samoan or Cantonese.

A study mapping the enclaves of languages in Auckland for the first time has found a mosaic of 32 tongues from French to Serbo-Croat, Gujarati (from India) and Tagalog (from the Philippines).

French speakers are most common in central Auckland, Kohimarama and Otahuhu (which has a concentration of French-speaking Vietnamese).

Speakers of Gujarati are mostly likely to have settled in New Windsor and Lynfield, and if you live in West Harbour the chances of running into a Korean speaker are good.

Dr Ron Holt, head of the school of languages at Auckland University of Technology, has studied Auckland's top 32 languages from 1996 census data to find out what we speak and where.

He expects his data will help councils to plan libraries and schools to plan language programmes, and that businesses, courts and Government departments will be helped in deciding where to post multilingual staff.

The study shows how ethnic groups are sometimes confined to a few suburbs, or even a few blocks, like the area near the New Windsor dairy where Shas Prema and his wife, Damyanti, live. When they opened for business 15 years ago, only two Indian families lived in their street.

"I lose count now, it's unreal," says Mr Prema, who can count his relatives living nearby in hundreds.

"The reason I came here was that my family members were here. I feel quite at home here, and nobody bothers us."

The couple's families are originally from the Indian state of Gujarat, and they are among many Gujarati speakers in the Blockhouse Bay area.

The New Windsor area of Blockhouse Bay and nearby Lynfield are the strongest outposts of the Gujarati language in Auckland, with at least 8 per cent of the residents fluent in the language, followed closely by nearby Mt Roskill and New Lynn.

Mr Prema, who was born in Kenya and lived in England for a decade, calls India home but is comfortable in his Auckland suburb.

He said Indian people had lived there for decades, but the population had boomed recently, as more people arrived and decided to settle near friends and family.

Another growing population are the Vietnamese, who are concentrated in Otahuhu, Mangere East and Chapel Downs, south of East Tamaki.

Arabic speakers are most likely to be found in Otahuhu and Clendon Park.

Dr Holt said: "What is interesting is there are some language groupings which are uniformly dispersed over the whole area, and there are others with very high concentrations.

"It could be a sign of insecurity, or it could be a very positive sign of the development of cultural resources within certain areas."

The immediate past president of the Federation of Ethnic Councils, Dr Nagalingam Rasalingam, said immigrants tended to settle near family and friends and where cultural support was strongest.

"The word of mouth goes very fast between families, and then they tend to get together in that area."

They also tended to gather near schools with good reputations and stronger ethnic mixes, or where they were most likely to get jobs.

For example, some people from Asia lived around Meadowbank and St Johns because they wanted their children to attend Selwyn College.

Bangladeshi Ataur Rahman, a spokesman for the Auckland Multicultural Society representing about 30 cultures, said migrants also tended to settle around a focal point, like a mosque or temple, and where they could afford to live.

"These ethnic communities will find their own gravitation, if you like. You'll find that on the North Shore with all the South African people there, and you'll find around Meadowbank and Ellerslie that's where the Sri Lankan community are.

"Some people still think Auckland is bicultural and bilingual. It is changing. It is multicultural, and you can tell that from this survey."

Dr Rasalingam said, however, that immigrants living in clusters could take much longer to grow accustomed to their new country, which could be a big setback.

"The impact ultimately grows into a loss of confidence, no employment, no language, then poverty, then health issues. A lot of health issues are surfacing because of the barriers of access and settlement."

Dr Rasalingam said the study could help Government planning and help make immigrants welcome. "We are all New Zealanders and we have to live together and support each other."