The ‘Speak Greek in March’ campaign undoubtedly has been one of the most successful initiatives undertaken by the Greek Australian community in recent years. It received unprecedented media coverage both locally and overseas; it achieved very high levels of awareness of the campaign’s goals in the Hellenic diaspora; it engaged schools, teachers, students, parents and grandparents in a variety of activities aimed at promoting the learning of the Greek language; it intensified the organisation of literary and cultural activities during the month of March; it enhanced our understanding of the special position Greek has in the world’s spectrum of languages; it highlighted the need to strengthen our strategies if our mother tongue was to be maintained in the diaspora, and it received support from a number of celebrities as well as from government officials in both Greece and Australia.

The campaign was taken up by other Hellenic communities of the diaspora, e.g., by the Hellenic community of the UK, and is likely to spread more widely during 2016. In Australia, interest has been expressed by other culturally and linguistically diverse groups keen to emulate the campaign. It has been indicated by government officials that such an initiative would be supported by the Victorian government.

Has the campaign achieved its goals? Some have been achieved, some have surpassed the Steering Committee’s expectations, and for others we will not know until feedback is received and analysed from the various schools and organisations involved in the campaign, both in Australia and overseas. However, campaigns of this nature require a sustained approach to have a real impact. Hence, it might take considerable time to change attitudes and to convince people that unless we encourage at every opportunity the speaking of Greek, the use of the language will continue to decline and, eventually, possibly even cease to be spoken by future generations of Greek Australians.

Some of the factors which have contributed to the decline of our language include the lack of immigration during the past few decades; the increasing intermarriage rate of our community; the limited support for language education provided by the Greek government as a result of the financial crisis; the apathy or lack of interest by some to pass on their mother tongue to their children and grandchildren; the insufficient funding for Greek language learning by Australian governments; the policy consequences of the diminishing priority given by the Australian government to multicultural programs; the geographical isolation of Australia and the resulting mono-lingual attitudes held by most of its citizens; and the slow adaptation by our community education system of new technological advances such as online learning, which is considered more suitable in engaging the youth of today.

The campaign could only have an impact on some of the above factors. However, it could also contribute, together with the support of other culturally and linguistically diverse groups, to generating a stronger interest in the learning of languages other than English and the placing of a greater government priority and allocation of public funding for that purpose. However, we need to be aware that the global climate in multicultural societies has started to turn against languages other than English, as evidenced recently by speeches of UK politicians during their campaign in the April 2015 election.

The Steering Committee is aware of the difficulties and challenges it will need to tackle in order to achieve its stated objectives. Nevertheless, we believe strongly in the importance of this initiative and we have set a mission, and developed and evaluated strategies. We will work hard to ensure that more and more people embrace our campaign both in Australia and the Hellenic diaspora.

In March, with the help of the media, we brought the problem closer to people’s attention; we set a number of goals and cultivated some good language habits. In April we will evaluate the effectiveness of our strategies and we will decide what needs to change in the campaign. Over the next few months we will endeavour to retain some of the good habits we built in March. We will continue some of the successful activities and we will endeavour to improve our strategies in order to ensure we will be better prepared for March 2016.

More communities of the Hellenic diaspora will join the campaign, as forecast by the Hellenic Republic’s Minister for Foreign Affairs. With the collective support from members of the Hellenic community, we will achieve the desired outcomes. Let us demonstrate the same courage and perseverance shown by our ancestors, who managed to keep the Greek language alive despite more than 400 years under Ottoman rule. Let us believe in the mission we set and let us not be discouraged by the major challenges ahead.

We remain optimistic!

* Mike Zafiropoulos AM, JP is a member of the Speak Greek in March Committee.