A former Mongolian television news reader turned fashion designer O.Oyuntsetseg with her Australian husband Christopher Knight, are now helping to ensure that future generations of Mongolians remain fluent in their language. The Sydney-based couple is acutely aware of preserving culture and heritage, while raising two Australian-Mongolian sons.

The family has recently made it their business to boost Mongolian language studies by building and staffing a new USD 5 million primary school in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Their Australian Mongolian School (KAMS) caters for 160 primary school students and its curricula aims to counteract what they describe as a steady decline in spoken Mongolian language. Their next goal is building a high school, which will cater not only to local adolescents but also to students from Inner Mongolia.

In recent years, parents in Inner Mongolia have protested their concerns that the language of their ancestors is being gradually replaced by Mandarin.

The loss of minority languages worldwide is also a concern for Macquarie University’s chair of Languages and Cultures, Dr Jane Hanley.