On 3 July 2023, a symposium on empowering Asian language speakers to become language teachers in Australian schools was held at the University of Queensland, St Lucia campus. The symposium was supported by an ASAA Event Grant and UQ School of Languages and Cultures.

Symposium organiser Kayoko Hashimoto commented on the event:

“The symposium was officially opened by the Consul-General of Japan, Brisbane, Mr GOMAKUBO Junji. We were thrilled that the symposium attracted interests nationally and internationally. Around 80 people attended the symposium on the day (50 in person and 30 online). Attendees were from 12 universities, including two overseas, government and community organisations as well as public, private and independent schools across Australia. There were nine papers (on Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, and Korean), including three by PhD students, and two roundtable discussions (Japanese and Vietnamese). It was a rare opportunity for many of us to meet people from different backgrounds and sectors and to share views and experiences. At the closing, it was voiced that we should run the symposium on a regular basis in future. Currently, we are working on a proposal of a journal special issue with selected papers.”