Hindi and Tamil are among five new languages set to be taught in NSW schools.
The NSW public school language curriculum has also been expanded to also offer three more languageMacedonian, Punjabi and Persian, taking the number of languages on offer to 69.
Demographer Bernard Salt said the additions reflected modern Australian society, citing figures showing that 39 per cent of Sydney's population was born in another country.
Australia's uptake of languages ranks among the lowest of all OECD countries.