Did You Know? 2.0

1. fine
   July 14th, 2007 at 7:54 am

   huh… :/

2. BORT??
   July 14th, 2007 at 10:19 pm

   Oh here’s that silly nonsense again. It picks up as it goes on, but I really don’t like how it starts out. If the intent is to smack the US (commonplace lately), stop showing half-facts. For example:

   College grads in 2006-
   US: 1.3M
   India: 3.1M
   China: 3.3M

   …without pointing out the fact that India has 4X the US population, and China, almost 5X. That makes the US ratio per person quite higher than the others.

   Percent of grads in India that speak English… 100%. Well, duh. Welcome to one of the most widely spoken and the most important universal language. That’s not the US’s fault, that’s just the way it is. They speak English, because they want to get the hell out of INDIA.

   China, soon to be highest english speaking nation. Again, check the population numbers. If even 1/10 of the population speaks English (population 10 years from now) that’ll be more than the US population in total.

   It goes on and on.

3. Alex
   July 15th, 2007 at 12:32 am

   That’s true BORT, but I expected more out of the United States, being a world superpower and all.

   It’s easy to use relativism as an excuse, but anyone who has visited China can tell you that its people have something we don’t: a sense of manifest destiny that their country will regain the top spot in the world again. This century will be a Chinese century.

4. Yarn
   July 15th, 2007 at 4:58 pm

   Ya a chinese century… sure if the united states stands completely frozen in time and does nothing this century i’m in complete agreement!

5. Shoany
   July 15th, 2007 at 9:47 pm

   I’d just like to point out that I don’t believe the intent of this video is at all to “smack the US”, and I also don’t believe the fact that more people will graduate university/college in India/China than in the US is a “half-fact.”

   Reading what the video tells you literally, it’s not about the US being bad, it’s about opening perspectives on education, global community, and technology in modern times. With that said, it doesn’t really matter in this case what the per capita stats would tell you about the ratios of graduates to people; the relevant fact is that there are so many non-US college/university-educated people out in the world.

   The same applies to China as the highest English-speaking nation. It doesn’t matter what the percentage is (as the video doesn’t presume to imply some sort of supremacy competition): the relevant facts are that China’s population IS massive, and that its English-speaking population is rapidly growing.

   Finally, I find BORT’s comment on India to be arrogant, presumptuous, and incredibly ignorant. It seems you have missed the point entirely, and are in fact speaking out of blind, hearsay-based patriotism, rather than logic and rational thought.

   And Yarn, your comment barely deserves addressing. What do you suppose the US would do to stem China’s growth? War? Genocide?

6. Alex
   July 15th, 2007 at 11:35 pm

   It doesn’t really matter what the US does or doesn’t do - it will still be the Chinese century.

7. Scott McLeod
   July 16th, 2007 at 12:49 am

   As we note on the wiki, the video is meant to be a conversation starter. Percentages and ratios aside, the raw numbers themselves also are important. Also, I hate to say it, but there are a lot of people in this country who don’t necessarily know that people in India speak English…

   We appreciate the feedback. Thanks.

8. Alex
   July 16th, 2007 at 12:52 am

   I think there are people in the United States who don’t necessarily speak English.

9. Scott McLeod
   July 23rd, 2007 at 2:25 pm

   Well said!

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT