This video mentions an interesting fact:
Last year more students in China took the SAT in English than did so in the United States.And this video demonstrates a prototype of real-time language translation - you speak, it transcribes, then translates, then reads the translation. Within the next 10 years this will be fully functional and built into your cell phone.
Even though in some respects these almost contradict each other, I think the underlying message is the same - the playing field is getting more and more level every day.
This is some amazing information and it gives me a better idea of how close to the flat world that we are living in. I would have expected the number of students to surpass the US sometime in the near future but not currently. I also think that the way technology in advancing that the translator is closer than they are predicting. Regardless, that opens up more communication to everyone in the world.
ReplyDeleteI'm becoming a regular reader of your blog, need to make the time to do more of the same.
ReplyDeleteI did not see any reference to http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/ in your blog, and felt that it was relevant to this and other topics of yours. Just sharing!