Well, he does have a point... I would bet American kids play more video games on average than Korean kids. Korean kids are all in school 10 hours a day, with a few hours of homework, even at young ages. Sure, they might play some on the weekend, or in their one hour of spare time... but American kids can probably all play from after school until bed a few nights of the week.

When they get a bit older, then yes some do play video games... But high school is very challenging for Korean students; they need to work very hard. I think his quote isn't completely accurate, but it's not inaccurate either. He has a point.

Quesadilla

United States1814 Posts

July 14 2010 12:50 GMT

#31

I think a clip of girls crying at MSL finals would go well immediately after that quote.

HeadhunteR

Argentina1258 Posts

July 14 2010 13:22 GMT

#32

Even in my country there are english classes for everyone since 1st grade.. a law was passed that even public schools must teach english.. Learning 2 languages is just something USA americans are not used to...

AlienAlias

United States324 Posts

July 14 2010 13:59 GMT

#33

On July 14 2010 14:38 Folca wrote:
Korean Education blows. Obama wanted to base America's education on Korea's, freaking hilarious
+ Show Spoiler +

not kidding

Korea has the highest high school pass rate out of any country, I believe. Not to mention most people are under the impression that all east asians have to work really hard, rather than getting easy As from grade inflation. I'm not in Korea, so I don't really know how it is, but it's really understandable to want to base our education off their's.

Astrogation

United States477 Posts

July 14 2010 14:21 GMT

#34

On July 14 2010 17:10 Disregard wrote:

Show nested quote +

One of my biggest regrets in education, but the only language available I think was Spanish. Damn you America!

FFFFFFUUUU I would have killed to have Chinese when I was in HS

[UoN]Sentinel

United States11320 Posts

July 14 2010 14:23 GMT

#35

LAWL at the last part.

Learning a second language really gets harder as you go along. I started learning English as a second language when I was 3, already spoke it at a first grade level by 6. Now I've been learning Spanish for 8 years and I can barely communicate with all those Chileans on iCCup. MB just retarded teaching system.

At any rate, I would lol if the South Korean President came back from the US and said, "These people donate all the time. The Americans aren't spending a whole bunch of time eating hamburgers."

EDIT: POST 400 WOO HOO

Coolzx

United States138 Posts

July 15 2010 03:39 GMT

#36

On July 14 2010 22:22 HeadhunteR wrote:
Even in my country there are english classes for everyone since 1st grade.. a law was passed that even public schools must teach english.. Learning 2 languages is just something USA americans are not used to...

Yeah only in America, In every if not most country student are required to learn a secondary language, its not just Korea -_-

Tenryu

United States565 Posts

July 15 2010 05:34 GMT

#37

Apparently Obama has never seen this report from CNN

Part 1

kzn

United States1218 Posts

July 15 2010 05:43 GMT

#38

On July 14 2010 16:45 Cow wrote:

Show nested quote +

Agreed.
One of my biggest regrets is resisting my parents trying to make me learn a second language at a really young age ):

Honestly almost no matter what age you are, you're not going to learn effectively from a class. You might learn enough to get by, but it wont be close to fluency or being able to follow, say, a cast.

And no matter how old you are, if you end up stuck in a country where you dont speak the language you'll pick it up pretty fast, unless its unnecessary. But its not fun, believe me.

ironchef

Canada1350 Posts

July 15 2010 08:42 GMT

#39

I think the approach to teaching language is pretty poor in general. We study French from kindergarten to gr.9 in Ontario, and most people cant really speak it or understand it that well. Atleast definitely not the level youd want from 10 yrs of experience worth.

Just saying that having a program is only the first step, it wont do much if its poorly run. But I agree, learning language is very rewarding.

LosingID8

CA10835 Posts

July 15 2010 14:35 GMT

#40

learning a 2nd language for at least 2 years is a requirement for most high schools in america.

2 years is obviously inadequate to learn a language but more and more people are going for AP/IB level foreign languages which is the equivalent of 4 or 5 years.