You are right. So many American millionaires and billionaires and other in the entire world didn't go to college at all.

http://www.harvard.edu/faqs/free-courses

http://www.scholars4dev.com/4013/distan ... -students/

Username Taken wrote:

MekongMouse wrote:Watching English language TV with subtitles is a great way to learn English.

Don't agree with that.

Watching TV is to practice listening skills, not reading skills. When students watch movies with subtitles they tend to focus on the subtitles which detracts from the purpose of the exercise.
Apart from that, have you watched any subtitled movies in Phnom Penh? The subtitles miss out words, or sometimes even whole sentences. Then there are the ones where the English in the subtitles bears no resemblance to what was actually said, or makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I've watched a few khmer TV series with subtitles and it helped me learn, though I was mostly picking up verbs here and there so can't say with certainty how much was left out. I've also learned most of the Spanish I know from subtitles (and travel), and while those are generally pretty accurate, I do notice oversimplification and gaps. I agree that Samouth doesn't need subtitles and can just watch English language media and learn just fine. I guess I meant for someone who is just picking up English, subtitles can be helpful.

MekongMouse wrote:Our community colleges aren't great either.

While I agree with the rest of your post (esp regarding ITT Tech and co...) I disagree with this. Our community colleges are fantastic for what they are. Middle education that's affordable to most. You won't be a doctor from one... but you hit one up the right way and you may just get the scholarships that ensure you can go to a large university and become one.

I have a community college story that I happen to love. For one, I'm quite close with the young lady who did this... and for two it's a great example of how education in the US is VERY accessible for those who are willing to put in the effort:

So this chick I know, long time friends with her and her brother, though mostly her brother. She was a pretty good fuckup as a late teen early 20. In fact right up until about 26-27. High school dropout with a GED, had 3 kids by 2 dudes (not random... she had been in relationships with them at the time, but things didn't work out). Both her and said dudes were always sort of white trashy... not really bad, but never going to get anywhere in life types. Working retail, shit labor, not at all, etc. No real future... and a lot of mouths to feed. A pretty good cross section example of the most vocal complainers of the lower/lower-middle class.

So... around 26-27, while she was still with daddy #2 (father of 2 of the 3 kids) who worked some labor type gig for like 25,000 a year or so (with her not working, but staying home with the kids) she decides she doesn't want to be a housewife. She stops in at the local community college and starts talking with the financial aid people there. Turns out that with income based grants and such she can basically go to college there for nothing. If you aren't familiar with how grants work, unlike scholarships they just send you a check to use... for anything you want technically. Well, knowing how she was pretty broke and tended to fuck up shit like this, most of us just braced for her to get it... spend it... then not be able to cover her tuition. But surprising us all, she actually got her shit together and pulled it off.

Well, after the first semester she'd actually managed to get herself on the deans list (not that hard, 3.8 gpa and up are all on it automatically) which reduces your tuition slightly... she was now getting paid to go to college. After that she got a work/study gig at the library where she got paid some shit wage as well. Now she was getting paid even more to go. With her high grades she landed about 14 really small scholarships that she'd dug around and found... most of them only like $100 here and $100 there. She was now only using like 20% of her grants for her education and the rest went into her pocket... she was making almost as much as her husband, just for going to school and really putting herself into it.

This started around 7 years ago. Since then she and he ended up splitting up/etc... but she's still going to school. In fact she has her Bachelors in mathematics and is working on her masters at one of the top schools in the city (and arguably the nation). She has taken on some student loans finally, just so that she could focus on studying without having to work. About $40,000 a year in them since she started her masters studies.

All because a community college was there, affordable, and created a perfect gateway to redefine herself (and prove it) and launch a whole cascade of opportunities as a result.

I think community colleges are great for the purposes outlined, but I don't think people get a great education from them. I used to do community college classes in high school. This was because I was in the IB program, but anyone taking AP classes or even basic college prep classes will find themselves way overqualified for any community college course. But in terms of getting credits on paper so you can advance to the next level, absolutely useful.

And your friend sounds like she really turned her life around, which is awesome. One thing I'll note, because it annoyed the hell out of me when I was this age, is that if you're under 24, you cannot get your own financial aid unless you have kids, get married, join the military, or go to court to declare your independence (not as easy as it sounds). I was not financially supported by my parents at all during college (not even the airfare out there), but was required to list their incomes on my application for financial aid. My father refused for months to let me see his income until my mom talked him into it. This turned out to be pretty useless because my parents earned enough where I did not receive any financial aid anyway. As a result, I had a $33,000 per year bill, paid for by academic scholarships, high interest non-cosigned loans, selling weed, working 40 hours a week at a bakery/health food store, and finally 10 hours per week working on my school's webpage. I basically had no life and dropped out after 2 years, figuring I was making plenty of money selling weed so I should just do that. Basically, it always upset me that I was being penalized for having parents with money when I literally received none of it and was the poorest kid out of all my classmates. I'm not saying there aren't success stories, but you have to meet certain criterion to be eligible for a lot of that and not everyone does. The system needs work.

More videos i just discovered

The US does have many prodigy children. They probably have good parents, lucked out in the genetic lottery, and attend good schools. Keep in mind that the US also has many dummies. There is a Honey Boo Boo for every prodigy.

Samouth wrote:

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote:Huge television networks also... But as Duncan says, smart is quite relative.

I agree. I like US television programs. I watched them more than khmer television programs.

Stay away from those American network programs , they will pickle your brain.

What if it's pickled already?