Learning has never been more open and free than it is becoming in the current days. MIT has been in the forefront of the news recently about placing its courses online in full before the end of 2008. A real break through has been the acceptance of this new forum for public education as it is being embraced by Chinese universities.
In conjunction with the development of a new openness in society regarding education is another development - the ability to translate ideas and information across language barriers. This site is one such example. Other tools exist that will enable students to access content and information from Asian Universities in addition to Western schools.
Option 1 - Learn a foreign language online using a free course from MIT (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Foreign-Languages-and-Literatures/index.htm)
Option 2 - Use the built in translation tools within Microsoft Office to translate documents and learning materials into your native language (MS Word has a translation that works with WorldLingo.com to translate from many languages into other languages)
Option 3 - http://translate.google.com provides ever increasing translation services and flexibility.
Option 4 - Use an extensible web browser like Firefox together with a language translator add-in like ChinesePera-kun to be able to move your mouse over foreign words and get instant translations of web page materials.
As the education material for the entire world continues to become available even the poorest communities will gain the ability to educate our children. This might be a good time to consider home schooling as an alternative. With proper discipline, guidance and materials your kids can be the best educated generation thus far.
The time to act is now.
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