TED Community » Jing Cao

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Human Connection - If there's anything magical in this world, it lays on the attempt to understand and connect with each other.

Talk to me about

Traveling; Music; Books; Movies; Food; Yoga

People don't know that I'm good at

Volunteering - My volunteering journeys trace to remote areas in China and Kenya. I've heard heart-melting stories and I've met the most amazing people.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +2.90 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Talk: Mark Bezos: A life lesson from a volunteer firefighter

  Mar 27 2011: short and sweet.
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: What would be the best way to make Khan Academy go International?

  Mar 10 2011: Hey Tony, yes, this is what Khan Academy can reach us in a more profound way, not confined by the scope of itself. And I can vision the learning mechanism be a great motivator at least to individual students in China, if not the whole system at the moment.
  
  As for the Khan Academy mandarin translation, do you have any interest in give it a try? If so you'd make a very good team leader. Or you know anyone who'd be capable of this role? I feel very passionate to contribute to the project. Hope to hear from you soon.

• A comment on Conversation: What would be the best way to make Khan Academy go International?

  Mar 10 2011: Great question!! Khan lovers out there, let's really get going!
  
  I think the best way would be: Voice-over + subtitles for writing when necessary, especially for the K12 subjects.
  
  However, certain advanced courses such as calculus, banking & finance can be made available for subtitles first (consider the learning ability of target audience, and many of them may need to improve on English as well) . Voice-over could be implemented over time.
  
  Something I'd like us to take note. There are a lot of teaching videos available online. But what made Khan Academy a big success has a lot to do with his unique teaching style. So there's already a lot of good effort put in there to establish it (remake everything seems a bit wasteful in that sense). And the consistency and complete structure of each course is also of paramount importance.
  
  My two-cents:
  
  People for each language get into teams. Test water and start from a particular course. Have the script translated by a few translators working simultaneously thus speed the process. Make the style consistent and relevant to the particular culture. Do the voice-over, and with great personality. Then get snowballing.
  
  Compare to TED open translation, this project is measured at least on the scale of a whole course instead of just one talk. So I imagine great leadership, teamwork and organization would be very important.
  
  Cheers.

• A reply on Talk: Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

  Mar 10 2011: Hey Michael, your display photo kinda tells it all. nice : )
  
  As for the slightly more populated non-nerds out there, a friend who has been long time calculus-troubled told me it became "less intolerable" at first, then it grew on her and now she "somehow loves it", thanks to Khan Academy. That I find quite remarkable. Some great confidence-building mechanism there.
• +6

  A comment on Talk: Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

  Mar 9 2011: Oh gosh, since when did learning calculus become my guilty pleasure...
  
  Hope more volunteers come together and make it available in other languages. I'll see what I can do to help spread out the words.
  
  Anyone out there wanna make Mandarin version? Drop me a mail to discuss^^ Cheers.
• +3

  A comment on Talk: Martin Jacques: Understanding the rise of China

  Mar 9 2011: WOW!! I mean, what a discussion (or heated debate for that matter)!
  
  Among the contributors, I saw native Chinese, 2nd generation Chinese immigrants, Chinese who had well traveled, Westerners, Westerners who lived/currently living in China, Taiwanese, other Asians, etc. (It's a chaotic and inaccurate grouping ,I know =). The sheer diversity of the people here exchanging on the same issue is amazing in the first place.
  
  All this time I was reading through the comments, the Young Girl / Old Lady optical illusion kept bumping into my mind. Different perspectives give a simple 2D drawing such complexity. I think we could at least agree that what we're dealing here is no simple matter at all. It's so easy to form up opinions based on what we see and where we come from. It's even easier (part of human nature really) to get into defensive mode when confronted with opinions we're not used to. Maybe we should bear in mind only with an open mind can we ever get a deeper understanding of each other.
  
  Anyways it's a humbling experience to me. Thank all the contributors who shared and exchanged with good intentions. Peace.
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: Which relevant/important events currently unfolding around the world are being ignored by the media? Why are they relevant?

  Mar 8 2011: Hey Laurens, I couldn't agree with you more. I was already quite surprised and stunned by Africa during my short stay there last year, and yes I have the miserably poor media coverage to thank.
  
  First of all, I've met some of the most creative and resourceful entrepreneurs and engineer who have developed effective solutions and products, with virtually very little cost. Sometimes it's even painful to admit something that cheap actually does work.
  
  Second I'm amazed by the prevalence of mobile phones, and how many things they're capable to do, all using the simplest models. SMS, facebook, even mobile banking is already incorporated into people's daily lives for quite some while.
  
  Of course the emergence of Africa is by nature complicated. I certainly don't buy into those prototype stories anymore. We need to hear more voices about the exciting developments come from within.

• A reply on Conversation: Should the internet be a fundamental right?

  Mar 7 2011: Hey Mahmoud. You mentioned things took a dramatic turn on 25 Jan when large amount of people overcame their fear and came together.
  
  I'm wondering what's caused the mental shift for the majority of people? Since I deeply understand your previous concern that things would never work out. I still feel the same about the Chinese government. Curious how did the mental shift come about.