Re: Literacy

On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:28:36 GMT, Jim Breen wrote:

Should I believe Wikipedia since it claims that Japanese and Americans
are equally literate?:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate

If you believe the UN report they quote; yes.

However, since that report justs states the results without
mentioning their sources or methodology, you have a right (and
duty) to be skeptical. How anyone can claim an accuracy of 0.1%
in literacy measurements in languages with widely differing
script difficulties is beyond me. And one suspects, at least in
the case of Japan, that results are based on self-declarations
by governments.

Exactly. The Wikipedia article cited in the original post was an article
reporting on the UN study. I believe it's report on the study was
accurate. The Wikipedia article on literacy can be found at the below URL.
Among other things, it discusses the compexity of assessing literacy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy

Phil Yff
.

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