This reminds me of another great sift:

http://www.videosift.com/video/Tyra-Banks-reveals-her-biggest-beauty-secret-ever

edjukational

It's one of the few things on the internet that really made me laugh when I saw it. Maybe because I was sleep-deprived or something.

I sifted another one in the same vein here, since you guys seem to slightly like it:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Poorly-written-El-Nino-essay

GED: Get your's ('Cause I'mma get mines)!

That was good, but this http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/image/essay/1 is better.

Did you know that cancer is the number one killer of people with cancer? Right behind that is bus accidents and serial killers.

I really, really hope this person can't speak English and used a translator.

I teach ESL, and this essay isn't funny. However, this story, which a little Korean girl turned into me when I was her teacher, is quite funny, and this one, written by another little Korean girl about her teacher who likes Coca-Cola, is even funnier.

Now on the to the tragic stuff.

If English isn't your first language, to get into an English-speaking university, you need to pass an English proficiency test, like TOEFL or IELS. What this video really mocks is not this student, but these tests. They don't actually establish how well you can communicate in English. They only test how well trained you are to write that particular test. For instance, students can search for patterns in spelling so they can deduce the right answer without even knowing why it's correct. There are intensive courses designed to train students in these simple tricks without improving their English skills at all. Most ESL students take a course like this before attempting the test. That's obviously how this student got through.

Don't blame the student for being accepted, trying hard, submitting drafts to be corrected, and doing the honest thing by not paying a native speaker to rewrite the essay, which is how most people in this situation get through. This student did everything right, and does not deserve to be mocked. It's tragic he/she wasted all that time and money because the entrance qualifications weren't well-designed enough. What's worse is that the instructor permitted this student's essay to be scanned and distributed for ridicule.

messenger! you are 200% correct, as a college student i have friends from foreign countries who are extremely intelligent. but they have the most difficult times in english courses because of this.. i mean come on .. give a 5 page essay on a "the sound and the fury" to a 19 year old japanese girl .. i was born and raised here and i still struggle to convey ...or simply interpret .. what faulkner tries to depict in his novels.. i don't know what the assignment was for this particular paper but we have to understand that being a foreign student (this person probably thai) can be a very daunting in a university.

For instance, students can search for patterns in spelling so they can deduce the right answer without even knowing why it's correct. There are intensive courses designed to train students in these simple tricks without improving their English skills at all.

LOL at messenger's links!!!

I like how it's so close to being right, but nevertheless so far off. Funny.

Messenger: Fantastic.

I hope you informed your student of the correct spelling, messenger. And I totally agree with you. I don't personally find it humorous to laugh at people who are trying their very best to speak a foreign language (in this case, English), but have it come out very broken.

If this was a native English speaker it would be infinitely more humorous, but it's clearly someone still learning the language and it's just not funny. Sort of like laughing at a newly paralyzed person who falls off their wheelchair down some stairs or an 80-year-old man falling up an escalator due to a heart attack. (The latter is just a joke.)

It's one thing to laugh with the author after explaining to them why, but wholly another story to attempt to get the entire English speaking world to make a joke of and laugh at the poor fellow.

Well, I'm a horrible person, but all of the examples I saw on this page including the original video were hilarious to me. I think what makes this video funny, though, is that it is read with no accent, so the poor English comes off sounding like a stupid person wrote it.

...the poor English comes off sounding like a stupid person wrote it.

Exactly.

I just have to point out that no where in the title or the discription does it say that the writer of this does not speak english. In fact I had assumed it was just some one who had waited till 4am the day of to write their assignment, until someone started bitching about it. so we don't need someone coming on and saying that anyone who thinks this funny is horrible, or racist, or whatever. *up vote just to spite*

Yes, fjnbk! I was going to suggest that one!

I laughed very hard. This reminded me of papers my GF's 4th grade students used to write, many of whom were native english speakers, but they still wrote like this.

I might not have laughed as much if I had known ahead of time that this was a university paper.