In her article entitled "The Philippines: The World's budget English teacher", Kate McGeown reports that the number of foreign students in the Philippines has grown 3 times from 8,000 to 24,000 within the last 4 years because there are more foreigners from all over the world looking for cheaper English course or degrees in higher education taught in English with the low tuition fees. Apart from low-cost education, Filipino people are able to speak English not only fluently but also with American, therefore, the Philippine government promotes encouragingly the flourishing education industry.
When I first read the title of this article, it reminded me of a news I read from Reuters website a few months ago. The Philippines, which is now ranked in one of the four least developed nations in ASEAN, has successfully stabilised many sectors, such as political sector - notorious in corruption, and economic system - driven by reforming and restructuring in most areas. One of them is the capitalised education industry which I totally agree and respectfully look up to the initiative. It is kind of thinking out of the box: whereas other countries in ASEAN - its most proximate neighbouring group - are developing their industries, especially trading and tourism, the Filipino people pull their advantage in English language as a beneficial assess to earn more money from foreigner. It looks like they are exporting education, but they are still at home and don't waste any costs of exportation. Actually, it is not exportation because they are selling English courses and servicing higher education to foreigners. For well-educated or good English speaking people, it is a great job opportunity for them. They need not go abroad and work in any unwanted jobs like cleaning public restroom.
The news from Reuters I mention above shows the creativity of some English language schools that make themselves different from others. It is a mixture between an English course and relaxation on the beach. This is extremely interesting! And I would like to take a course if I can afford. However, I didn't even try to find deeply in details about studying in the Philippines. First, all of my friends and professors told that the taste of Filipino food does not match with Thai's. Second, living there in a condition of much pollution is like staying and studying in Bangkok, perhaps worse in the Philippines, but wastes more money. Third, earlier this year the country experienced severely hit by a couple of storms which left damage in most area of Manila and surrounding areas. This may be uncomfortable for a newcomer.
McGeown also mentions the reason why Philippine people speak clearly with American accent. It is because many of them used to work or are now working in the call center industry serving companies in the United States. Likewise, some of my friends are working in this position for multinational businesses in Thailand. This seems like those companies want to reduce their cost of staff salary. They prefer to pay higher than the standard of living in the developing countries rather than hiring their staff with a high rate of wage and a strict labour laws. This points out that economic systems in North America and Europe are turning down, so they must save all costs.
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Reference
Philippine tropics lure English lerners. (2012, July 17). Reuters. Retrieved November 12, 2012 from http://www.reuters.com/video/2012/11/12/philippine-tropics-lure-english-learners?videoId=236522347&videoChannel=2602
I have heard about Philippine English education's value. The low cost is very attractive, but the problem is a security for me. Some alarming incidents by guns are repoted intermittently. It might be one of the reasons which reduces their attraction.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that security should be an important factor that we must take into consideration. First, I thought about it and planned to include in the response, but I changed my mind because I'm not sure whether Thailand is harmful for foreigners than the Philippines or not.
DeleteIn Japan, Having English conversation lessons with Philippine teachers by using the Internet ( I mean skype and other IP phone system) has become very popular. It is cheaper than learning at lauguage school, more convenient, and neither teachers nor students need to pay expensive cost of travels. One of my friends went to Fiji to study English because of reasonable prise, which I'm wondering a little bit, because I know her hobby is scuba diving. Thanks to spread of IP phones, there are some Japanese call center here in Bangkok, their customers are only Japanese who would never know that they call to Thailand! It is globalism, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI think your friend whose hobby is scuba diving chose the location of her English language very well. I wonder if any Thai islands popular with divers also offer conveniently located English schools? Perhaps there is a market niche there waiting to be filled.
DeleteIn the philiphine, There are over 100 Korean English Academies where students stay 24hours with Native speakers including Philiphinos who has TESOL certification and can teach English to students.Because many Korean parents and students worry about security in the Philiphine, Korean English Acedemies chose korean style in the philiphine, that is, all students should stay in dormitory, eat together and study together. They can go out only Sunday. No drinking, No fighting and No Korean during daytime.
ReplyDeleteJae,
DeleteAre drinking and fighting, along with Korean, OK during the night-time? (Sorry, I had to ask after reading your last sentence.)
Katie, who is also Korean, also mentioned the security concerns. I wonder if they are justified? I have no idea. I often read reports of scams in the Philippines, especially against foreign visitors, but again, I have no idea of how common that might really be.
When I was growing up in Australia, everyone thought that big cities were much more dangerous than country areas, but that was largely wrong: the statistics show that rural areas are more violent that all urban areas, and that theft is about the same. However, small towns that are not changing rapidly, either growing or shrinking, do report much lower crime rates.
No.That's not true. Although Korean enjoy dringking, our crime rate in Korea is not as high as than other OECD countries.
DeleteActually, I made it those phrase. students who want study in the Philiphine, Singapore or HogKong are from 13 years old to 24 years old. They are normally under pressure too much in Korea. If they stay alone in foreign country without parents or patrons, they might do or think unusual behavior or thought that might make them be in trouble. Now some of my nephew are studying English in Singapore. Always I worry about their security and health. Sometimes I can heard and see Koreans who was died by accidents in abroad, but I've never heard Koreans fight after drinking in abroad. So you don't need to worry too much. They only stay 6 or 7 months in those countries before they go to the U.K or the USA.
All the time, I wish they could accomplish their goal completely.
Education is a major industry in Australia, too, both for domestic consumption and for export. I'm not sure how many universities there now are in Australia, but many are a bit so-so, and I would not recommend some, but there are also a few that are excellent (three that I can think of quickly).
ReplyDeleteEven when I was at university a few decades ago, there were a noticeable number of foreign students, mainly from Asian countries, including a couple from Thailand. And I believe from Australian news reports that there are now a lot more. But I think it's probably the same at good universities everywhere. When I watch videos of lectures at Harvard or the like, there are always plenty of students who are not white, although such Ivy League universities also attract students from other Western countries. Some are doubtless the children of immigrants, but I'm sure, especially when they speak, that many are also overseas students trying to get the best education available, and in the case of Harvard, at great expense.
An evidence of the export of education industry I find in Thailand is many agencies in Thailand cooperating with language schools, high schools, and universities, mostly in the United Kingdom and Australia. Some also represent institutions in New Zealand, but this country is not so popular as those.
DeleteThai students who would like to study in the United States usually apply directly to the universities.
From your comment, I'm curious what the three universities are.
The Australian National University (ANU), Monash, in Melbourne, and Sydney University. And I think that the University of NSW is also up there at the excellent level. Possibly a couple of others.
Deletethen there are a few others that are good, and a lot that are at best fair. But that's probably normal for most countries - the US has hundreds of universities, but most are not in the Ivy League league.
Thank you for information. :)
DeleteI think that Philipine education system is good because my cousins studied in international school in Manila and they suscessfully pursued higher education in the United stated.
ReplyDeleteIn the future, Philippine is become the leading country about education.
I don't know much about Philippine but the terrorists' violence happened a few year ago is imprinted in most foreigner's memory. I agree with the previous comments that this point is a big disadvantage to the growth of English school business in Philippine.
ReplyDeleteI'm Jennifer, not Jay.I didn't know that the Philipines
ReplyDeleteis boosting as a high English education cource like this before. The image of the nation is not good for me but I accept that their English ability is good.
As you mention about the efficient English language ability of Filipinos, I start to upset about the educational system in Thailand, because, although Thai students started leaning English since we were in the kindergartens, we are still not able to use it fluently. As my experience, I have to spend a lot more money studying more English in several language schools in order to improve my skill. However, nowadays, it is pleasant to hear from the news that our government become to pay more attention on English skill of Thai people as we have to prepare ourselves for the coming of AEC in 2015
ReplyDelete