PH is world's most affordable 'English teacher'

[Ronzkie23]

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By Kim Arveen Patria | Yahoo! Southeast Asia Newsroom – 20 hours ago





The growing number of foreign students flocking to the Philippines to learn English has prompted a London-based news website to call it "the world's low-cost English teacher."

"There might be other countries that people think about as a classic place to learn English, such as the U.K., the U.S. or Australia. But there is one key reason that they are switching to the Philippines. It's much cheaper," BBC said in a report.

Quoting a Pinoy English teacher, BBC said local rates of $500 for a 60-hour class is about a third of the prices for equivalent courses in U.S. or Canada.

Such deals have attracted more and more students, with the report citing Bureau of Immigration data which saw applications for student visas triple to 24,000 last year year from 8,000 in 2008.

While most students are from Asia, particularly Japan, Taiwan and Korea, BBC said Filipino English schools have also began teaching people from countries such as Iran, Libya, Brazil, and Russia.

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Aside from the low cost, Pinoy English accent is also seen as a major advantage.

"Filipinos speak with a clear American accent--partly because the Philippines was a U.S. colony for five decades, and partly because so many people here have spent time working in call centres that cater to a U.S. market," BBC said.

These outsourcing firms train Pinoys to "sound indistinguishable from Americans," it added.

Graduate and post-graduate courses in the Philippines are also gaining greater international attention.

"The main reasons that attract them are, again, the cost - and the fact that, in the country's top universities, all classes are held in English," BBC said.

It added that sky-rocketing costs of education in many parts of the world and the ease of finding out about programs in other countries are pushing more students to enroll in schools abroad.

"[E]nglish-speaking nations like the Philippines are primed to cash in on this trend," BBC said.

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However, the report also highlighted stumbling blocks to being a destination for English learners.

"Living here means coping with the bureaucracy and corruption, and if you're in Manila, the heavy pollution," BBC said.

It also noted common mistakes in spelling and distortion of meaning of some English words when used in Filipino.

Beginners in English may also get confused amid a diversity of languages spoken in Pinoy communities, as well as the rampant use of "Taglish," which mixes English and the local lingua franca, the report said.

Still, it concluded: "[F]or an increasing number of people, these are small obstacles compared with the benefits of studying in the Philippines."

Source: PH is world's most affordable 'English teacher' - Yahoo! News Philippines

[Dorothea]

I thought Rosetta Stone was the cheapest way to learn another language?

[Static X]

daghan na bitaw koreans and japanese in the philippines and these english schools are sprouting like mushrooms.

[SioDenz]

Someday this thing will bite us in the Ass. If makahibalo nah nang lain nasud ug english labi china, mamalhin jud na tanan outsourcing natu didto...English ra baya atung advantage diri. Ang knowledge pwedi na mabuhat sa uban sad. Ug COST didto mas barato compare sa Pinas...

[DEMONOCIETY]

yeahhh in china many pinay english teacher sad to say daghan pud ani nila ang TNT

[crossramz]

what do you expect? Businessman are paying pinoy online ESL teachers/tutors for a minimum wage kay part time ra kuno?(4 hours).. For LoL dagko diay kaayo sila ug paningil sa ila mga clients abroad.

[burn777]

Kita man halos tanan ang cheapest paid!

may it be construction workers, nurses, it, seaman..etc

like myself... i replaced a British First officer diri and he was paid $30,000 ang akoa tawn kapila pa pilo piloon

pero cge nalang enough ra pang Pilipinas

[SioDenz]

Kita man halos tanan ang cheapest paid!

may it be construction workers, nurses, it, seaman..etc

like myself... i replaced a British First officer diri and he was paid $30,000 ang akoa tawn kapila pa pilo piloon

pero cge nalang enough ra pang Pilipinas

Sure ka? naa kay data ani? di tanan profession lowest paid ang Pinoy...
Asay gamay sweldo sa seaman, pinoy o indonesian?
Asay gamay sweldo sa contruction like engineers Pinoy o taga Bangladesh?

[Dorothea]

kanang $30,000 per month na? Wow!

[hobie]

We are teaching the world english language but we are not providing quality education in english to our own children.
Take Melai of melason for example, diba english teacher na siya? English major pod if I am not mistaken.