Affordable and Bargain English American Accent in the Philippines

 

Study and have fun in the Philippines. The High Quality Education, High Quality Teaching, the most affordable English, Cheapest in price but good quality English American Accent in the Philippines. Much cheaper lessons and a convincing US accent are bringing an increasing number of students to learn English in the Philippines

The Philippines: The world's budget English teacher

The Philippines is fast becoming the world's low-cost English language teacher - with rapid increases in overseas students coming to learn English or study in English-speaking universities. (See the link of the list of featured universities here http://is.gd/eJ97Wo)

There might be other countries that people think about as a classic place to learn English, such as the United Kingdom, the USA or Australia.

But there is one key reason that they are switching to the Philippines. It's much cheaper. And in the competitive market for language students, it means the Philippines is attracting people from countries such as Iran, Libya, Brazil and Russia.

"We have very competitive rates compared with other countries," says English teacher, Jesy King, citing her school's fees of $500 (£313) for a 60-hour class - about a third of the price of an equivalent course in the US or Canada.

Another major advantage is the accent.

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

Elizaveta is a Russian student taking courses taught in English in the Philippines - she says fees are a quarter of courses in Australia or Canada

Call centers

These centers train their staff to sound indistinguishable from Americans, so callers never realize that the person they're speaking to is on the other side of the world.

"I have a background in call centers, so I've learnt to adopt an American accent - it's one of the pre-requisites when you join," says Jesy King.

Her school, the International Language Academy of Manila, attracts students from all over the world.

The majorities are from Asia - especially Japan, Taiwan and Korea - but in the past few months she's also taught people from North Africa, South America and the Middle East.

Student numbers are growing rapidly. According to the Philippine Immigration Bureau, more than 24,000 people have applied for a study permit this year - compared to fewer than 8,000 just four years ago.

The government sees this sector as a golden opportunity for growth.

Outsourced work being carried out at home in Manila: The Philippines benefits from having one of the biggest English-speaking populations in the world

Increasing demand

"We're geared to accept more and more students," says Cristino Panlilio, the under-secretary for the Department of Trade and Industry. "I believe the country should come up with more marketing for this."

And it's not just English language students who are coming to the Philippines - there's also been a rapid increase in the number of foreigners applying for graduate and post-graduate courses in all kinds of fields.

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.

In order to study at a university here, foreigners need a full student visa, and immigration records show that three times as many foreigners applied for one in 2011 than they did just three years before. (see more information here http://is.gd/9x9wyO)

Dr. Alvin Culaba, the executive vice-president of De La Salle University- one of the country's top universities - is confident that the level of teaching in his institution can compete with that found anywhere in the world.

"Our programs are very comparable, or sometimes even better, than in the USA and Europe," he says.

Driving a bargain

De La Salle University already has a lot of students from China and Japan, but there's recently been an increase in Europeans.

Elizaveta Leghkaya, a Russian engineering student, is one of them.

She looked at courses in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but the program at De La Salle University in the Philippines was a quarter of the price of the others.

"Here it's much cheaper, and I'm really confident that the qualification I'll get is just the same," she says.

She had found other benefits of studying in the Philippines too.

"It's a good experience, as it's a different style of life than I'd get in Europe. It's interesting to learn the culture. I like to travel here, and go to the beaches and museums."

But studying in the Philippines isn't for the faint-hearted.

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

And then there's the fact that many Filipinos speak a rather different language than the rest of the English-speaking world.

The Philippines markets itself as being the third largest English-speaking nation - after the USA and the United Kingdom (UK) - a fact proudly displayed on the Department of Tourism website. And in a way, that's true. Most people speak at least rudimentary English, and the well-educated speak it fluently.

Taglish speakers

But a lot of people in Manila speak Taglish - a mix of English and the local language Tagalog - which is often difficult for foreigners to understand.

English signs often have the wrong spellings and the way English words are used is sometimes uniquely Filipino, with confusing and occasionally unintentionally amusing results.

Ice block to ice bloke: The local Tagalog language can be mixed with English to create some unexpected outcomes

One of the national newspapers used the headline "Police Clueless" for a story about the police officers not having any specific clues about a case.

For a foreign student trying to learn English, this will undoubtedly present some challenges.

But for an increasing number of people, these are small obstacles compared with the benefits of studying in the Philippines.

The spiraling cost of education in many parts of the world, coupled with the ease of finding out about foreign courses on the internet, mean that more and more students are deciding to study abroad.

And English-speaking nations like the Philippines are primed to cash in on this trend. 

Read more in BBC News

BBC News (http://is.gd/RHmiwN) 

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US President Obama visit ASEAN 3 except the Philippines

Obama skips Philippines-again

PHILIPPINES - Fresh on the heels of the reelection of US President Barack Obama, the White House announced that he would visit Burma (Myanmar) as his first foreign policy initiative at the start of a three-leg tour of Southeast Asia that covers Thailand and Cambodia on Nov. 17-20.

The itinerary excluded the Philippines, a longtime strategic security ally of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region.

The exclusion ruffled sensitive nationalist feelings in Manila, as officials anxiously waited for signals from the second Obama administration on what is in store for the Philippines in the reordering of US foreign policy priorities following the election.

The question that immediately emerged was: Why Burma, Thailand and Cambodia? These countries in Southeast Asia are the least threatened by the aggressive pursuit by China of its hegemonic claim of disputed territories in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), which are also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.

The Philippines, Vietnam and Japan (in East Asia) had been in the centre of rising tensions from these contending claims before the elections.

Filipinos were quick to recall that during Obama's first Southeast Asian tour early in his first term, his itinerary bypassed the Philippines.

As if to rub salt in the wound, White House officials revealed that Obama returned the calls of a long list of global leaders, including those of Israel and Egypt, who contacted him to congratulate him on his reelection.

The US president spoke to the leaders of Germany, France, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Canada, India, Turkey, Brazil, Colombia and Nato's secretary general.

No call from Obama

Malacañang said it had not received calls from the Obama White House, but it emphasised that President Aquino did not call President Obama and instead sent a congratulatory message by mail through the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Aquino on Wednesday wrote that he "looked forward to a deeper cooperation" with the United States in Obama's second term.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda told reporters that Mr. Aquino did not call Obama because the latter "was probably getting too many phone calls." Lacierda added, "I think the letter is sufficient."

According to BBC news, Obama's Burma stop is part of the trip built around the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia, which leaders from China, Japan and Russia will also attend.

Obama will meet Burma's President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

White House spokesperson Jay Carney said President Obama intended to "speak to civil society to encourage Burma's ongoing democratic transition."

Normalizing ties

The government of Burma has been implementing economic, political and other reforms, a process that the Obama administration has sought to encourage, according to BBC.

The trip "reflects the importance that the US has placed in normalizing relations with Burma. The process has moved forward relatively swiftly … and it represents an opportunity for the United States to have a greater stake in the region and so at least counter the dominant influence of China," BBC said.

A Burmese government spokesperson said the "support and encouragement of the US president … will strengthen the commitment of President Thein Sein's reform process to move forward without backtracking."

Reforms have been taking place in Burma since elections in November 2010 saw military rule replaced with a military-backed nominally civilian government, BBC said. Since then, many political prisoners have been freed and censorship relaxed.

The opposition party led by Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest after the elections, has rejoined the political process after boycotting the 2010 elections. It now has a small presence in parliament after the April by-elections.

Shedding light on the shifting foreign policy priorities of the second Obama administration, The New York Times, in an analysis, wrote that "for reasons of history and political reality, a reelected Mr. Obama is likely to devote more time to foreign affairs. From Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton, presidents have tended to make their bid for statesman status in their second terms. The prospect of continuing gridlock-with the Republicans still controlling the House-gives Mr. Obama all the more reason to favor diplomacy over domestic legislation."

New maritime power

Along the same vein, the Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ) wrote that Obama's reelection would provide him with little time to celebrate in the face of an array of global problems that include challenges posed by Iran's nuclear programme and widening political instability in the Middle East.

Behind these front-burner problems, AWSJ said, Obama in his second term, "likely will have to redefine US policies toward China, in light of its growing economic might and military power.

The president is expected to face renewed challenge from Beijing over continued arms sales to Taiwan … And many Asian officials fear that the dispute between Japan and China over an atoll in the East China Sea could escalate further, forcing Washington-Tokyo's treaty ally-to a larger role."

The AWSJ said: "The Obama administration over the past year has been touting its intention to tilt Washington's strategic focus from the Middle East and toward Asia, due to the region's economic growth and China's increasing power."

The Philippines' anxieties over China's policies on the territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea rose as the Chinese Communist Party began its leadership change at its party congress that followed the US elections.

Agence France-Presse reported from Beijing that the speech of outgoing Chinese President Hu Jintao at the party congress referring to the territorial disputes in the South China Sea has raised concerns among Asian countries that have supported the Obama administration's policy to "pivot" to the region as it disentangles from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Addressing the opening of the Communist Party's 18th National Congress, Hu indicated that China would continue its disputed claims to maritime territories.

He said, "We should enhance our capacity for exploiting maritime resources, resolutely safeguard China's maritime rights and interests and build China into a maritime power."

Philippine Daily Inquirer 

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