The Filipino is the world’s budget English teacher, BBC says

“The world’s budget English teacher” can be found in the Philippines, according to a report by BBC News published on their website Monday.

While students from all over the world can get their language education from the United States, the United Kingdom, or Australia, more and more are heading to the Philippine shores because of lower costs.

“They’re all here because they can get good quality teaching for a fraction of what it would cost in America or the United Kingdom,” said correspondent Kate McGeown in a report.

She cited statistics from the Philippine Immigration Bureau: some 24,000 people “applied for a study permit this year,” three times that of the number four years ago.

Besides cheap rates, “the accent” is also a “major advantage,” said the report, explaining how the archipelago was now cashing in on the language the Americans left when they colonized the country at the end of the 19th century. Call-center training, in addition, honed the “clear American accent” of some English teachers.

“It’s a good place to learn English, to get your accent better,” said Saudi student Ahed Alaa Al-Khayyat. “I have friends here… (who) can understand my language better now.”

However, international students aren’t just after English proficiency.

“(T)here’s also been a rapid increase in the number of foreigners applying for graduate and post-graduate courses in all kinds of fields,” McGewn said.

This is because local programs—including those offered by De La Salle University—“are very comparable, or sometimes even better, than in the US and Europe,” DLSU’s executive vice-president Dr. Alvin Culaba was quoted as saying.

Russian engineering student Elizaveta Leghkaya agrees.

The education she is getting from La Salle “is much cheaper, and I’m really confident that the qualification I’ll get is just the same,” she told BBC.

The report said, however, that Taglish—the mix of English and Tagalog often used by Filipinos—could confuse these foreign students. A “uniquely Filipino” use of words and “wrong spellings” could also be problematic.

“(B)ureaucracy and corruption” and “heavy pollution” are also some things students have to deal with when in Metro Manila.

“But for an increasing number of people,” said the report, “these are small obstacles compared with the benefits of studying in the Philippines.” –Tricia Aquino, InterAksyon.com