Philippines states its case for excellence in instruction

Many Chinese parents typically believe that good foreign English-language teachers can only be found in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada or Australia.

But the Philippines is fast becoming a growing source for such tutors.

Christina Alibudbud, a mother of three, used to spend all her time keeping house in the Calabarzon region of the Philippines. But since May last year, she has been a part-time English-language teacher for Chinese children thousands of kilometers away.

After a busy day of chores, Alibudbud sits in front of her computer in the evening and logs into her account with 51Talk, the Chinese online English teaching platform she works for.

A Chinese child is paired by computer with Alibudbud for a 25-minute English class. She usually uses a toy to attract the child's attention, and in her classes, students are asked to read conversations from real life, learn new vocabulary and grammar, and perform other activities.

More than 10,000 Filipinos are working remotely for teaching sites on the internet, connecting to huge numbers of Chinese eager to learn English, and aided by advances in cybertechnology and huge investment in Chinese online education companies.

According to 51Talk, there is a shortage of 500,000 foreign English-language teachers in China. The company said it has 10 million registered students and plans to increase the number of teachers from the Philippines from 16,000 to 100,000 in the next five years.

The founder and CEO of 51Talk, Huang Jiajia, said: "The Philippines is one of the best English-speaking countries in Asia. Filipino teachers have standard American pronunciation. More than 1 million Filipinos work at call centers in the United States."

For the increasing number of Chinese who want to improve their English, the benefits of studying with teachers from the Philippines are clear. The cost of a 25-minute online class provided by a teacher from the US is more than 120 yuan ($17), while such a class taken with a Filipino teacher costs only 40 yuan.

Although Filipino English-language teachers have started to become more popular due to the lower cost of classes, many Chinese parents still have their doubts.

For example, when seeking "Filipino English teachers" on the Chinese search engine Baidu, "Filipino English teachers' accents" appears in a related section.

However, Marvin Tuazon, a Filipino teacher at Taian No 1 Senior High School in Shandong province, argued that Filipinos may be more suitable for Chinese students.

"American or British teachers speak English as their mother tongue. However, Filipinos learn English as a second language, just like most Chinese do. As a result, we know how to learn the language well as non-native speakers," Tuazon said.

"As for pronunciation, even native English speakers have different accents. I don't think this can be used to judge the abilities of an English-language teacher," he added.

In the Philippines, where Tagalog is widely spoken, English is the official language. Some Filipinos have American accents partly because the country was a US colony for five decades. But many others also have a local accent that adds a twist to their diction. Well-educated Filipinos are relatively fluent English speakers and have better pronunciation.

During the Boao Forum for Asia last year, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte launched a promotional campaign for Filipino English-language teachers in China.

He said at least 100,000 such teachers from the Philippines were needed in China. The two governments agreed at the forum to more Filipino workers coming to China, with a plan last year to hire 2,000 English-language teachers.

Jose Santiago "Chito" Sta Romana, the Philippine ambassador to China, said: "This is an important step to further promote people-to-people exchanges and understanding between the two countries. It is also recognition of the world-class talent and excellent qualifications of Filipinos as teachers and educators."

For Huang, the 51Talk CEO, it is good news for online English education companies. "This shows the Chinese government's recognition of Filipino English-language teachers, which will convince more Chinese that Filipinos can be good English teachers," Huang said.