More Japanese look to study English in the Philippines

To brush up their English skills and get experiences useful for building up a career, more and more Japanese are looking to study in the Philippines, which is much cheaper for studying than the United States or Britain.

Not only individuals but many Japanese corporations are encouraging their employees to study in the Philippines, where English is one of the official languages.

Since five years ago, a manufacturer of automotive parts in Gunma Prefecture has sent 10 to 15 of its employees to the Philippines every year to join a three-month language study program.

Mitsuba Corp. has expanded its production bases to overseas and English is now one of the skills that the firm’s workers need to acquire.

“We used to send our employees to the United States, but school expenses and living costs are high,” said Yasutaka Iio, manager at the company’s personnel division.

Studying in the Philippines is “very cost-effective” and employees can also build business connections with people coming from companies in other Asian countries such as South Korea, Iio added.

Human Academy Co., which provides educational programs, launched study programs in the Philippines two years ago. In collaboration with eight local English-language schools, it offers several study courses for students and adults.

It costs around 210,000 yen ($1,866) to study in the Philippines for four weeks, including accommodation, food and textbook expenses, according to the firm.

The Philippines is also a hot destination for retired people to study English.

Satoshi Hasei, 72, and his wife Katsuko, 70, participated in the Human Academy’s two-week study program last October. The couple took English lessons on Cebu Island in the central Philippines.

“We took classes during the day and then did homework at night. We were studying English all day. Teachers were friendly and we experienced almost no inconvenience in terms of living,” recalled Hasei, who lives in Kanagawa Prefecture.

“I want to be able to give a guided tour” in English for international tourists as visitors to Japan are expected to increase towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, he added.

Yasuhiro Murakami, who is in charge of promoting English-learning programs at Human Academy, said the company’s courses in the Philippines offer one-on-one English lessons.

In the United States and England, most classes have 10 to 20 students. But the company’s study programs in the Philippines “offers private lessons for more than half of the day, so (students can) speak a lot and become better sooner,” said Murakami.

The English taught in these programs conforms to standard English that can be learned in the United States or Britain, according to Murakami.

Tokyo-based Disco Inc. has also launched similar programs in the Philippines and other Asian countries.

Yumiko Goto, in charge of the company’s global human resources development section, said the Asian markets are expected to grow significantly down the road and studying in Asian nations will be a huge advantage in job hunting.

The firm’s programs mainly offer one-on-one lessons and the cost of studying is about 200,000 yen per month, excluding plane tickets, according to the company.

“Studying in Asian nations will be an opportunity to not only acquire English skills but also to think seriously about what kind of job one wants,” said Goto.