Thread: Is Your Uni / School Hiring Filipino ESL Teachers?

Originally Posted by DunceCap

munted, I am sure a cassette tape would do just fine.

I'm sure we can agree on a reasonable price.

Now, that is insulting.

sexybet. are you a fillipino teacher who has taken the plunge and moved over here?
or....................... mods!!!!
banned after one post. wow. (i hope)

Originally Posted by Munted

If Indians employed by outsourced call centres can be trained to sound exactly as if you're listening to a fellow English/American/Aussie citizen, I'm sure that Filipino's could too.

I work in the Middle East, and I have to say that dealing with Indian call centres here can be a frustrating business, as some of the people are very difficult to understand. Often they speak incredibly quickly, as if they are native speakers, when their poor pronunciation means they need to speak a lot more slowly to be understood.

I rang up Standard Chartered to open a bank account when I arrived, but I could barely understand a word the Indian respondent was saying, so I ended up opening an account with HSBC.

Of course there are people with Indian upbringings who speak excellent English, but they're generally above the kind of pay rates and conditions that have made this outsourcing viable in the first place.

Many companies are rethinking their moves to Indian call centres because of customer communication break downs. Of course part of the problem is going to just be racist idiots who think it's fun to abuse an Indian, but I don't think even the most positive of reports on Indian Call centres would maintain that the Indian memebers of staff 'sound exactly as if you're listening to a fellow English/American/Aussie citizen.'

Your positivity here makes me wonder if you've ever dealt with an Indian call centre.

The relevance to the thread topic is, of course, that I don't think native like pronunciation skills are as easy to pick up as you seem to believe. Hence, this is a limitation of employing filipinos.

Doubtless there are other areas where it can be argued Filipinos are as good or better than their native speaker counterparts, of course.

Some Filipino's have a provincial accent that cannot be removed no matter what. But that doesn't mean they're no good teachers, as far as I'm concerned they try the hardest. Falang teachers tend to be carefree when it comes to teaching students knowing they're native speakers anyway. Filipinos on the other hand triples their effort because they have to prove their worth.

But of course there are only a few who has an accent, I believe those people who have; may have yet to visit Philippines where call centers abound. There are probably 500 international call centers in the Phil and growing. These agents have british and american accent and they often call your mother's house and your mother probably thinks its from a fellow american/british.

Please stop hitting below the belt. If Filipinos are hired in exchange of you, then probably you need to improve yourself (not to mention they're cheaper).

I see nobody's mentioned religious. All three of ours are Seventh Dayers to the death, park at the Internet computer and read about Jesus all day, but they're good teachers.

Yeah, I had dinner with a Filipina buddy a while ago. I was just praying that nobody was looking at us when she did the 'thank you Jesus' thing before eating.

Originally Posted by torbek

Wow!

If you extend the logic behind that argument, then...

...wait for it...

...so could Thai English teachers!




(Then we can all go home!)

Good business opportunity for you. Find out how the Indians do it. You could make millions. Go for it!
But honestly, one has to put cultural considerations into the mix.

You may have been brought up as a Protestant, but in case you've failed to notice it, the people here are Buddhist.