Is Your Uni / School Hiring Filipino ESL Teachers?

**Unwell** · 11th December 2006 21:56

thais, and thai parents are racist. you new?

**Munted** · 11th December 2006 22:09

Originally Posted by Unwell

thais, and thai parents are racist. you new?

Now let's see --- how many posts does it take to be new? Detective Unwell, you are our best - I'm sure your dogged persistence will solve the mystery.

**torbek** · 12th December 2006 05:59

Originally Posted by Munted

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

Yes, I had noticed that.

And I had also noticed that Indians and Filipinos weren't Protestant either...

I'm pretty sharp like that.

**Cyrille** · 12th December 2006 10:36

Originally Posted by Munted

. My guess is that if you polled British-born Indians on the matter you would find a good amount of positivity.

Why would you want to poll only British Indians about how well Indians speak English? You've lost me there.

Why is the outsourcing call centre business thriving?

Well, obviously because they companies a fortune. Period.
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^Sorry that should read 'Obviously because they save companies a fortune.'

**Jellybean** · 12th December 2006 10:43

Originally Posted by kingwilly

your all being PC - phillipino teachers are complete shite!

We have two Phillipino teachers and they are every bit as good as the native speakers, better than some.

Both girls grew up in English speaking homes and had to do an IELTs test for there work permits. One got 8.5 and the other 7.5.

I am not sure what some native English speakers would score, but some we have had, would definitely not do that well.
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Originally Posted by spark

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).

And if you are a Phillipino teacher, teaching English, you need to improve your grammar.

If you are hired in place of a native speaker, then it is the student's loss.

**Covertjay** · 12th December 2006 11:03

Originally Posted by Munted

Now let's see --- how many posts does it take to be new? Detective Unwell, you are our best - I'm sure your dogged persistence will solve the mystery.

Doesn't change the fact that most of them are racist.
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Most Phillipino teachers I know, while nice and punctual, only teach in a traditional rote learning format. This offers nothing more to the students than a Thai English language teacher could give.

**Cyrille** · 12th December 2006 11:57

Originally Posted by Munted

Being taught the wrong way to say something by one teacher isn't going to matter one whit.

Really? So a large part of the teacher's role isn't necessarily to teach their students the right way to say something? Interesting take. What exactly is the point of paying for an English course, then?

Even if all the words the one teacher said were mis-pronounced, they wouldn't account for one drop of the very large bucket a dedicated learner of English will hear. Please give him/her the benefit of the doubt intelligence-wise to sort the chaff from the wheat.

A very high percentage of thai learners are not very dedicated to improving their English outside of the classroom. This tends to mean that input is very much centred around the teacher. This is not ideal, but is a common feature of thai learners. Hence, the teachers role is more important in Thailand than in many countries. It is also, in my experience, more important in Asia than on other continents.

Just to make my position clear though, I worked in private uni. on the outskirts of BKK for a year and I'm convinced that my role in this particular post could have been done almost as well by a filipino. I was teaching exclusively Elementary students, and I reckon that with a rigorous hiring process, including a grammar test and a teaching observation, a filipino would have done fine.

And as far as the results being adversely affected, well they just fiddled those anyway, so.......

In other posts I really don't think a filipino could have done the job to the required standard in most cases. Upper Intermediate level teaching, business writing, ponunciation course, IELTS etc. I think will continue to be taught considerably better by experienced, qualified teachers.

Many nativespeakers don't meet those requirements, of course, so I can see why filipinos are now being hired ahead of those without any qualifications whatsoever. This is partly because the latter group's attitude is simply to try and 'get away with it' for as long as they can. Obviously they have their own agenda to pretend, and in some cases actually believe, that language teaching is a walk in the park.

Relax a little bit Cyrille.

Perfectly relaxed, thanks.

**munkijism** · 12th December 2006 12:13

My school cant hite flips coz the parents kick up too much fuss. They dont care that the flips are often more dedicated teachers who arent here just to get drunk and fuck around.

**keegan** · 12th December 2006 18:23

munkijism.
nice name. not phillipino, are you.
my take on the male flips that are here is almost the same as yours above.
only the recipients of said fucking around are of the male sex.

**Cyrille** · 12th December 2006 18:29

Originally Posted by Jellybean

We have two Phillipino teachers and they are every bit as good as the native speakers, better than some.

Both girls grew up in English speaking homes and had to do an IELTs test for there work permits. One got 8.5 and the other 7.5.

I am not sure what some native English speakers would score, but some we have had, would definitely not do that well.

Phillipinos - If you are hired in place of a native speaker, then it is the student's loss.

I'm a bit confused here, jellybean (I admit, it's easily done

)

Isn't your last statement a total contradiction of the previous ones?

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Have you really had native speaker teacher teachers at your school who wouldn't get 7.5 on an IELTS test?

**jonny danger** · 12th December 2006 18:42

I like them better than most Thai teachers and a lot of farang I've met.

**Slurpyjoe** · 12th December 2006 18:48

Originally Posted by keegan

munkijism.
nice name. not phillipino, are you.
my take on the male flips that are here is almost the same as yours above.
only the recipients of said fucking around are of the male sex.

Keegan, you are such an A.S.S. and an ignorant one at that!

**Unwell** · 12th December 2006 18:51

i feel i'm missing out; never worked with any filipinos...

when i was recruiting i used to try to persuade my boss to hire some. lots of those guys were qualified and experienced up to the eyeballs but no, she said the thai parents wouldn't pay for them. and of course she was right, i know that. so we'd hire bazza bloggs from swindon with his week long 'tefl in paradise' certificate and degree in 'supermarket shelf retail management', who'd make it one day and then go awol on sukhumvit road for the rest of the week...

something wrong there i reckon...

**Munted** · 12th December 2006 20:05

Originally Posted by Cyrille

Really? So a large part of the teacher's role isn't necessarily to teach their students the right way to say something? Interesting take. What exactly is the point of paying for an English course, then?

Don't know, I wouldn't if I were a parent and I knew what I know. Thankfully, that time I spent in the privateer industry is over and now I'm strictly working in the government sector.

Originally Posted by Cyrille

A very high percentage of thai learners are not very dedicated to improving their English outside of the classroom.

In my part of the world a learner has to be dedicated. In classes of 50 plus often of only 45 minutes duration, once a week, the teacher cannot possibly instil motivation (but can attempt to transmit the joy of learning). The rest is up to the pupil's dedication to the task, parents and other extrinsic stuff.

Originally Posted by Cyrille

Just to make my position clear though, I worked in private uni. on the outskirts of BKK for a year and I'm convinced that my role in this particular post could have been done almost as well by a filipino. I was teaching exclusively Elementary students, and I reckon that with a rigorous hiring process, including a grammar test and a teaching observation, a filipino would have done fine.

Agreed. Imagine what goes on in public school then.

Originally Posted by Cyrille

In other posts I really don't think a filipino could have done the job to the required standard in most cases. Upper Intermediate level teaching, business writing, ponunciation course, IELTS etc. I think will continue to be taught considerably better by experienced, qualified teachers.

Many nativespeakers don't meet those requirements, of course, so I can see why filipinos are now being hired ahead of those without any qualifications whatsoever. This is partly because the latter group's attitude is simply to try and 'get away with it' for as long as they can. Obviously they have their own agenda to pretend, and in some cases actually believe, that language teaching is a walk in the park.

Right, but we're talking about different education sectors.
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Originally Posted by torbek

Yes, I had noticed that.

And I had also noticed that Indians and Filipinos weren't Protestant either...

I'm pretty sharp like that.

Yeah well Filipinos are Catholic (who fit quite well into the Protestant work ethic) and Indians are fuelled on curry.
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Originally Posted by Unwell

i feel i'm missing out; never worked with any filipinos...

bazza bloggs from swindon

something wrong there i reckon...

I guess you've never worked govt schools.

bazza bloggs doesn't come from Swindon.

**DunceCap** · 12th December 2006 20:21

Originally Posted by spark

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).

hitting below the belt? could you point to where this happened?
Filipinos are not hired in exchange of me. If a filipino is hired it is because
either
A) they are capable and qualified to do the job
or
B) they speak English better than a Thai teacher
on all of these accounts they are cheaper than a white skinned person in the Thai system.

I have worked with some great filipinos. This was not in Thailand. The ones I have had the misfortune to work with here in LOS, were the worst class of people. There probably are some great filipino teachers here. So, what.