By Vincent Mariel P. Galang
Reporter
51Talk’s newly appointed country head is aiming to professionalize English as a Foreign Language (EFL) industry in the Philippines.
“In the Philippines 51Talk is looking for a lot of teachers, but most of the graduates now still see the traditional kind of opportunities. I’m not saying these opportunities are not good, but EFL is going to be there as another consideration for our graduates, even teachers,” Jennifer Que, country head of 51Talk told BusinessWorld in an interview on Feb. 22.
“They can consider teaching English online from home,” she said.
The Beijing-based company is an online English school catering to the Chinese community. It utilizes technology as a means to teach the language to the Chinese people of any age, who are very much particular in learning the language since they consider this as a way to be more competitive. This would help them to be able to grow more in terms of getting education overseas, or being employed by an international company, which requires learning the language to be able to communicate. Through a webcam and a stable internet connection, one can already teach, which can serve as an alternate source of income, or even a career for some.
With this, Ms. Que said that professionalizing the EFL industry will give anyone, especially the Filipinos, the chance to have a source of income within the comforts of their homes.
She said teachers should consider teaching English online as a career even after graduation.
All they need is a high-speed internet, a computer or a laptop with at least 4 gigabyte of random-access memory (RAM), i3 and above CPU central processing unit (CPU), a headset, and a quiet corner. They can teach in the evening and weekends.
They can register online through 51talk.ph and if they pass all the English communication screening, technical check and demo, then an opportunity is opened to them to earn and gain a livelihood by teaching English online from home, Ms. Que said.
What sets EFL from English as a Second Language (ESL) is it requires the teacher to be fully hands-on with the student or to the “learners” without the need for physical interaction. ESL requires students to go to an English-speaking country to learn the language.
“The difference being is that in the ESL industry, the students go to a country where English is spoken widely, so outside of the classroom they can practice speaking English, while in the EFL industry, such as 51Talk, the students are at home with limited opportunity to practice speaking English outside of the online classroom,” Ms. Que explained.
“The work of teaching English in the EFL industry is much more difficult because the student only practices with you as a teacher during that lesson,” she said.
Thus, the job requires patience for the learners, which she said is a very much observed trait of the Filipinos.
“Why Filipinos? Number one, Filipinos are naturally happy, who want to sing and dance, and the accent is neutral. Filipinos are nurturing. They are very friendly and patient, so our Chinese51Talk students really love their Filipino teachers,” Ms. Que said.
“Filipinos also learned English as a second language, so they can naturally teach it. And another one is the cultural compatibility, [for] example Filipinos eat Chinese food at home, so they can naturally relate to the Chinese culture,” she said..
Of its approximately 20,000 teachers, about 18,000 are Filipinos, while the remaining number is composed of those from other English-speaking countries like the Americans and South Africans.
“The opportunity for home-based [work] is welcomed now because the traffic situation is getting worse. There are limited livelihood opportunities in some areas, some cannot leave their homes due to child care or want to earn extra in the evenings and weekends. The technical infrastructure and connectivity are also ready,” she said.
Just like how a Grab driver should drive more to earn more, a teacher will be able to earn more as he becomes more active in the platform. Ms. Que noted that one teacher who has been in the platform for about five to six years is able to earn about P80,000 per month.
“Earnings depend on how active, how popular and how often a teacher is booked,” she said.
“It’s like an online store. If you open your store, people will walk in. If you don’t no one walks in, and if you don’t do a good job, people will not come back. If you do a good job, people will come back and they will refer you, so then you will have more and more students,” she added.
The online English education platform based in Beijing announced late last year that it was aiming to recruit about 100,000 online Filipino teachers in the next five years as demand for online English teachers in China continues to grow. Every month, the company needs 1,000 to 2,000 new teachers.
“In my three decades with the corporate industry, the nature of work has evolved from sending people abroad to work then outsourcing, and now the opportunity or the livelihood is done at home. In 51Talk, this is another stage for Filipinos to be able to showcase their talent in online English teaching and be productive and be empowered from home,” she noted.
51Talk was established in 2011 and was launched in the Philippines in 2012. It is the first Chinese online education company listed in the New York Stock Exchange. It caters to markets in Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Jinan, and Suzhou in China, and currently has more than 250,000 active users ranging from kids to adults who would want to learn the language.
