Korean teachers here to learn English teaching

For several years now Korean kids have been coming to the Philippines to attend English camps. On board my flight from Seoul last week I counted about 100 Korean kids all wearing blue T-shirts and with ID cards hanging from their necks. One teacher was carrying all the passports. I took photos while they were boarding. The kids looked like they were from elementary school.

Now it is the Korean teachers’ turn to come and learn how to teach English and use English for teaching. The first batch of Korean teachers arrived Tuesday last week for a month-long training in English teaching. Education and tourism officials call this “education tourism”. There is environmental tourism, medical tourism, rest/recreation/retirement tourism and now you have education tourism.

Sure, we’re supposed to have been left behind by our Asian neighbors in the academic department but there’s still English we are good at and could teach. And I hope this does not go the way of agriculture. Many years ago the Thais came here to study agriculture, but look now, they’re the world’s biggest rice producer and we are the biggest rice importer.

Fifty teachers from elementary and middle school from Busan, South Korea are now participating in the Specialized Training Program under the National English Proficiency Program (NEPP) of the Department of Education. The program’s duration is from July 23 to August 23.

In exchange, I was told, the local government of Busan will donate $6 million worth of learning equipment to the Philippines.



Of the 50 teachers, 39 are teachers in English proficiency, the rest are mathematics and science teachers. The program will help increase their oral and literary competence in English. They will learn pedagogical or teaching skills that they can apply in Korea. They will also be introduced to the Philippines’ basic curriculum for English, Math and Science.

The program is the result of several memoranda of understanding (MOU) between the Busan Metropolitan City of Education (BMCOE) and the education agencies of the Philippines.

The Korean teachers chosen to come to the Philippines had to pass two difficult tests, supervisor Lee Eun Kyung told the Inquirer. Korean teachers have also been sent to the US and Canada, she added.

Middle school teacher Kim Seong Hwan had trained in Canada but the Philippines could offer something different, he intimated, because in the Philippines he could learn “teaching English through English.”

Kyung Soon of Haesong Elementary School had trained in the US but she wants to learn more from the Philippines. For Park Kyung Soon, this is her fourth visit to the Philippines. She had been here as a tourist.

The first week of the program will consist of classroom-type training that will assess the teachers’ English proficiency. The sessions are held at the hotel where the Korean teachers are billeted. In the second to fourth week the Koreans will do class observations, co-teaching and solo teaching. There will be evaluation and feedback at the end of the program. A follow-up program for these same teachers in February 2009 is being planned.

Some of the schools where the Koreans will have their practicum are the Rizal High School, the Philippine Women’s University, Quezon City Science High School, Rizal Science High School, Marikina High School, St. Paul University, Manuel L. Quezon Elem. School, Aurora Quezon elem School, Gomez Elem. School and Esteban Abada Elem. School.

“This program is part of ‘Filipinnovation’ and ‘Tourism Plus’,” Presidential Assistant for Education Mona Valisno told the Inquirer. “Tourism Plus involves bundling tourism with education, health, recreation and retirement,” she added. “The Philippines has competitive advantages in these fields.”

There are few reasons to be homesick, Valisno told the Koreans, “as there are many Koreans here who are also learning English and doing business.”

We learn from you, you learn from us.

Last week a group of seven from the Philippines, me included, joined delegations from five developing Asian countries to learn from Korea’s economic success. We were in the good company of Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia and Vietnam. I couldn’t help smiling to myself and saying, “Here we are, the laggards.” It takes some humility to accept that.

We attended a five-day learning program on “knowledge-based economy” in Seoul, Korea, sponsored by the Korean Institute of Development and the World Bank Institute. Before that we had to do sessions via teleconferencing and learn by moodling via the internet.

Knowledge economy, in layman’s language, is using knowledge to create wealth. It was sort of disconcerting to know how far behind the Philippines has become, that we have a lot of catching up to do. But it was also good to learn from the experience of Korea, how it zoomed, faltered then pulled itself up again from the dumps during the economic crisis in the late 1990s.

I will write more about knowledge economy another time. It’s all swimming in my head and I need some time to let it all sink in. The Philippines has what it takes. Let no one out there say, (to paraphrase an English-challenged celebrity’s words to her detractors), “Magaling lang kayo mag-Ingles.” (You’re good only in English.)