⌛ Banks

Well, on my own experience going to College here, most students are having problems on the right english grammar. The accents are of course their modern english, but they suck on grammar. When it comes to proper english grammar, Philippines does better job on teaching the students compare to US english. Maybe because philippines uses the british way of teaching , and British being the proper english speaking country of the whole world, then we , filipinos, got a good package on that one because we follow their way of speaking and teachings. Took english 101 and most of my native american classmates failed, but i passed with a B together with my korean classmate... When it comes to grade school and high school, i do believe that private schools in the philippines are much better than MOST public schools in the US nowadays. when it comes on teaching and learning profeciency. My uncle and auntie with their high school son moved to Arizona , and their son was accepted right away ( public school ) , but come to find out that he was far ahead with the lessons, so the school had him take an exam to move up a yr. He passed the exam, and move up a yr. in advance, so he will be graduating next yr! He went to lasalle academy in the philippines which is an elite academy all over the world. So, that conclude that the private/acadmies schools in the philippines is way much better is most public schools in the US ( my own exeprience )

 

If My Asawa explained it to me ,and I understood, correctly in the Ph you have 10 years of school from elementary to high school. In the States we have a 12 year program. Given that it does not surprise me that your friends son moved up a grade when he moved to the states. Obviously he was schooled well where he started from. As to the current state of English grammar in American kids.....I would have to agree that is is bad. I believe that it is because of the excessive use of slang.

I would also add that I do believe that much of the difference in the English taught in in PH and the States is the difference between British English and What we Americans call English. I am not saying that one is better than the other just that there are differences. There is also a tendency For any Non Native English speaker to occasionally have grammar problems if their native language does not have similar grammar.

That said even if my asawa sometimes gets frustrated and "runs out of English" when trying to explain things to me I don't worry about it. She can speak several more languages than I can and I am just beginning to get some understanding of the PH Languages.

There is one other thing I want to add... All other things aside the Filipino children I have met are much more respectful and well behaved than many of the American children I have met. (at least the American kinds that do not have a Filipino parent)

Peace

 

I don't know who brought you on that track, but the english here in the books is American English (at least in the the 4 schools I know), paired with horrible english spoken by many teacher and philippino "education" ideas (like you can see in the link I posted before... )

All the stories of someone who knows someone who did something make me laugh. Seriously , wait until you are here and look at the quality and what you will face in every-days life.

It is a sad fact, that one of the biggest Employers in Dumaguete need to get people from other Cities and Islands as the taught English in Dumaguete's top university does not qualify (the polite version of too lousy) most students to get a job there. And the job barely needs more than saying Hello and asking for names and data.

I already look what I will do with my little one in 2 years when she finishes elementary. There is no way I send her to a highschool here and it goes as far that I consider leaving the PI (that would be after 12 years then) just to keep her chance in life up.

It is my honest opinion that it is 110% irresponsible to go for the parental "retirement-dream" but destroy the chances of a young human-being with throwing it into this education system.

The only reason for that would be, the family is filthy rich with connections and doesn't need to care about education or the parents are happy when the kid becomes a low salary caretaker or data-encoder (the modern word for copy/paste) as you won't find a course here in Dumaguete Universities which is accredited anywhere outside the PI without additional cost-intensive courses and education.

Dumaguete is a wonderful place to be and has many benefits. Education is certainly none of it.

That is the sad fact and mentioned here many times by people who have kids in schools in Dumaguete and experience in other countries.

Well again, you will face the "high" level of education here everyday when living here...

 

When i was in grade school, my school taught the british way of english. Even in high echool and college. I don't know about dumaguete, but from where i was born and raised, we were taught the british english. I did have a hard time here in the states on my english 101 and 102, trying to get an "A" but it was hard because i was too used of knowing ang using the british english, and my professor doesn't allow it. We have to learn how to write an essay through Modern English/American English way, ( according to him) they do not use birtish english anymore. using the commas and other functions was a bit harder. For my kids, i am hoping that they will get the same quality of education that they are getting right now in the academy that they are in. We will be residing in Iligan city for a while, so they will be in the hands of lasalle academy for atleast a yr. until my husband and i get to set up everything in Dumaguete ( land and house ). It will be a big move, but i think it will do good on my children. They will be more closer to the famlies, and will learn the values, culture of the filipinos, and hopefully apply it to themselves.

 

Citibank is raising their minimum balance and service charge. The funny part is that their minimum balance is now the maximum amount a depositor is insured for;

Thank you for your message today, April 30, 2010.We would like to inform you that effective September 1, 2010, should the total balance of all your accounts or what we call total relationship balance (TRB) fall below P500,000 for 2 consecutive months, there will be a minimal monthly service fee of P500, charged to your checking or savings account.We hope we have addressed your concern. For further inquiries, please call our 24-Hour CitiPhone at 995 9999 in Metro Manila, 234 9999 in Metro Cebu, 1 800 10 995 9999 toll-free from other provinces through PLDT, or +63 2 995 9999 from abroad. Thank you for visiting Citibank Online.Yours sincerely,Customer Online TeamCitibank N.A. Philippines


Does your US bank charge you $10/month if you do not have $10,000 in the account?

Sorry, but to compare US education system to the Philippine education system is a joke. Just try to get a straight answer to a basic question downtown. Most don't know how many seconds in a minute, how many minutes in an hour, or how many centimos in a piso!

But those who have not been here long would not know this, would they?

Larry

 

well, I haven't been at La Sale Academy, but their website is definitely american english. Also each computer here in Duma-Schools use the US-spellcheck.

I really don't believe that british english is existing here in the PI-education system. Each school has a enrollment and not enrolment. (including La Sale)

In kinder 1 kids are supposed to use their "favorite color" and not "favourite colour".

You always receive a pay-check and not a pay-cheque.
You will get a driving license not licence.

... that list can be continued endlessly.

As a matter of fact it is a huge mess up. You want an example:

Ask random people on the streets in the PI about their height and weight, you will get a foot/inch answer (imperial) for height and kg (metric) about the weight, most of them have no clue about the mix-up and/or how to convert it.
To top that, feet (imperial) is used or small distances, while the next town is suddenly x KM (metric) away.

Maybe I am too German (and had actually only 2 years english in school, for that I am not too bad, I assume) but I rather believe the facts I see, made the experience and can proof, than any stories someone wants to tell me.

Anyway, back to Banks ... there are other Education threads here

cheers

Rhoody

 

I can understand your point of view Rhoody. I also know that I can get home schooling books from the states if needed to help my kids with English. I was always pretty good with science and Math too so I can help there as well.

Here in the States I know several Filipino's and some are very proficient in English, others no so much. That is part of where my comment about the British English comes from because I can hear that influence in the language of many of our friends as well as the comments of ecelle. (By the way her written English seems pretty good to me) Of the Filipino's I know well only my wife was schooled in Dumaguete. Admittedly her grammar can be less than perfect, but she is easily understood by all the Americans she has come into contact with.

I have read yours and other comments about the education system in Duma and I am prepared to augment it as much as needed. If the education system in Duma needs improving it may be up to us Expats to help fund that. I know the Salary of the local teachers is very low. Since that is what my wife was studying for before we met. It can't be easy to attract the most talented educators when they are expected to works all the time for a poverty level wage.

As for my opinion of my wife and her education....I know her history. I'm not sure how well I would have done in life if I was expected to start working for a living at the age of 6-7 years only because the family did not have enough money to pay for her education and food. Yet she had the determination to complete High school as an adult and continue until she graduated from college. No I'm not saying that her degree is better than a degree in the States but I am still very impressed by the effort she put into improving herself. I could not be more proud of her.

I think its important as we look at these things that we see the entire picture. Before we judge things too harshly we should walk 1.6K in their flip-flops.

 

Well Tom,

it is not about any picture, anybodies life and what they make out of it.

it is simply about avoiding 100 % wrong information on this Forum from people who are not even living here, throwing "I know somebody-stories" into the discussion because of the urge of defending something which is just not existing with arguments which are just untrue

...at least nowadays and I am to lazy to look 20 or 30 years back, as it also does not matter how things were in the past as you can't send your kids to school in 1980 anymore.

Again, interesting to see that everybody who has kids at school here has the same opinion about the system, while all "defense" comes from people who are not even here...

 

Sounds Like I need to get my English books out and study again so I can work as a tutor when we get there...

 

Sounds Like I need to get my English books out and study again so I can work as a tutor when we get there...