⌛ DOCSiShQACNMN - Teaching English in the Philippines

This thread got my attention! (How about that- thread? Where's the thread? Who is sewing?! lol....)
I have a B.A. in Communications, but also had nursing courses and went on to Respiratory Therapy. Currently, I'm working at a special care hospital in Scranton, Northeast Pennsylvania... that's where I met my girlfriend MaryJean... she's 31 but I'm quite the youthful 44! When I worked in Communications I was always editing and writing.... back then, you didn't have spell-check so somebody always had to clean up the messes.
How about.... there.... they're.... their.....? Amazing how many born-here raised-here types get these wrong all the time! Even though there's a couple easy tricks to remember which is which (that might SOUND like "witch is witch!" - confusing to hear even when it makes sense on paper!.....
Another one that drives me mad is this: the temperature here is right around the 30s... (sorry, we don't like Celsius). However, even the local news programs will put up a graphic - 30's, instead of 30s. One of these indicates possessing; the other a plurality. It's the same as when you say Billy's bike to show possession instead of saying Billys bike. That temperature, 30s, isn't "owning" anything!
However, the British cops were knows as Billies! (singular Billy) and their (NOT their or they're) batons were known as billy-clubs....bwahahaha!!
OK, I'll stop now.

 

Yes yew shud.

 

We have decided to home-school our daughter (American) after a bad month in a private school here Paranaque. I had issues with English spelling words she was supposed to learn, and they were misspelled, my daughter even knew the words were misspelled. Then, we discovered she is very far behind in Tagalog, and even with 2 hours a day after school in tutoring, she just wasn't catching on quick enough and she started to become physically ill from the stress of being so far behind. Unless we can find a good international school there in Dumaguete when we move there, we will just continue with home-school.

 

Hi Reedee,

I am glad you are planning to move to Dumaguete and hope you find it as agreeable as I do. Both my children were educated in private schools in Cebu and I was quite pleased with the outcome. I am now caring for my granddaughter and have her enrolled in Holy Cross, a private school here in Dumaguete. She is only in kindergarten but so far I am quite satisfied with the tuition.

A few thoughts on schooling here. A lot depends on the grade level your child is at when entering the system here. If your daughter isn’t in kindergarten or first grade she is going to have a hard time in any school teaching the local syllabus. There are several fairly good schools here and a lot of really poor ones but as you have already surmised an International school might be more viable. I don’t have first hand experience with the International School here but I have heard from some parents that they weren’t pleased with the quality of instruction so I would suggest that you do some investigating. The problem with home schooling is that it sometimes lacks socialization. The best solution might be to enroll her in the International School for the social aspects, with the knowledge that you are going to have to spend a lot of time with her to supplement the classroom instruction.

You mention that your daughter is spending two hours a day with a tutor. This is not uncommon here. My granddaughter spends time with a tutor every afternoon as do most of her classmates and we are talking kindergarten. Some of the expat parents choose to tutor their own children but most agree that no matter how good the school some form of additional instruction is needed.

Education is always a difficult decision. Good luck

Kenny

 

Well, since English is only second language, one cannot expect perfection from non-native speakers of English. What is important is "being understood" and "being able to understand others" as well. One who expects perfection from non-native speakers is bound to encounter a lot of frustrations. I know how horrible some people use the language but it's their home and basic education that have a lot to do with it as there are others who speak it like the real McCoy.

 

Haha, well said by my Visaya teacher Rarity !
I'm as well not that excellent in English (it's also not my home-language) but I do wonder quite often how Filipinos/as can understand us foreigners.
I find it often amusing how they can figure out what a foreigner is telling them in what supposed to be English :D
Compliments for the creativity of many local people here to make something out of the gibberish (uh.....difficult word :D).