Japan urged to learn English the Philippine way

MANILA, Philippines - A columnist from The Japan Times praised how the Philippines teaches its public to adopt English as a second language, which a bulk of its population can understand and speak proficiently.

Amy Chavez, an American migrant to Japan, instances the Philippines' way of living such as in its broadcast programs and educational instruction which Japan can learn from in its campaign to make its citizens more English-ready.

"It’s all in the approach to learning English. The Philippines not only teaches English in its schools but also provides its population with another tool crucial to language acquisition: exposure," she writes in her regular "Japan Lite" column in the top English Tokyo-based newspaper.

She recounted her recent trip to Manila that made her wonder how a nation  could acquire a second language "despite some claims that as many as 27.8 percent of Filipino school-age children either don't attend or never finish elementary school."

Chavez observed that Philippine schools attract a significant number of foreign enrollees from Iran, Libya, Brazil, Russia and even Japan wishing to earn graduate and post graduate degrees as educators instruct in English.

She explained that Japan can have more programs in English to reach its goal of 300,000 international students to Japanese universities by 2020.

"The Philippines offers one more alternative for people who would normally look at much more expensive schools in the United States, Britain and Australia. For Japan, teaching university classes in English would surely help attract more foreign students, as well as potentially position more Japanese universities in the world’s top 100," she noted.