Business Standard Friday, June 7, 2002
ASIA FILE An English revival The demand for conversational English teachers had never been greater and English teaching as an industry had never been more profitable, says Barun Roy When the founding fathers of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) chose to locate its headquarters in Manila, one thing mattered above all others: Filipinos' acquaintance with English. Almost everyone knows English in the Philippines, from janitors and maids to drivers, shop girls, and secretaries, which, in the sixties and seventies, and even early into the eighties, made that country the world's first love in Asia. Whenever international organisations had conferences to hold in Asia, they came to Manila. No other place in the region had such a ready abundance of English-speaking secretaries and support staff. If foreign banks and companies in Hong Kong or Singapore needed managers and CEOs to run them, they looked for Filipinos. When merchant navies plying the world's trade routes needed seamen for their ships, they fished the Philippines. At hotels and nightclubs in Tokyo or Taipei, nobody sang the blues and souls like the Filipinos did. And here's the irony. Filipinos, on a nationalist high since the government' s refusal ten years ago to renew the leases of the US military bases in the country, are easing up on English lately. Pilipino is the boasted medium of instruction. The fall in English standards has been so apparent that one newspaper columnist has warned that, unless corrected, it would begin to hurt Filipinos badly in their dealings with the world. But the rest of Asia, where English had long been on the sidelines, is suddenly in a hurry to catch up on the language. As globalisation opens up markets and expands international contacts, Asians realise that they must speak, write, and understand English to communicate with the world and stay in business. The demand for conversational English teachers had never been greater and English teaching as an industry had never been more profitable. In Japan alone, more than 10 million students of all ages are currently enrolled in conversational English classes, taught by no fewer than 7,000 foreign teachers. In South Korea, the demand is so high that even casual English-speaking tourists can find highly paid work. Taiwan's 6,000 or so private kindergartens have asked the government to let them hire foreign nationals as English teachers; the government is said to be sympathetic. After all, 80 per cent of them hire foreigners illegally anyway. Two countries are particularly desperate to raise their people's awareness of and competence in English: Malaysia and China. Malaysia had downplayed English for long and China had largely ignored it. Now both see English as crucial for their economic future. "We must be ready for the world if we want the world to come to us" is the official Mala-ysian line. The government is willing to reintroduce English-medium schools it had abolished in 1970s to strengthen Bahasa Malaysia as an instrument of national integration. They have also proposed to introduce English from the very first year of primary schooling. Teachers in rural schools will soon be recruited to train in English to teach mathematics and science. Beginning with the new academic year, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak will teach 50 per cent of its courses in English. The Selangor state government has come up with a bright idea. It intends to invite British pensioners to come and teach its rural folk Queen's English. "It will be like vacation for them," the state government says. "They come and enjoy themselves and teach some English on the side and we take care of their accommodation." China is equally serious about taking English to the masses and, ahead of the 2008 summer Olympics, an English-learning wave seems to be sweeping Beijing. English road signs are going up near all major scenic spots in the city and commercial and transport workers are being sent to English language courses. The emphasis is on teaching colloquial English. They call it "leisure English", where grammar isn't the primary concern but the ability to express and understand is. Four times a day, Beijing People's Broadcasting Station broadcasts a programme called "100 English Sentences" on three of its channels to help people get acquainted with the language. To supplement what people hear on the radio, the Foreign Languages Press publishes a magazine called English Corner. Several cities in China have introduced special police numbers that foreigners can call to get replies in English. Farmers of Shicheng, a coastal fishing village in east China's Fujian province that supplies seamen to foreign shipping companies, run an English school themselves to improve their marketability. Officials from a Singaporean ocean shipping company conduct oral tests. English is now taught at the primary level in China, but there are no exams until later. The whole idea is to give children a feel for the language and instill in them a natural interest in it. No written English is involved until children advance to the third year. Business Standard Ltd. 5, Pratap Bhavan, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi - 110002. INDIA Ph: +91-11-3720202, 3739840. Fax: 011 - 3720201 Copyright & Disclaimer [EMAIL PROTECTED]
