Japanese-owned ESL school offers innovative curriculum

CEBU, Philippines - A Japanese national aims to deviate from the traditional English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teaching approach by venturing into the business and implementing his own educational curriculum, thus providing employment opportunities to Cebuanos at the same time.

Hiroyuki Shibata,32, had a different mindset when he entered the local ESL industry.

He believed that in the normal setting, foreign students do not learn much online while man-to-man classes conducted all throughout the study period is not that much efficient to let students learn and improve in speaking the language.

Inspired with the Toyota Production System (TPS) which is the business strategy developed by Toyota, he constructed his own curriculum wherein a student will have three hours of man-to-man lessons and spend the rest of the given hours for self-study.

With an initial investment of P2 million, he rented a two-storey house situated at F. Sotto Drive, Gorordo Avenue, Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City and put up South Speak English Institute, Inc. (Souspeak).

“The ESL industry in Cebu is immature considering that there are more Japanese coming in. There are very few good schools here since most of them are just for fun. Souspeak, on the other hand, is hitting two birds in one stone. These are to help students learn good English while letting Filipino work,” he said.

Shibata graduated with a business administration degree in Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan and went to New York City to study how to speak English.

In his one-year stay in the Philippines, he worked for an ESL company in Cebu before starting his own.

Apart from the fluency of Filipinos in the language, he said that Japanese prefer to study ESL here than in the United States since it is way cheaper.

He also clarified that he has no plans of venturing into online ESL as he finds both approaches different in nature and results.

“Online study is just for fun. You only have 20 percent of your stay here learning while the other 80 percent goes to just enjoying. Souspeak is the other way around. On-site program is for serious individuals who want to study English and change their lives,” he said.

He noted that Souspeak focuses on areas in the English language that Japanese find difficult to learn such as reading, pronunciation and grammar.

“Many Japanese people are not good to read and speak in English. We are used to vowels in our own language but find it difficult to pronounce the consonants which are a lot plenty in the English alphabet,” he added.

With the decreasing and aging population in the country, Shibata said that Japan’s economy may seem unstable as it is and the people are scared of the shrinking market.

Because of this, he said, Japanese nationals are prompted to go out of the country to learn how to study English to find a stable job with good compensation afterwards.

“If your English proficiency level is high, it is an asset or an achievement for you and the company. Most of the manufacturing companies are found in Japan. How could you sell products in the global market if you’re not good at speaking English? Besides, you earn 30 percent higher salary in Japan if you know English,” he explained.

Though three months is the regular study duration for ESL students, Souspeak offers a learning program that is good for four weeks or up to eight months.

Souspeak students could opt to stay in the learning center that could house 28 students in its five bedrooms located at the second floor or choose the hotel accommodation in Richmond Hotel that is just beside the school.

It also houses 14 study cubicles and one group room.

The standard rate for a four-week study period plus the stay-in the learning center is around P50,000.

Since most of the enrollees in Souspeak are college students and business professionals, a student could spend one week in the Philippines to study and may go back to Japan with the textbooks required by Shibata for self-study.

While the student is away from Cebu, Shibata would communicate with him through Twitter or Skype for further updates. The student could choose to go back in the Philippines after six months to continue the program.

For now, Souspeak has 5 teachers to attend to the first five students who started their classes last Monday during the opening.

The teaching force is expected to grow to 15 ESL teachers in the next two weeks to cater to the additional 35 students who will come to Cebu by next month.

Both teachers and students are required to take the Test of English for International Communication  (TOEIC) exam that are divided into two components which are the listening and reading test and the speaking and writing test.

This is to ensure that the teaching force is committed to quality education and professionalism. — (FREEMAN)