WHY I LOVE TEACHING FILIPINOS

Being established in the Philippines, the American Institute for English Proficiency gets a lot of Filipino students. And as a Filipino and one of the English specialists of AIEP, it really feels great helping other “Juan Dela Cruzes” improve on their communication skills, but I’m not saying it’s a piece of cake. And don’t get me wrong, there are challenges when it comes to teaching Filipinos, or any student for that matter, but most of the time, I enjoy it. There are many reasons as to why I love teaching other Pinoys, so, today, I  thought I would give a few of those reasons.

To begin, Filipinos are easy to teach because they have a very strong background in English already. At a very early age, Filipinos learn English, and they have English as a subject even until they graduate from college. Outside of school, English is everywhere as well. At work, on television, on the radio. Everywhere. So it’s actually rare to meet a Filipino who cannot fully understand something in English.

Filipinos love to laugh. The Philippines is known to house one of the happiest people in the world, so this means they try to see the fun in every situation. In my classes, many of the Filipino students, try to get around the rules whenever I give them something to do just to shake things up and make things a little bit more interesting. It’s amazing how effortless they make it seem just to get a laugh to lighten up the mood. Filipinos would even laugh at themselves just to break the ice sometimes. They really put the class in a very friendly mood.

What I also love about teaching Filipinos, however, is their love for food. You would be surprised from time to time that when you walk inside the classroom you will find a huge box of pizza, bags of chips and biscuits, and/or chocolates on the table, and you can bet that a Filipino organized the food trip if not bring it. Many of the Filipino students in the American Institute organize little celebrations where the students are encouraged to bring food to celebrate the last day of one of their classmates. So it happens a lot which is fun.

Next, Filipinos like to hang out. I would hear from most of my Filipino students after class are invitations to hang out at the mall, cafes, bars, and even clubs. And when I say after class, that’s on a daily basis. I can relate to this because, I’m pretty much like that as well. Nothing beats chilling with friends somewhere after work or school.

Lastly, they like to be friends with everyone. Many of my Filipino students like to take time to know all of their classmates. It’s either you approach them first or they approach you. Whichever is fine because you will meet them and get to know them no matter what. I guess it has something to do with being happy all the time that they just want to make friends with everybody they come across with, and AIEP is the best place to that.

There are many more reasons to consider why I like teaching Filipinos in AIEP, but I would say what I like most about them is that they bring everyone closer together, local and foreign. Pretty much like a real family-you just have to ride along with it. So if you’re not enrolled in AIEP yet or you think you should re-enroll, these reasons would hopefully be enough to join us and help us help you have better communication skills.