Tokyo begins online English lessons at public high schools

7 comments

1. Is this to replace the alts or to supplement it? There was a guy on japanlife saying that the dispatch companies were trying to set up an online English teaching business, is this the same thing?

2. >mfw the standard of English for Japanese people is going to drop even more

   We are getting dangerously close to the core of the earth, no wonder we are getting all those damn earthquakes over here

3. “Online courses with people from the Philippines that speak fluent English. ”

   No offense to those in the Philippines that speak fluent English, but generally the accent there is pretty strong, and maybe not the best choice. Probably better than most Japanese English professors, but still.. . uh, I’m gonna say that’s not going to work out well.

4. Our school (private JHS/HS) has been doing online Eikaiwa several times a month for a few years now. Some kids really hate it, others seem to have a pretty good time. The lessons themselves are not tied our curriculum or MEXT standards, and they get pretty repetitive. The quality of the Filipino teachers varies wildly, some are great, some get frustrated and snippy with the kids, some are checked out and just bang through the script.

   As an English activity, online Eikaiwa is just another performative “thing we do”, it isn’t going to supplant boots on the ground anytime soon. The real question is when the decision makers are going to realize that the boots on the ground aren’t really making much of a difference either.

   Meh.

   But good on the companies siphoning off some of that good government money and creating (probably relatively pleasant) jobs for educated young people in the Philippines.

5. Time for the Benny Hill theme song. 🙂

6. Most Philippinos are nowhere near fluent. You might understand them but it’s not who you want to learn English from lol.

7. Wouldn’t it just be better to improve the quality of their foreign language education, by which I mean the lack of skill of their own JTEs?