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By CARLOS CONDE
Published: November 24, 2006
Related
Filipinos Are Taking More Calls in Outsourcing Boom (Nov. 24, 2006)
Ms. Boteros, 26, is so steeped in American popular culture, and has such a good
accent, that on the phone, she could pass for a girl from California.
Over the last year, she has been doing exactly that. As a call center agent at
GCom, Ms. Boteros helps customers half a world away overcome problems with
products or services they have purchased.
“My friends used to tease me because of the way I speak English,” Ms. Boteros
said at an open-air cafe in this booming southern Philippine city. “Not anymore.”
Davao City is one of several areas outside Manila where call center companies
have been venturing, drawn by lower labor costs and large numbers of available
workers.
But there has been concern lately that the industry’s growth may be limited by
the deterioration of its main advantage: the English proficiency of the work force.
According to a study conducted by the European Chamber of Commerce of the
Philippines, 75 percent of the more than 400,000 Filipino students that graduate
from college each year have “substandard English skills.”
A survey in June by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines found
that English proficiency was among the top three areas that the country should
seek to improve, behind only the country’s poor international image and political
stability.
The same survey indicated that most call center companies hired only 5 percent
to 10 percent of the job applicants they interviewed, mainly because of
inadequate English proficiency.
The Philippine Congress responded to those concerns last month by passing a law
restoring English as the primary instruction language from high school onward.
Local dialects can be used up to third grade, and from third grade to sixth grade
English will be taught separately under the new law.
Over the years, Tagalog became more commonly used in schools, pushing out
English. Yet English has always been a major attractor of investment and a source
of pride.
Then there is the rise of “Taglish,” a highly popular language combining Tagalog
and English that skews all the rules of grammar and usage. Moreover, a majority
of news shows on television and radio are in local dialects.
Senator Edgardo J. Angara, a former educator who co-wrote the new law,
described the problem as a “ticking bomb.”
The call center industry has also encouraged the establishment of private English
training centers, especially for those who want to work in the industry. Some
companies even offer this training free.
Business groups led by the European Chamber of Commerce have likewise begun
a program called “English Is Cool.” There have also been suggestions to integrate
what some have called “call center subjects” — with emphasis on how to speak
better English — into school curriculums.
Peter Wallace, an Australian business consultant based in Manila who advises
several multinational companies, said that one of the ways to reverse the trend
was to “strictly enforce English as the sole medium of instruction in both public
and private schools as it was in the 1950s and 1960s.”
Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/24/business/worldbusiness/24english.html?ex=132202
4400&en=7c40320ae01355e0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss