I was deceived by an agency to go to the Philippines, but I actually became obsessed with studying abroad.

In the early summer of 2018, I suddenly wanted to learn English. The reason was that a colleague recorded a dialogue from a movie on an English learning APP. Oh! Not bad, I just wanted to learn it. I am a typical impulsive consumer. At that time, there was an activity on the APP, which cost more than 90 yuan a month. I thought it was not much money, so I bought a one-month course to learn from the APP. It was a bit It's like playing a game level by level and unlocking the next level. To be honest, after one month, I checked in the group every day as required and studied for at least half an hour every day. Although I learned some words, I always felt that the APP had bugs, there were no Chinese annotations, and there were no Chinese words for any sentences. I relied entirely on listening. I have to look up the meaning of each word, which is a bit laborious. Why can’t it be in Chinese? I don’t know what it means. I think the learning effect is average, so I don’t want to renew. What makes me don’t want to renew is that the people in the APP who call themselves “Banban” have very disgusting communication methods and bombard me every day to ask me to renew. In the end, he used verbal threats, which was very annoying, so he deleted it decisively.

By chance, I got together with a friend and talked about learning English. My friend said that all the Taiwanese students in his school went to the Philippines to learn English! What the hell are you learning from the Philippines? This is the first time I’ve heard of it, what the hell! I thought it was quite new, so I went back and searched on Baidu. There was indeed a lot of relevant information on the Internet, and my curiosity was instantly piqued. According to the search information, the tuition fee was very low. The cost of food, accommodation, and study in the Philippines only started at 8,000 yuan, which is less than that in Europe and the United States. One third of the cost of study! Or one-on-one lessons! unbelievable! So I started leaving messages on various related posts online, and soon various agencies began teasing me. Within a few days, I had the idea of wanting to visit the Philippines. But I learned that the study tour lasts about two months, or at least one month to be effective. Even if I take annual leave, I only have 10 days. Is it possible to resign? At that time, I added an agency's WeChat account. She said she was going to see real estate in the Philippines next month and asked if she wanted to go with her. She was also going to check out a language school. So I made a prudent decision and applied for annual leave to go to the Philippines for a walk first. . I had never been to Bijing before, so I was a little nervous, and my English was not good, so I decided to find a companion. I started lobbying my friends to come with me, and with my coercion and inducement, I finally convinced Dami to go with me. Some words about visa and passport guide are omitted here.

One day after January...

It took about 4 hours to fly directly from Beijing to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and then we arrived at this beautiful island country. You can imagine the refreshing feeling of blue sky, white clouds and sea breeze blowing in your face, so comfortable! I followed a group of 4 people from the domestic agency to the apartment I booked in advance, which was right near the airport. We arrived quickly. At this moment, I am still very excited.


We were walking on the streets of Manila in the evening of the first day



The apartment we stayed in

According to the agency's itinerary, we will spend a few days in Manila and Clark. After all, the cities are larger and more lively. To understand a country, you must first understand the capital of the country. The first impression of Manila is the traffic jam! Hot weather! But the air conditioner in the mall was turned on and it was very cold! The streets are densely packed with people, milk tea and fried chicken are everywhere, and there are tall buildings. It is quite prosperous, but there are also some places that are dirty and messy. In short, there is nothing strange about it. Working and entertaining at the same time is the norm here. As for the safety issue that everyone is concerned about, I personally feel that there is no problem. The security guards in the community apartments are very dedicated and the police can be seen everywhere. When entering the mall, you have to go through security checks, like every night when we come to Manila. There are quite a lot of people drinking near the apartment where I live. Generally speaking, the Philippines is a simple country, and most of the locals are very friendly. In the Philippines, many large shopping malls and even banks and industries are run by Chinese. Therefore, Chinese people are still very popular and respected in the Philippines.
  

A bird's-eye view of Manila from the balcony of a high-rise building


A bird's-eye view of Manila from the balcony of a high-rise building


Manila’s CBD-Makati


Manila’s CBD-Makati



WeChat and WeChat are everywhere in Manila Alipay

In the past few days in Manila, we transferred properties in Manila. There are many Chinese people selling houses there. We contacted a good real estate agent in advance and took us to transfer the more popular properties. Basically, the house prices are equivalent to the second-tier houses in China. In third-tier cities, housing prices near casinos are relatively high, and rental returns are also high. The gambling industry there is very developed and legal. The current housing prices are around RMB 10,000-30,000. If you have spare money, you can still consider investing. Next, the agency took us to see several language schools in Manila. As we learned before, many schools are run by Koreans. Most of the students are from Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, and there are also very few Chinese students. This time, seeing is believing. Well, study tour in the Philippines is really reliable. We also asked if we could sign up directly. The school said we need to find an agent, not an individual, and agents usually give discounts.
  

The properties the real estate agency showed us


The properties the real estate agency showed us - community environment


The property the real estate agent showed us - model apartment


Language schools in Manila

We went to Clark in the next few days, where we also saw a lot of international schools and language schools online. City. When I first entered Clark, it was completely different from Manila. It felt like the western part of the United States. The former US military base has now become an economic development zone. The streets are very clean, with flat lawns, neat houses, and not so many high-rise buildings. Very comfortable.
  
After we settled in, we went directly to a local language GS the next day, a language school for beginners and IELTS. When we entered the campus, what we saw was a clean swimming pool and a neat school building. , after the agency communicated with the school manager, he took us to visit the entire campus, which is relatively large. Like our domestic primary school that can be accommodated, it has classrooms, canteens, libraries, dormitories, gyms, playgrounds, canteens, etc.
  
After the visit, I communicated with the Chinese manager. Students with no basic knowledge like me usually arrange one-on-one teaching. The teacher will start from the most basic teaching and use pictures and texts to help you quickly integrate into the course. schedule. The Chinese manager of the school also introduced me to many cases of people who have evolved from mute English to fluent speaking in English schools in the Philippines. This also gave me confidence and encouragement. This is really reliable. The agent who went with us all the way Acting as a consultant, with her recommendation, she recommended several schools to us based on my actual situation and study plan, including GS in Clark, SMGAG in Cebu, EV and other good schools. Anyway, things got rough, because the agency they went with in the next few days had to go to Cebu for a business trip, so they separated in Clark.
  

Former Clark U.S. Base



Former Clark U.S. Base




Clark Language School GS




As the saying goes, seeing is worth hearing a hundred times! seeing is believing! This trip to the Philippines made Dami and I feel that it was a worthwhile trip. We both agreed that we can find jobs and study abroad opportunities are not to be missed! Returned from study tour a good man again! I hit it off with Dami! Walk! Go on a study tour! Countless pictures appeared in my mind, and I was extremely excited.