For Filipinos, English proficiency is fading sadly...

For example, those doctors, nurses, seamen, teachers, domestic helpers (and really just college graduates in general) who speak English well have an edge on the rest and are able to work abroad, thanks largely to their competency in English. They help make Philippine migrant workers one of the largest migrant worker groups in the world. Indeed, the more than 10 million Filipino workers abroad have managed to prop up the Philippine economy by sending some $16 billion back home to their families last year, amounting to the fourth largest level of total remittances in the world, and accounting for almost 12 percent of the country’s entire GDP. Indeed, remittances from overseas workers have time and again made it possible for the country to survive many crises, and they will perhaps help it weather the current financial crisis.

Call-center agents, Filipinos chatting on their headsets to inquiring English-speaking customers half a world away, were supposed to provide the answer to the Philippines’ economy. They could be drawn from the country’s famously large pool of English speakers to tap into the lucrative offshoring and outsourcing (O&O) market.

But employers in the industry say they now have to reject 95 of 100 job applicants because their English proficiency is inadequate.  Since the economy depends on the ofw and the call centers for a major part of its spending power,,,,,its like the ostrich has stuck his head in the sand ignoring English is the economic driver of the the country!

A country where spoken English once ranked as an official language has seen its collective proficiency slide over the years, even as the economic importance of the english has grown. The decline stems in part from nationalist campaigns to promote Filipino and from inattention in schools, which the government is taking steps to undo.

Employers say it is increasingly difficult to find people with adequate English, and some O&O employers think the labor supply has dried up.

English once dominated

The shortage is ironic given that the Philippines once boasted, with some justification, of being the world’s third largest Anglophone country.


If students’ math and science scores are poor, their performance in English is even worse.
“If we do not supply the demand, then we will lose our business,” Garcia says. “We will always need the English language.”


Read the complete articles here at this link
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2010/0510/For-Filipinos-English-proficiency-is-fading


http://english.safe-democracy.org/2009/01/21/the-philippines-still-grappling-with-english/

The Strange Sexual Quirk of Filipino Seafarers

How the pressures of the shipping industry have shaped everything about this maritime culture. Right down to their penile implants.

The Philippines provides more seafarers to the global labor market than any other country in the world, accounting for approximately a fifth of 1.2 million maritime workers. The number of Filipinos currently living on vessels is roughly 240,000.

Other low-wage countries, including India, South Korea, and Indonesia, apply for the same jobs. For that reason, McKay argues, the Filipinos have set out to differentiate themselves from crew members of other nationalities.

perhaps the most fascinating part of the Filipino seafaring identity, the little-known and barely studied sexual practice of "bolitas," or little balls.

Many Filipino sailors make small incisions in their penises and slide tiny plastic or stone balls -- the size of M&M's -- underneath the skin in order to enhance sexual pleasure for prostitutes and other women they encounter in port cities, especially in Rio de Janeiro. "This 'secret weapon of the Filipinos,
This is a man's job ['barako talaga'].... You are away from your family, you are in the middle of the sea and you see nothing but the sea and the sky for one month. ... If you want adventure, seafaring is your type of job. But given the heavy work, loneliness and the waves, seafaring is really a difficult job....Most land-based jobs are safe, [but] when a seaman boards a ship, one foot is already in the grave.

As one Filipino officer told McKay: "'The women prefer Filipinos because we treat them nice, not like other nationalities,'"  Read the original complete article here
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/the-strange-sexual-quirk-of-filipino-seafarers/278285/

 Read more about implants here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implant_%28body_modification%29
http://www.urologicalcare.com/advanced-ed-treatments/types-penile-implants/
http://www.yourplasticsurgeryguide.com/other-procedures/penile-implant.htm