Studying in the Philippines Without Even Basic School English? The Real Issue Is Who You Become After Returning Home

When I watch YouTube videos about studying English in the Philippines, I often hear opinions like these:

“Too many people come here to study when they have not even mastered the English taught in Japanese junior high school.”
“They should at least learn basic vocabulary and grammar before they come.”

I think that is certainly true.

You can memorize vocabulary and review basic grammar while you are still in Japan. Is there really any need to pay for airfare and tuition just to study those things in the Philippines?

The strength of studying English in the Philippines is its one-on-one conversation lessons. If you have exclusive access to an instructor but use that time to learn the meanings of basic words, you have purchased a remarkably expensive vocabulary book.

There is, however, a counterargument.

“They go abroad precisely because they cannot study independently in Japan.”

Fair enough. That argument also has merit.

Should the People Who Cannot Study Be the Ones Who Go Abroad?

Language schools in the Philippines offer programs that immerse students in English from morning until night.

Even if you cannot motivate yourself to study, enrolling in a school forces you to attend lessons.

In effect, you are paying for an environment that makes you study.

This probably does work.

It is entirely plausible that someone who could not speak any English in Japan might become capable of simple everyday conversation after studying abroad for several months.

But I have one question.

Will someone who could not even open a vocabulary book in Japan suddenly begin studying English independently after returning home?

While you are abroad, the school makes you study.

Once you return home, no one forces you to do it.

Will you not simply return to your old life in the end?

English Is Not Something You Complete in a Few Months

The troublesome thing about learning English is that it never ends.

After several months abroad, you may be able to shop, order at restaurants, and make simple small talk.

But the road from there is long.

Explaining complex subjects. Disagreeing with someone else’s opinion. Discussing abstract ideas. Understanding news reports and specialized writing.

Developing these abilities in English requires years of study.

You must expand your vocabulary, understand grammar, read English, and keep listening to it.

It is an accumulation of slow and tedious work.

Even if you spend hours speaking English every day while studying abroad, your progress will stop there if you stop learning after you return home.

The result is that you can communicate simple ideas, but the moment the subject becomes complex, the words no longer come.

You remain stuck at the level of so-called broken English.

Of course, that is not a problem for people who consider it sufficient.

But if you genuinely want to become proficient in English, a few months abroad are only one small part of a long learning process.

In the End, What You Need Is Motivation

This brings us back to where we started.

You cannot study in Japan, so you go to the Philippines.

There, you are forced to study and become somewhat capable of speaking English.

Then you return to Japan.

What happens next?

In the end, you have no choice but to study on your own.

In other words, studying abroad can temporarily force you to learn, but it cannot give you a reason to continue learning over the long term.

I believe the motivation to continue studying matters more than the motivation that made you begin.

You may want to work overseas. You may want to discuss specialized subjects in English, have deep conversations with people from other countries, or read English books in the original.

Any reason is fine.

But it must be strong enough to keep you studying for years.

“Speaking English would make me look cool.”
“I want to manage more easily when I travel abroad.”

Those are perfectly valid motivations too. But with goals of that scale, you will probably be satisfied once you can handle simple everyday conversations.

If you stop learning at that point, your English ability will plateau there as well.

Studying Abroad Is Not Magic

I do not intend to discourage people with limited English from studying in the Philippines.

On the contrary, if studying abroad awakens their interest in English and they continue learning afterward, I would consider it a great success.

But the reason for that success is not simply that they went to the Philippines.

It is that they became someone who continued studying after returning home.

Should you review basic English before you go, or should you jump in without understanding anything?

In truth, that debate is not especially important.

What really matters is whether you are still studying English six months, one year, and three years after returning home.

A language school in the Philippines will teach you English every day if you pay the tuition.

But it does not offer a service that will make your future self sit down at a desk after you return home.

Ultimately, the most important thing to develop while studying abroad is not your English ability, but the determination to keep learning after you have left school.

And, ironically, people who possess that determination from the start can study without traveling all the way to the Philippines.