BEIJING, July 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Beijing-based 51Talk (COE),
which sounds similar
to "I wanna talk" in Chinese, looks back as it
celebrates its 9th founding anniversary from its humble
beginnings in China to becoming an
NYSE-listed online English education platform that has delivered
over 100 million lessons with the help of their 20,000 home-based
online English teachers in the
Philippines.
Humble Beginnings
It has been more than ten years since the idea of setting up an
online English school brewed in the mind of 51Talk founder and CEO
Jack Huang. In his hometown Nantong,
a city in East China's Jiangsu
Province, the now 35-year old visionary shares that he met
some friends who were very eager to learn English but did not have
easy access to an English education school. Back then, the only way
one could learn how to speak the English language was by enrolling
in traditional brick and mortar schools which were also very
expensive.
English language education is highly valued in China as it opens up doors to higher education
and better career opportunities. Even the Chinese government has
started heavily promoting the study of English language in schools
because of its importance in international trade and business.
"Back then, people from my town couldn't afford English classes. Only
well-off families could enroll
their children in English language schools. That's when I realized
I have to do something to help my fellow Chinese people to speak to
the world," shared Mr. Huang.
Mr. Huang assessed that the traditional model had its
shortcomings due to its inaccessibility to the great number of
potential learners and the fact that students were only able to
practice their English skills whenever they were inside the
classroom. Proficient English-speaking teachers were also scarce in
China, posing a problem for
parents who wanted to hire cost-effective yet competent teachers
who would tutor their children.
Challenged by the current landscape at that time, Huang thought
of making English learning available anytime, anywhere with the use
of technology. Students need not go to a physical school to learn;
they could learn anytime, anywhere through a computer, with a live
teacher facilitating the lesson remotely.
Learning how to communicate in English is given utmost
importance in China with parents
enrolling their children as early as 2-3 years old to give them an
early start. Before setting up the platform, Huang and his
co-founders engaged in a lot of research which included looking for
the best English teachers who would be a good fit for the young
learners in China. Their research
led them to the Philippines, a
neighboring Asian country with a high proficiency for speaking
English. With their jolly attitude, patience and familiarity with
both Asian and Western cultures, Huang found the perfect fit and,
soon after, the 51Talk platform was launched.
Since then, Mr. Huang embarked on a journey with a mission to
make English language education affordable and accessible to
everyone. From that point onward, Mr. Huang, through 51Talk,
started promoting Filipino teachers in China.
Setting up a fully-online English program took more than just
collating English lessons and presenting them to students in a
virtual classroom. As an educator, Mr. Huang knew the importance of
designing modules that catered to the context, comprehension level,
age and learning style of the students. 51Talk lesson modules were
carefully crafted by more than 100 experts for each age and
learning level. Every teacher on the platform would then have to
attend a series of training sessions before they are launched as a
teacher.
Challenges and Growth
51Talk made its presence in the
Philippines in 2012. At that time, the concept of home-based
livelihood was not considered mainstream nor was it taken
seriously. Not everyone could grasp that one could legitimately
work from the comfort of their own home with just an up-to-spec
computer, a webcam and a reliable wired internet connection.
Another challenge was promoting Filipinos as the best English
teachers to the Chinese market because at that time, the Chinese
considered native English speakers like Americans as the best
teachers.
"When we first started years ago, it took a while to convince
the Chinese people that Filipinos are as good as or even better
English teachers than native English speakers. However, it did not
take a lot of convincing because the Chinese parents who enrolled
their children to 51Talk realized that Filipinos are hard-working,
passionate and are also effective teachers," explained Mr. Huang.
Teacher Nelli, who has been with the platform for seven years,
was previously a primary school teacher and an office-based ESL
teacher. She decided to teach English from home with 51Talk after
realizing the long hours she spends in the office, traffic woes,
and having less time with her husband took a toll on her life.
Since she started, Teacher Nelli has tutored thousands of students,
including achievers who have joined oral English contests in
China.
"Seeing my students become good English speakers has definitely
motivated me to be the best teacher I can be for my students," said
Nelli. Through the years, she has continuously attended training
sessions offered by the platform for free. These allowed her to
move up in both her ranking and teaching capability.
51Talk also partnered with the Department of Information and
Communications Technology (DICT) for the Digital Jobs PH Training
which was intended to create meaningful ICT-enabled jobs in
socio-economically disadvantaged areas in the country. A local
cluster of the DICT would allow the usage of their facilities,
internet and equipment for free, while 51Talk conducted the free
training sessions with the goal to launch digitally-equipped
teachers from the countryside.
One such example is Teacher Ivy Rosey who is based in Zamboanga
City in the southern part of the
Philippines. Ivy Rosey
started as a scholar of the Digital Jobs Ph Training at the DICT
Zamboanga Digital Hub where she learned the basics of online
freelance work, including the teaching opportunity offered by
51Talk. After graduating from the program, Ivy Rosey utilized the digital hub's facilities
to conduct her online English classes until she was able to earn
enough to buy her own equipment and start teaching from home.
DICT is just one of many partners of 51Talk in supporting and
developing the online ESL industry in the
Philippines. Through its alliances and cooperation with the
government, business communities, academe, and other stakeholders,
51Talk is well on its way to achieving its mission of empowering
Filipinos by providing livelihood opportunities and by promoting
them in the global stage as the best English language
educators.
2020 and Beyond
A lot has changed since 51Talk's founding 9 years ago. Today,
home-based, online livelihood or "work from home" setup is
considered the safest way to earn amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
As such, 51Talk has been aggressively promoting the platform to
spread awareness about the advantages of being an online English
teacher. As part of their "Road to 100K" initiative where the platform plans to grow
its teacher base to 100,000, they have recently launched a campaign
to attract 30,000 to join the platform in 2020 to meet the growing
demand of online English teachers in China.
According to Mr. Huang, China
remains to be the biggest and fastest-growing market for English
language studies and the strong demand for online English lessons
for children in China will
continue to grow. Before the pandemic, it was reported by Technavio
that China's English training
market size was expected to grow 25% annually to reach USD 74B by 2022.
To help reach out to more Filipinos, 51Talk recently announced
Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach as their new brand ambassador.
"We are very delighted to have Pia Wurtzbach join the 51Talk
family as our brand ambassador. Pia is a national pride of the
Filipinos through winning Miss Universe and she enjoys an
international reputation that fits 51Talk's brand image. She
represents confident, beautiful and intelligent women much like our
Filipino teacher community. She inspires people and has a positive
image and we hope that 51Talk teachers are also inspired because of
her so they can focus on self-development to succeed in life,"
shared 51Talk Country Head Jennifer Que.
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SOURCE 51Talk