Here’s a couple quick items that didn’t seem to fit anywhere else.
Some of you know my good friend Tyler Cruz, a real-world Internet entrepreneur from Canada, recently came to visit the Philippines for the first time. Tyler is of Filipino heritage but is 100% Canadian, and this was his first time out of Canada (except for a couple quick trips to conferences and trade shows in the U.S.). When he first started planning the trip he asked me a few questions and I could tell he was a little nervous about making the trip and a little unsure of how he would adapt to the culture here.
Tyler’s back in Canada and hard at work making money again, but I’m happy to report he quite enjoyed his trip here and is already giving thought to when he’ll be back next time.
Whenever I go somewhere and stay in a hotel, a report on the hotel is always a popular read here, so,since I don’t spend any more time in hotels than I can possibly help, here’s a nice report he did on some of the Philippine hotels he stayed in, mainly up here in the north on Luzon .. the “other Philippines”
If you visit Tyler’s blog, be careful you don’t read anything about online success or making money no matter where you are living in the world … remember, opportunity only exists in every other country except the Philippines (or so a great many Filipinos tell me)
The second thing I wanted to mention is something that I have mentioned here often … learning English, teaching “conversational” English (not formal classroom instruction), the need for better English in the Philippines (especially the under thirty generation who sometimes seem very conflicted about English versus Philippine culture and pride issues, and how English presents a tremendous opportunity for those who are conversant enough to read this blog and carry on a normal conversation.
I’ve mentioned before UIS-based and other country-based organizations who are making a good living offering English lessons. The simple formula for business success is, “find a hungry market and feed it.”
The Asian Discovery channel will air a great show on Saturday, 8 August (check your local listings) about the need, nay the absolutely “craze” to learn English in China. 3 Billion people, hungry for, virtually lusting after what you already have. If that isn’t an opportunity just begging to be served I have never seen one.
(and a special note for you Americans who love to get angry about how the “Chinese have stolen all the American jobs”, what revenge could be sweeter than having the Chinese effectively work for you … earning money to had over to you for tuition expenses … gotta love how what goes around, comes around.)
Anyway, if it is the show I am thinking of I have seen nit before and it is excellent. Recommended.
Popularity: 4% [?]
I just wanted to clarify that it actually wasn’t my first time out of Canada save for the Las Vegas conference. I went to Korea by myself for over a month at the age of 19 and have been to the US a couple times for other things as well (Moscow, Idaho for a Jazz Festival I was participating in and Disneyland).
Anyhow, thank you for the for help and guidance in your… detailed (haha) e-mails. I’m sorry that we didn’t end up meeting but I really will return sometime with Lisa and I promise we will do it then.
I hope you weren’t just talking fluff on that comment you left on my blog recently. I expect you to follow up on what you said
Hi Tyler, yes, sorry, I spaced out on that Korean visit you made. Actully the only reason I linked my “massive” trafic to you (yeah, right) was that absolute;y lovely photo and the other great info you gave on your trip … why write about what happened to someone when you can let them tell their story. Thanks for sharing and yes, I did mean what I said.
Dave, I always enjoy reading your articles and it’s so encouraging when you talk about earning extra money online. As a former English teacher, I’m going to do more research on that teaching English to the Chinese idea. Regards to Mita.
Bud
Hello Bud,
It’s nice to see you here. Yes indeed,I think you should have a look. I often point out that there are plenty opportunities even for those without credentials and classroom experience, but being a :real” teacher is certainly a huge asset. The Eleutian Technology outfit I have mentioned in Ten Sleep, Wyoming, for example (they are in the news recently, by the way, because they just broke ground on a new world hq. building .. backwoods Wyoming hasn’t yet found out about the “Global economic crisis” which seems to hamstring the rest of the country … there’s a certain advantage to being out of the mainstream it seems) as one example works only with degrees teachers. There are big opportunities at all professional levels.
Americans seem to just take English for granted. Filipinos are tormented by English, some use it as just another skill, others try to avoid it as a political/ethic statement, and the desperately poor are severely affected by their general lack of even very simple English capability. But the Koreans and the Chinese? They seek after English as if it were a Holy grail.
I see online English education and tutoring not only as a great opportunity for people who live in the Philippines or who want to live in the Philippines, but also for my fellow Americans back there in the USA. And my little half-hearted attempt at humor about turning the tables on the Chinese is not so far out in left field as one might think. In general, people make money from their skills … either entrepreneurially or with a regular job.
Even a guy whose last job was bolting gas tanks into Hummers before he got laid off has the skills to teach/coach conversational English and if he has a computer and an Internet connection, he already has the physical plant.