Wikipedia

Draft:QQEnglish

QQEnglish
PurposeEducation
Location
Websitehttps://qqeng.net/

QQEnglish is an English language school located in Cebu, Philippines, one of the largest educational institutions in the province with online and offline training formats. Classes take place through their own classroom platform and using a mobile application.

Description

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QQEnglish is located in Skyrise 4 I.T. Park in downtown Cebu..[1]. The school was founded in response to the increasing number of foreign enterprises in the Philippines, which needed English-speaking specialists. For the first time in the country, such establishments were opened by companies from South Korea, and later Japanese corporations entered the market. The founder of the institution is Japanese and his name is Japanese Raiko Fujioka, who previously imported motorcycles from Europe. According to him, his intuition told him "that it would be a good business." After selling his assets, including his condominium in Tokyo, he invested 400 million yen in the school, including $4 million in investments. In the organization, he holds the post of President and Founder.[2]

QQEnglish expanded its area through the mediation of the Director of the Department of Tourism Rowena Montequillo and expanded into another building in May 2012[3]. In 2015, a new eight-story Seafront Campus was opened on the resort island of Mactan. As a result of the Coronavirus outbreak and the reduction of international flights, both branches began to be used only for online classes. In 2023, the branch moved to a new fourteen-story building in the Mactan Newtown and is scheduled to reopen to international students in 2024[4]. About 600 students studied at both campuses at the same time before the pandemic[2]. In 2022, the company conducted 4 million online lessons, which is twice as many as in 2019 before COVID-19[5].

The devastating typhoon that hit Cebu in December 2021, as well as the resumption of schooling, prompted the completion of the construction of a capsule hotel for I.T. Park School campus. The construction of a capsule hotel for the I.T. Park School campus, comprising 660 fully enclosed capsules, was expedited in response to the devastating typhoon that struck Cebu in December 2021 and the subsequent resumption of schooling[5].

The Mactan building is taught by Hideo Kageyama, a professor at Ritsumeikan University, known for his mathematical methodology Hyakumasu Keisan, which he revised to study English. Some Filipino teachers received additional training at Meiji University in Tokyo. Other teachers studied at the Cambridge Research Center for English and Applied Linguistics. QQEnglish cooperates with ten universities, as well as the ALC Corporation. The development of English language training programs in the Far East led to the school's participation in the Pacific International Tourism Exhibition. The annual profit reached about 700 million yen in 2013 and was expected to surpass the 1 billion yen mark in 2014.[2][1]

The training format

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Its old main building houses 120 classrooms. The duration of study at the school is not limited - classes last for one week or more. About 8 classes are possible in one day. The school, among other things, specializes in online courses using its own Classroom platform and mobile application. The number of online students as of 2012 was three thousand[3]

QQEnglish uses a point system for booking lessons, where students book lessons up to the points they have available. As a teacher's qualifications increase, the number of points students need to be assigned to that teacher will also increase. Points range from 40 to 150. To select a suitable program, the first lesson is provided free of charge.[6]

The school has about 20 different programs for learning English. In addition to basic training courses such as grammar and pronunciation, QQEnglish began teaching English using the Callan method, becoming one of the first ESL-certified schools in the Philippines from the Callan organization[7]. R.E.M.S is one of the three most popular educational programs at the school. This is an original course that has been developed in-house for four years. The person who led the development was a native speaker teacher who graduated from the Linguistic Faculty of Oxford University with the best result in his class. The program has a lot in common with the Callan method, especially in the way that it trains the student through repeated practice. However, the key point of R.E.M.S is that it was designed to compensate for the disadvantages of the Callan method.[8]

As a rule, the process itself takes place one-on-one with the teacher. About 1,700 Filipino teachers teach at the school in three shifts, thereby providing round-the-clock work for online students around the world. QQEnglish services are provided to English language learners not only in Japan but also in many other countries such as China, Brazil, Mongolia, Vietnam, and Russia. All teachers have an international TESOL certificate, and teachers are trained by CELTA-certified trainers.[8]. 10,000 foreigners are enrolled in online programs, of which 80 percent are Japanese, 20 percent are Chinese, Koreans, Russians, Iranians, and people of other nationalities. School staff from these countries are attracting new students. As of 2012, Japanese made up 90% of all students. As of September 2023, the number of online students worldwide is over 700,000[8]

In 2023, QQEnglish began to actively work with artificial intelligence. On the Classroom learning platform, students can test their writing skills. This is a feature using ChatGPT that allows you to enter English sentences prepared by the user and immediately receive sentence corrections and even provide feedback.[8]

At the end of 2023, the school also introduced the "AI Test" feature, where a student can test their English level up to 5 times a month for free. By answering questions on a topic in English, the user can receive an AI-generated English proficiency diagnostic report. The English Language Report provides scores and feedback on five areas: pronunciation, intonation, fluency, grammar, and vocabulary. It is also possible to find out the CEFR level, strengths, and weaknesses.[9]

Additional activities

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In 2020, CampusKids, an online children's programming school, was founded, which was then renamed CampusTop. The curriculum is based on visual and block programming, in particular, Scratch for children under 12 years old from the USA, the Philippines, and Japan.[10]

In September 2023, QQEnglish opened the Japanese restaurant "Toshihisa Re-Q Japan Restaurant" on the ground floor of the Skyrise 4 building, in IT Park. The crowdfunding method was used to open the izakaya. As a result, the school received 1,222,000 yen in support from 100 people.[11]

Performance assessment

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Among the notable features noted by the journalists are tuition fees and the English-speaking environment outside the school[12]. Nikkei newspaper ranked QQEnglish in second place in the ranking of the most economically affordable Cebuano schools based on a month of study, noting a more convenient learning mechanism compared to the leader DMM[6]. The warm climate and trouble-free visa application are also attractive for education. The possibility of face-to-face classes makes the process more convenient, compared to the United States and other countries[2]. In addition to contributing to the status of the Philippines as a popular tourist destination, the school facilitates the development of the economy[1]

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Lacamiento, Grace Melanie L. "ESL school also aims to push Phl as tourism hub". Philstar.com. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  2. ^ a b c d "Conversation school owner aims to change Japan, Philippines with English - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun". 2015-09-23. Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  3. ^ a b "English tutorial school expands in Cebu Cebu Business Guide". 2015-02-04. Archived from the original on 2015-02-04. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  4. ^ "【QQEnglish】フィリピン・セブ島マクタンニュータウンエリアに14階建て延べ床面積約15000平米の新校舎をオープン". プレスリリース・ニュースリリース配信シェアNo.1｜PR TIMES (in Japanese). 2023-08-31. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  5. ^ a b "Study in Cebu: Japan-run English school in Philippines thrives". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  6. ^ a b "激安、1回100円以下も登場 オンライン英会話比較". 日本経済新聞 (in Japanese). 2015-04-10. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  7. ^ Best, Gavin (2020-11-12). "QQEnglish have their first online Callan training courses". Callan Method Organisation. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  8. ^ a b c d 英会話編集部, ミツカル (2024-01-02). "QQEnglishの口コミ・評判を実際に体験調査！やめた方がいいのは本当？2024年最新｜ミツカル英会話". ミツカル英会話 (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  9. ^ "【新サービス】オンライン英会話「QQEnglish」がAIを使った英語力診断テスト「AI Test」をリリース！スピーキングを中心とした英語力を無料診断します！". プレスリリース・ニュースリリース配信シェアNo.1｜PR TIMES (in Japanese). 2023-11-06. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  10. ^ "About Us - CampusTop". 2024-01-18. Archived from the original on 2024-01-18. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  11. ^ "大好きなセブ島で夢だった居酒屋をオープンしたい！ - クラウドファンディング READYFOR". readyfor.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  12. ^ "Лайфхак: из Екатеринбурга едем учиться... в Азию! - Общество - Новости - интернет-телевидение «ЕТВ» он-лайн". 2016-05-29. Archived from the original on 2016-05-29. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
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