Speak well, earn more?

I don't think speaking and writing good english will give you more pay but it may be required in some jobs (e.g. consulting - writing, call center-speaking) so writing and speaking good English can give you edge over other candidates. It can also open more opportunities.

excellent communication skills are a must for most job descriptions i have come across, in my industry anyway (IT).

Filipinos earn more abroad. Foreign employers will prefer a migrant worker who speaks better English than an equally skilled person who can't speak as well. Therefore, better English skills will earn a person more income.

The same will almost always apply in the Philippines. Skills can only be of value to a company if they are used with customers and colleagues. And since English is the primary language of business, poor English skills will limit a person's prospects of moving up the ranks and getting a raise.

The title won't apply to all. I think what will aplly to everyone is "Speak worst, earn less" because your going to get fired. hehehe

@nina, g and ryan, i heard that Filipino expats' Chinese counterparts in their companies are sometimes really good but cannot express themselves well in English and this affects their standing in the company. How true?

PBF, hahaha. If not fired, maybe passed over for promotion?

Communicating well in English coupled with extensive experience do open doors and do command more salary especially abroad. It is actually expected if you're an expat.

More and more Chinese expats I've worked with speak English quite well. I wouldnt wonder why Filipinos will be competing with them for jobs in the near future.

This is quite true. Your poor command of the English language will definitely set you back or put you on a disadvantage position when competing for other well paid or higher ranking jobs particularly abroad. Well developed communication is a key to selling yourself on a job interview and a tool to expressing yourself if you are after a pay rise and that nice cosy management role.

good english gets you in.. politics coupled with productivity pushes you to the top..

Having hired people in key positions in the past. People who speak and write well tend to attract the jobs at the onset. This would be part of representing oneself very well. But once you see how they work and end up being sloppy on the job, they do not really last. I guess that's why there are people who hop from one job as in our case one call center to another.

I'm also one of those who go crazy over text speak as is the case with a lot of people now a days.

Getting the best pay depends on what kind of work you are in. If you are into Financial market or sales or call center etc... then english proficiency is a MUST. But if you are an engineer working in a maintenance facility and your responsibility is to keep machines/equipments in top shape, english proficiency does not carry as much weight as your troubleshooting/analysis skills. Of course, you still have to speak english but not to a level required that of a sales or service oriented personnel dealing with english speaking people. IMO, just because you can speak fluent english does not mean you will get paid more.

In my previous work, we have Chinese Engineers and they speak and write english well.

In addition to my previous comments:

In my experience here, for some highly technical jobs, experience and skills has more weight. Average english is enough. As long as you can communicate in english - that is okay. And you won't be paid less because your english is only average and your grammar is so so.

In any job, pay depends on the type of job you do and not all high-paying job require above-average english. In fact, here - you should be flexible enough with your english. Not all people are fluent. There are times, you need barok english to be understood.

But I do agree with all other comments.

P.S.

It's a totally different situation in an english-speaking country. My comments is based on working here in Qatar.

English fluency does actually help in in marketing onself to potential employers or for promotion. From what I've seen so far, Pinoys are good mostly just at written English and hence, are mostly bypassed by foriegn employers for promotions. Surprisingly, the Africans express themselves better in English than we do and they get ahead of the Pinoy pack.

wla
epek
yan

tignan
mo
nlng
mga
Taipan
d2
nun
dumating
mga
yan
galing
china

iwla
pa
isang
platong
ingles
dala
ng
mga
yan

EH
NASAAN
BA
SILA
NGAYON

kng
hindi
mo
alam
tumingin
ka
sa
FORTUNE
MAGAZINE

Definitely, you can market yourself better and definitely you ge better opportunities if you have an excellent command (written and spoken) of the language required, may it be English or other languages.

@ ron

pards,
tignan
mo
din
ang
top
10
na
pinaka
mayayaman
sa
mundo...
lahat
yun
magaling
mag
english..
kakain
lang
ng
alikabok
ang
mga
sinasabi
mong
taipans
na
di
marunong
mag
english.
ano
say
mo
bord?

Filipino accountants abroad I know (example here in Jakarta) only have an average command of the English language (non- Ateneo/DLSU/UP graduates) but earn better than their English-twanged UP/DLSU/Ateneo grad counterparts. It only proves that excellent English is not a requisite to get a monthly 6-figure pay. What we need is experience, skill, logic, hard work, team/culture fit and sound decision making to get/retain a high paying job.

To be able to speak a certain language one has to practice conversing in that language. Problem is Pinoys back home are too conscious about grammar, tenses, etc. And if you don't have an oppurtunity to practice speaking in english, you won't develop the skill. Tapos, di ba ginagawang katatawanan pag mali-mali ang english? :) The tendency of Pinoys is avoid the language kasi takot sila na mali ang masabi nila. Pinoys can write english very well and that is our stronger point kasi pag written, you can review it before making the document final and you can even ask other people to comment on it.

Indians, Arabs and other nationalities - they speak English very fast, halos di mo na masundan but many are not fluent and believe me, they can speak but not spell. In short, they cannot write.

One time nga they asked us bakit daw ang mga pinoy minsan hindi dirediretso mag-English and we told them - kasi kami nag-iisip muna bago magsalita kung tama ba ang aming grammar ang choice of words.

A number of Chinese people are now multi-millionaires because Mandarin is slowly gaining acceptance as one of the most used corporate languages after English because more and more industries are owned by Mandarin-speaking people. Plus the fact that Chinese are really hardworking, persistent and business-minded people unlike Filipinos who are Job-minded people. Of course, no matter how good you are in speaking the English language, if your goal is to have a high paying job, you will not get mountains of millions. Business owners, not employees (no matter how high their salaries are), become millionaires.

hello salve.

re your question, i work for a US MNC that employs about 40000 pax worldwide but i don't think we have a china IT facility. Production maybe but not IT so your question is not applicable to our company.

In my previous job in a Japanese MNC, the japanese engineers weren't good in english but apparently it's not a hindrance for them notwithstanding ALL major programming languages use english as the basic structure of the prog language. filipino engineers were in fact given japanese lessons so they could relate better to their Nihon-jin counterparts. We don't hear abt multinationals requiring tagalog to be learned in their offices :D

sad, but true...