In my previous post I was talking about my plans to get a side job when I move to the Philippines, teaching English as a second language. In the only comment so far,  Juliet of Pinay Key Point mentioned that I would probably need permits to teach in the Philippines. This doesn’t suprise me as I experienced the need for permits when I married my wife in the Philippines. Again as we have built our house and additions we have encountered the need for permits.

But the need for permits isn’t just in the Philippines, it is world wide. In my opinon most permits are for someone to make money whether it be a government agency or an individual. For example, in a building permit you are paying, in essence, a tax to build on your own property. Are you using some kind of government resource to build? Most likely not, so why give your money to this agency.

How about driver’s licenses? We pay for the priviledge of driving on the roads and the Department of Motor Vehicles can keep an eye on who is driving on the roads. By keeping an eye on who is driving it makes the roads safer. In fact, in my home state starting this year when you renew your driver’s license you must take an eye exam to prove your eyesight is good enough to drive. No matter if you are 18 or 80 your must take the test to renew. My friend Mindanao Bob of Live in the Philippines Web Magazine  reported that you need to take a urine test in the Philippines to get a driver’s license. I don’t think this is all bad since if you can’t stay clean long enough to pass this test you shouldn’t be driving. But someone who commented said that they just brought their urine from home. Believe me in the US this test would be a waste of time because most people would just bring someone elses urine in.

So Juliet just to let you know that I expect to confront requests for permits and licenses whether I was teaching in the Philipine, the US. or anywhere. After all permits and licenses run the world whether good or bad.

I am again asking for some help from the experts here on My Move to the Philippines and ask that you comment or email me at dan1658@yahoo.com for your input. I will use the input and personal experience on this subject to make a major decision on what I want to do while living in the Philippines.

I have been researching different programs on teaching ESL in the Philippines. I understand there is a need for teaching this subject to Korean students who are coming to the Philippines to learn English as well as workers in the many call centers.

It seems the programs offered here fall into two types. One type is just basically a job finding service who feels that since someone grows up in the US that they will know how to teach someone to speak English. Another type has a curriculum or set of couses that lead to a certification in teaching ESL plus they have job placement in the country of choice. Of course, I’m leaning towards the second type and one in particular which teaches a curriculum for certification of ESL for children and one for ESL for business. They have a course for expert ESL instructor which gives certification in both.

Like I stated at the beginning of the post I am looking for your input and experiences and how you feel I should go with this. I was a teacher about 15 years ago while in the military and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I always thought that when corporate America was done with me I would switch to teaching. Again I plan on semi-retiring when I’m in the Philippines and I have prepared for this financially and basically am looking for something to do to keep busy and productive while also doing my online businesses. In other words, not something I would want to do 8-10 hours a day five days a week. So I will be awaiting the input from the experts.

A US Airways plane Flight 1549 just crashed into the river in New York. Looks like everyone survived but what is weird is that the pics of the crash were posted on Twitter.com before the major news agencies did. Check out the first pics .

As you all probably know I am a big fan of Arnel Pineda and Journey and of course Charice too. I try to read as much as I can about these two Filipino artists. I’ve found a video of Arnel being interviewed on Sharon and it contains English subtitles which is very helpful for me and anyone else who has not mastered tagalog yet. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Quite a few years back when I lived in Japan I came across the karaoke bars where you could go in and sing to the music that was provided by the karaoke machine. I think the Japanese really enjoyed having the Americans coming in and singing but not because we were good singers but because most of the time we were drunk and making a fool of ourselves.

Now I am not a very good singer, in fact I suck at singing but that doesn’t stop me from visiting the videoke bars when I am in the Philippines. In an article published on the blog Visit Philippine Islands, a Filipina named Sheila Blackburn wrote an article called Videoke in the Philippines.

In this article Sheila says that “Videoke is a very popular form of entertainment in the Philippines.” Very popular form of entertainment? I say it is the national pastime of the Philippines. Everywhere you go there is a videoke bar or most people have one in their homes. I think if you didn’t need a TV, which you don’t for Karaoke machines, Filipinos would have more of these machines than TV sets.

In my opinion I believe that is the reason the world is now becoming aware of Filipino talent. Some of these youngsters were raised with videoke machines in their homes and they practice every day as well as perform in front of crowds at the local videoke bars. Like the saying goes “Practice makes perfect.” Either way videoke is so much fun and it’s good clean fun.

The most fun and interesting place I saw videoke was on a stage in the middle of a swimming pool in one of the local Hot Spring resorts in Laguna. Everybody had fun that particular night and all the guests participated. It wouldn’t have done much good for them to stay in their rooms and sleep because the sound of music from the pool would not have let them sleep anyway.

I suggest you visit Sheila’s article and see how the Philippines has embraced videoke and plan to visit the videoke bar on your next visit.

My wife and I are very good about budgeting and saving money. We try to conserve what we can and this has helped us to afford to set up for a comfortable Move to the Philippines. One thing we haven’t been able to stay on budget though is our telephone calls to the Philippines. Keeping in touch with members of our family in the Philippines is not just a pleasure but a necessity. Since we are adding on to our house, there seems to be questions every day. Also, we are moving much of our belongings through balikbayan boxes, and so now you can see how much we are spending by calling about things like this. Then, of course, there are the calls to the province to check on the family there.

We are currently using the regular long distance company which charges about 20 cents per minute but we are losing minutes when the connection goes dead right after connecting. Every time that we lose that connection without even speaking to anyone it costs us a one minute charge.

The reason I am posting this here is because I’m looking for suggestions on the cheapest ways folks on here have found to call the Philippines. If you would comment on how you do it and how much it costs you per month or minute whatever you feel like sharing.

Some of the suggestions I have already considered are Skype but the problem is the people in Laguna are tech savy and could probably do the computer thing but the province is another story with no computer connection and I don’t think they could set it up if they had a connection. The same goes for Yahoo messenger or any others. Some people have suggested calling cards and I’m investigating that so I’m open for suggestions of cards also. I’ll be looking through your comments in the coming days. Thanks for your help!

One other thing I’d like to bring up. I have another website that deals with Retiring in the Philippines Now. I have some friends that want to go golfing in the Philippines so I wrote an article about the courses that I know about but would like to help them more. If you could visit the article and comment on what you know of golfing and golf courses in the Philippines I would appreciate it. Thank you once again the article can be found at Retire in the Philippines Now.

At this first day of the year I would like to wish all of my friends on here a Happy New Year. Whether you are living in the States or abroad this is a wonderful time to spend with friends. Even if it is just in a chat room or by blog comments we need to connect with friends.

My goal with this website in the coming year is to provide more posts concerning the subject of moving to the Philippines. Sometimes I have the tendency to get off the subject and talk about some of my favorite things about the Philippines but this is because I want someone else who is thinking about moving there to have an idea of what a foreigner will experience. On my other site Retire in the Philippines Now  I will be moving towards ways of making money and being able to enjoy life while living in the Philippines. Before this year it has been mostly a travel site but enough of an introduction, I will be getting into the nitty gritty of the subject.

To close this post I would like to say I will be remembering you all in my prayers everyday and hope that you will do the same. Now let’s watch some football and enjoy the New Year.