making sense of it all

I've learned how to save ever since i was 7 years old when my grandma used to give me and my sister 2 pesos for our daily allowance. I would keep at least half so i could use part of my savings to buy scented stationeries which used to be a craze for young schoolgirls like me. My grandma who was one of my first financial mentors would always tell me and my siblings to set aside even a small amount from our school allowance so we will never ran out of money. I took her words to heart and brought the practice of "saving something for yourself" until this very day.

my sister would always joke about me being obsessed with money. Obsession is quite a strong word so i would correct her and say i'm just passionate about it. You see, at a young age i already knew money is important. Growing up in a not so ideal and safe neighborhood, i have seen what poverty can do to people.

Now that i'm way past my quarter life crisis, everything is starting to make sense at least in the financial aspect. I'm currently working on finding multiple streams of income and investment vehicles to ride on and hopefully lose the training wheels in the process.

This blog does not intend to be a guide since i'm no financial guru. Instead, i would like this to be a venue where i can relate my experiences on my journey to becoming financially free.

the cost of learning a foreign language in the Philippines

so, you want to learn a foreign language but don’t know where to start?

Before you make a decision, do your research first unless of course you are already sure on what language course to take. if not, it is best to do a little sleuthing before embarking on unfamiliar territory.

my decision to take up german was mainly because of practical reasons. I took up Spanish when i was in my first two years in college as part of the curriculum but i didn’t really take it seriously as i didn’t feel it was important if i pass the subject or not.

I had the option to take Spanish again in Instituto Cervantes but it was too far from where i was staying during that time and the schedule did not really fit mine. This goes the same way for French, Alliance Francais is in Makati and commuting there was not my cup of tea. Goethe-Institut however, used to be located in an old building in Gilmore, Aurora Blvd. It was so convenient that i can leave my house 10 minutes before my class starts that at times i even end up late. moral of the story? well, in choosing a foreign language, you have to be sure that you are doing it for the right reasons because the cost of learning is not at all cheap.

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In my experience, i had to pay 3.600 pesos per level and each level usually takes 3 months for 3-5 hours a week to finish. In 2003, the german curriculum only had 6 levels before you can take the Zertifikat Deutsch, which is an internationally recognized exam that you can take after taking between 350 and 600 hours of instruction.

After successfully passing it, you can then proceed to the more advanced level which is B1, but more of that in another post. Unfortunately, things are much different now since 2003. If before i only needed to finish German 1-6 before i can take the Zertifikat, now, i need to take 9 courses before i can take the exam. So, if you do the math, 3600 x 9= P34,200 and that is if you pass every course. If just like me, you decided to drop one course and take it again the next term, you will be spending more than what it should be. Added to that is the cost of the textbook and other reference materials. The good thing about Goethe is that they give 10% discount for old students and the book is usually good for 2 levels. Nonetheless, you will still be spending lots of money.

the cheaper alternative to learning a foreign language is to study on your own since there are a lot of materials available right now especially on the internet. Or, if you have enough time on your hands, you can try enrolling as a non-degree student at the University of the Philippines-Diliman.

Classes are offered every semester since they offer degree programs on languages under the Department of European Languages (College of Arts and Letters). The UP Asian Center offers language courses as well since some are prerequisites for those taking up their MA in Asian Studies. You will only have to spend a little more than a thousand pesos if per unit still costs P300. They may have increased the tuition by now since that was the major issue the last time i enrolled in late 2006. I haven't been back there since mid-2007 so fees may have changed. Anyone from UP, perhaps you can update me a little.

If i have any regrets since i started the course, it would be that i dropped courses couple of times that i ended up returning to the same level over and over again. It is not only discouraging but also a waste of time and money. Anyway, once you have decided what language course to take, make sure you are really interested in it and have enough passion to pursue it. Not everybody after all has the luxury of time and money to study a language formally.

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