“Fun Place and Hospitable People”

This chapter closely examines how the Philippines is branded simultaneously as a tourist destination, intercultural exchange experience, and language learning for Japanese learners of English. Using multimodal discourse analysis (Kress, 2003, Literacy in the New Media Age. New York: Psychology Press), we analyzed a combination of texts in both English and Japanese, images, and videos from English language schools’ webpages that promote the Philippines as an ideal alternative destination for English language education. The findings reveal that the discursive construction of the Philippines creates a particular version of the country to shape tourists’ gaze (Urry, 2002, The Tourist Gaze. London: Sage). In particular, the Philippines is represented as an attractive tourist destination for its affordability, tropical weather, pristine beaches, and hospitable people. Capitalizing on the “language of tourism” (Dann, 1996, The Language of Tourism: A Sociolinguistic Perspective. Wallingford: Cab International), these webpages commodify Filipino cultural practices and Philippine landscapes as part of students’ learning experiences. Thus, it is not only Philippine English that is commodified, but also cultural, natural, and human elements of the country. Japanese learners are positioned as the tourist consumers of Filipino culture, nature, and English education.