Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago L. Sta. Romana shakes hands with Huang Jiajia, founder and CEO of 51Talk, Beijing on Oct 24. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"As the first online education group to list on the New York Stock Exchange in 2016, 51Talk is a leader among the online English-teaching platforms in China, which is bound to push the Sino-Philippine education cooperation to a higher stage thanks to its strategy and popularity," said Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago L. Sta. Romana when he paid a visit to 51Talk's Beijing headquarters on Oct 24.

During the visit, Huang Jiajia, founder and CEO of 51Talk, introduced the core advantages and business growth of 51Talk to the ambassador. The two sides also conducted in-depth exchanges on Sino-Philippines English education cooperation.

Huang said Philippine foreign teachers being responsible and patient enjoyed a high level of English teaching ability, which plays an important role in improving Chinese students' interest in learning English.

He also said that the online education provides the possibility of alleviating the imbalance of educational resources in China, and helps more students from smaller cities have the same chance to enjoy the journey of learning English.

At present, 51Talk has five offices in the Philippines - Manila, Bacolod, Davao, Cebu and Baguio. And it boasts more than 15,000 Philippine teachers, and more talents are expected to join in the industry in the future.

Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago L. Sta. Romana talks with an English learning student at 51Talk's Beijing headquarters. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

According to Huang, the online English learning platform sets out to introduce 100,000 qualified Philippine online teachers and expand its full-time Philippine staff to 5,000.

Quantity is not equal to quality in the operation mode of 51Talk. "51Talk maintains a strict recruiting process. From initial audition to final appointment, only 3 percent of candidates work as online teachers, and most of them have TESOL or TEFL teacher qualifications," the CEO told the ambassador.

Meanwhile, the integration of the state-of-the-art technology into online education platform represented another highlight during the ambassador's visit.

51Talk's self-developed teaching software AirClass uses artificial intelligence technology to monitor the outside teaching situation through the cloud platform, so as to ensure the network stability of each student.

Jia Caijian, 51Talk's co-founder and vice-president of the technology's department, introduces the technological breakthrough of 51Talk to the ambassador. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Jia Caijian, 51Talk's co-founder and vice-president of the technology's department, showed the real-time course monitoring system to the ambassador. Through the high-definition screen installed by the technical department, 51Talk's technical team can monitor the number of online students in China, the transmission of China-Philippines network in the online map, and react to problems in time.

Jia also said that the AC class software utilized new technologies to upgrade the class experience. For instance, the visual recognition technology can guide the teachers to place themselves in the best position on the screen according to the changes of light and movement.

Also, the software can judge students' emotions. "By identifying and analyzing several basic expressions such as happiness, surprise, calmness, fatigue, and anger of them, teachers can adjust their teaching mode in time and our staff can also receive the real feedback from students," Jia added.

The ambassador's expressed his admiration for 51Talk's in-depth exploration of technological innovation. He said that 51Talk's scientific and technological innovation achievements are groundbreaking and set an example for Philippine education community and Chinese online education counterparts to learn from.