Who runs a school and who actually studies there are two different questions. Using what schools say on their own official pages about their students’ nationalities, we set out what to check when you compare. For the bigger picture, see our guide to studying English in the Philippines. Checked on 31 October 2026.
In short
Of the 67 schools listed on BLOOM ABROAD, three give their students’ nationality mix on an official page that we could check. Not every school says where its operator is based either, so ask the school instead of relying on a label.
Who runs a school is not who studies there
Labels for schools often refer to the country of the company that runs them. The nationalities of the students in the classroom are decided separately.
A school can have few students from the operator’s country in one season and many in another. If you want to know what the school feels like, the mix of nationalities is the closer guide.
Choosing listing figures by their source
BLOOM ABROAD has a field for the share of Japanese students at each school. Of the 67 listed schools, three (four listings) have a value that we could trace to the school’s own official page.
Some other values have no source we could check, so we do not use them here. We give no ranking or distribution because so few schools have a sourced value.
Nationality mixes that schools publish
These three schools state their students’ nationalities on an official page. None gives a year or month, and Baguio JIC Academy and Smeag both say it varies by season.
Open their pages here: Baguio JIC Academy, Smeag and English Fella.
Figures differ from school to school, and they change through the year. Ask which period a figure covers.
Baguio JIC Academy
What the official page says: Varies by season, but generally
Main nationalities: Korea 30%, Japan 30%, Taiwan 20%, Vietnam 15%, other 5%
Smeag
What the official page says: Varies by season, about 50% (Japanese)
Main nationalities: Japan about 50%, with Korea, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Vietnam and others
English Fella
What the official page says: Shown as a mix it says it maintains
Main nationalities: Taiwan 33%, Japan 27%, Korea 26%, China 7%, Vietnam 7%, other 1% (shown total 101%)
Does the school say who runs it?
Smeag’s school page says the school is run directly by its operating company, Achieve Goal Co., Ltd. (株式会社アチーブゴール)
On the introduction and history pages we opened, Baguio JIC Academy and English Fella do not say where their operator is based. Some schools may not say, so ask if it matters to you.
Support in your language is a separate check
Smeag says in its official FAQ that Japanese staff are on site to help when problems arise.
Whether you can get help in your own language is separate from the operator’s country and the students’ nationalities. Our listing data does not confirm it for other schools, so ask which languages the staff speak and during which hours.
Questions to ask before you apply
Ask the school these five questions about its mix of students and its operator.
- The nationality mix over the last few months, with dates
- About how many students of your own nationality are expected in your intake week
- Whether there is a rule against using your mother tongue, and how it is enforced
- Whether staff speak your language, and during which hours
- The name and location of the company that runs the school
Next step: compare schools in the list
Open the schools you are interested in from the list of schools in the Philippines and check what each official page says about nationalities. For choosing how many lessons to take, see how many one-to-one lessons a day. For the whole process, see our guide to studying English in the Philippines.
