What is the ETA system?

ETA, Education Through Acting, refers to the process that participants go through to write a play script, rehearse and give a show of it via debate and/or discussion which is part of acting, and is a two-stage education system that affects participants through the process, and audience through the artistic empathy of the show.

(Debate improves skills for critical thinking, data research, logical composition, and arrangement and enhances oral communication skills.)

The greater effectiveness of ETA is found in social education or re-education.

At the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in Cebu, the Philippines, all inmates participate in the dance rehearsal for several months to give a public dance show. It is good to give a chance to concentrate on something for those who spend boring days waiting for the day to be freed.

Surely, a certain degree of re-education can be possible if what they do must be achieved with others like a dance rehearsal. However, a dance rehearsal has a limit in that this is not an interaction but is only required and followed. It is not self-development through interaction, but they have to obey the instructor’s directions. It is not easy to expect educational effect to take place in this situation.

How about preparing and giving a musical show instead of a dance?

10 inmates discuss for three hours a day and write a musical play script, and composers, choreographers, and designers from inmates can join them to produce a theatrical show. If they do this work for six months?

The six-month will lead to not just a simple and easy talk but an in-depth discussion. They will talk about what they already know, have heard from others or read from books. The further they progress, the more in-depth the work will be. Because that is the nature of artistic creation.

Participants are going to concentrate more on what they do. They have to open themselves, look back, and get to know themselves. After a long six months of artistic work, they will be reborn as social human beings.

Other inmates or audiences who watch the show are also going to be educated through artistic empathy.

ETA is an efficient social education or re-education system that can change both participants and the audience through the process of creating a high-quality show.

Strengths of ETA system

1. All of our teachers are native speakers and theatre experts.
Our Korean teachers live in Korea, English teachers in the US or the Philippines, and Chinese teachers in China. They are either actors or play directors who can direct you to speak correctly and fluently. With our native theatre experts-teachers, we focus on strengthening speaking ability.

2 Correction through 1:6
Each student can get corrections when needed because our teacher-student ratio is up to 1:6. Getting corrections in foreign language education is indispensable, and it should be done by native speakers. Without corrections, it’s like sailing through a reef-filled night sea without any beacon.

3 More effective than 1:1
A 1:1 teaching method is not that effective in conversation classes because you cannot learn how to speak. You should speak by yourself. Conversation can be done by making it a habit. Our system asks you to create a new story. You have to invent a story and to invent it, you should be fully immersed in your thoughts. Once you’ve created a story, you will talk about it, listen to others talk about it, and then add or modify a new story. This will make speaking your target language your habit. This process is much more effective than 1:1. An appropriate number of attendees for this process may be four to six because the burden will increase when the number is too small.

4 This is real Training to speak
Our language practice classes run for 45 minutes a day from Monday through Friday. At least, this much practice is needed to speak a language fluently. A native speaker class of 20 or 30 minutes a day, one or two hours a week, this kind of language class doesn’t add up to what you’re trying to do. That doesn’t make you progress at all. Never, can a language be mastered by that simple speaking.

5 Self-development
Our teachers don’t teach you. It is the students themselves who have to think and think again to engage in discussion with other students. Thinking-speaking-listening-thinking-speaking. This is the process of speaking for students. By thinking, the scope of thoughts will be widened or moved from one situation to another. Students repeat this process. It is not pivoting on itself but it’s like a wave that’s spreading. This process can give students improvements in speaking fluency.

6 No limit
In many language classes, they use scene studies. For example, today, let’s say we are going to a bank. Imagine and describe what you would do there. Students think a little and talk about what they can do in a bank. This method looks effective, but not that much because a situation is not a stopped picture, but changing. Our process is based on development through wider imagination. Let’s see how we use this situation of a bank. What we do is principally to create a story. For example, Mr. A goes to a bank to have funds for his business. When he begins talking, he recognizes the bank teller as his first love. 30 years ago, they could not be engaged because of some reason even though they loved each other so much. However, they could not continue speaking in the bank. So, later they meet again in a restaurant. What they can speak about and after what kind of story you can add. Our process is the development of a story. A story was not given, but it is students who should create one and write the lines. If the time is not enough today, you can continue for tomorrow, and the next day, etc. This is our method.

7 Fun
The core of our method is that students don’t care about the language. They just think and speak. Of course, the teachers guide and correct their students. Studying a foreign language, isn’t it just annoying sometimes? Instead, we create a new life (character) in the target language, and they just live this character’s life. Doesn’t this sound like fun?

8 Being an artist
There is no REAL teacher and no REAL student in our classes. They are all artists. The teacher becomes a director and students, authors of new lives and play them. When you are a student, you are supposed to lean on others, but with us, you stand by yourself.

9 You can even earn money
In all our language practice classes, students create new stories. If somebody is interested in any of the stories created in our classes, they can buy them and use them. In this case, all attendees of the class can have a dividend.

10 Affordable
How much you should pay? Just USD 40. Let’s compare this to 1:1 online English classes in Korea. For a class lasting for 25 minutes a day, Monday through Friday, you pay $30 a week. Just for 25 minutes a day! Our system is much more affordable, innovative, and effective.