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"Culture is the collective character of a people who have given themselves a collective identity."
If there were one word that accurately describes the Philippine culture, it would be diversity. This word illustrates the countries seemingly never ending collective of people, languages, religions and customs. The archipelago the makes up the nation of the Philippines holds over 7,000 islands, almost 900 are inhabited. Not to end the fun there, the language demographic consists of over 160 identifiable and distinct languages among these islands.
The question that quickly discovers itself is how a nation so diverse and so spread out could over different groups and languages have any resemblance of a culture? The simple answer to this question is that the majority of citizens embraced a single language. This language could spread ideas from the northern city of Manila to the southern city of Davao with out little difficulty. Tagalog first arose in the nineteenth century when Spanish missionaries began to colonize and spread their ideas through out the Pacific. It is in by no means, from information gathered, an easy language to learn. Tagalog does however consist of Pacific island language attributes and Spanish roots that allowed the language to spread easily. Tagalog became the official language of the Philippines in 1948. The people of the Philippines have been able to do what few nations with such diversity have been able to do, embrace one another’s differences and form a collective consensus of ideas, traditions and beliefs.
The Filipino culture did not discourage its acceptance and warm hospitality onto the outside visitors who came to colonize their beautiful islands. It is not surprising the Spanish missionaries made such a lasting impression on Filipino culture, but what is most surprising is the eager embrace of Western culture and ideas. The Filipinos did not stop there as their culture contains remnants of China, India and Middle Eastern cultures. In fact, hospitality and acceptance is one of the most evident characteristics of the Filipino culture. With that acceptance the Philippines has become the third largest English speaking country in the world, just behind the UK and the United States. Despite all of this outside influence and pressures to abandon traditional languages and beliefs, the nation of the Philippines has held onto a culture that truly remains distinctively their own.
Currently the Philippines can boast an educational budget that takes priority over anything else within the country. The Philippines has embraced the same school structure of the western schools and has equally made English teaching a top priority. Private schooling is affordable and teachers pay is excellent.
So what could possibly be wrong with this picture? Sounds like a tropical utopia in the making. The problem is that the nation of the Philippines still remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The story of the Philippines can best be described metaphorically with story of one of its most widely known features. Like America and its 8-cylinder gas guzzling SUV’s, or London and its underground tube, the Philippines can stake claim to the almighty Jeepney. Still noisily buzzing around the streets for the past 60 years, the Jeepney is inefficient, haughty and outdated. The problem is nobody seems to care too much about it. As Japan advances rapidly in cheap and environmentally friendly train travel, the Philippines seem to claim that they have no reason to change for the better. It is certainly an outsider’s perspective, and may be more praise than anything in this very chaotic and complicated world, but if Jimmy Buffet were referring to an actual place, Margaritaville must be somewhere in the Philippines.
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Philippine Culture and Information
This site contains a lot of information on the Filipino culture including its history, language, government,
climate and education. It was here that I learned that the Philippines are the third largest English speaking
country behind the UK and the United States.
Philippine Culture and History
This website provided a lot of information and resources regarding the discovery of the Philippines and Filipino
culture including ceremonial practices and folklore.
Wikipedia - Philippines
Wikipedia offers great resources for anything relating to the Philippine. There is very extensive information
covering topics such as government, demographics, economy and language. There is also a list of links to other
sites and references to explore.
Pinas – Your Gateway to Philippine Information - Culture
This site offers an overview of the distinct Filipino culture as well as links to several important aspects of
the culture including dances, games, art and museums. Looking through the General Information section offers
some interesting facts about the country and its people.
Ethnologue – Languages of Philippines
This site gives a mind-numbing breakdown of the170 languages in the Philippines including their origin, geographic
range and the population usage of any given language within the country.
Filipino Native Songs, Poems & Legends
This site offers great references that could allow one to utilize original Filipino folk songs, poems and legends
in TESOL lesson plans
Folktales from the Philippines
This site offers a handful of authentic Filipino folktales that could be used in an ESL/EFL classroom in the
Philippines. The opportunity for students to directly relate to the subject matter could prove valuable.
Philippine Folk Tales
More Philippine folktales that could be used in for TESOL lesson plans. This site however offers several folktales
among the most popular Filipino languages including Tagalog, Ilocano, Bilaan, Mandaya and Visayan.
Learn Basic Filipino Language
Here you can learn some of the basic terms in the Filipino language, Tagalog. There are some basic terms that
could come in handy when first getting to the country and asking for directions. The site also offers great
resources to traveling around the Philippines.
Manong Ken’s Carinderia
One of the best sites on the Internet that encompasses a wide range of Filipino cuisines. There are references
to the most widely used fruits, vegetables, and spices and how to cook with them. There are also sections
within the website that offer recipes for desserts and vegetarian meals.
Filipino Book Barn
I recommend this site because it may offer the TESOL instructor in the Philippines useful and contemporary
insight into the Filipino culture. Through the medium of poems and literature they could allow themselves
to come closer to an important cultural understanding and become familiar with those issues that concern its people.
Filipino Links
This has it all, from Restaurants, Education, Sports, Travel, Entertainment, Business, Health and Housing.
There are almost 24,000 reliable links to discover what ever you want to know about what is going on in the
Philippines. This is a very comprehensive site that can help with almost any matter when teaching in the Philippines.
Tribung Pinoy's Philippine History 101
Contains odd facts such as the brain weight of the average Filipino, but nonetheless offers great information
on the culture and its history.
asiarecipe.com
This is an informative site that offers recipes for meat and vegetarian dishes, desserts and sauces. There
is also useful information about Philippine “Fiestas” and holidays. In addition there is also a chart of basic
Tagalog terms that mostly deal with food.
Campers Point – Philippine Travel and Adventure – Philippine Culture
This is a great resource on the web to learn about the finer details of the Filipino culture. The site
includes appropriate etiquette, customs and even their tipping customs.
Interactive Language and Filipino Culture Resources
There is information about Tagalog, one of the two official languages of the Philippines, (the other is English).
Tagalog has incorporated a significant amount of Spanish over the past few centuries of colonialism in the region
of the Philippines. This site offers tips and references to courses for learning the language.
answers.com – Culture of the Philippines
On this site you will find comprehensive information about the Philippines and its culture. There is a significant
amount of information on Filipino holidays and what they celebrate. Reading about the Filipino cultural psyche can
be very beneficial for those wishing to gain a better understanding of the culture they are teaching English to.
The Best of Cyber Pinoys
Although a little cynical at times, the authors do address some pretty interesting suggestions that the Philippines
might be far below where its people believe it is on a global scale. Their assessment of the popular Philippine
vehicle, the Jeepney, actually seems to make a lot of sense.
Enthologue.com – Languages of the Philippines
This page shows the language make up of the Philippines through visual aides and maps. It is very interesting to
see that islands just a couple of miles apart can have such a significant distinction between their languages.
Philippine Languages
An extensive and very eye-opening look into the excess of languages that abound through out the archipelago that
makes up the Philippines. The entire webpage is an outline of the 160 plus languages where it is easy to see the
interrelationship of one language to another.
Free Language Software
Learn Tagalog for free. This language learning system is apparently "highly addictive" and is sure to
quickly get you learning Tagalog in no time at all.
answers.com – Filipino Language
This site offers nearly any detailed information one would ever want to know about the Filipino language. The
languages’ history, nature and even orthography are dealt with in great detail.
Kwintessential - Philippines - Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette
This website contains extensive information about the culture, customs and etiquette of the Filipino culture. The
business etiquette section could prove to be very valuable for those that have to make a good first impression
with a potential employer.
Learning Tagalog
This is a good site to reference books and resources for learning the Filipino language. The site also offers
some pointers on Tagalog pronunciation and some grammar notes about Tagalog as well. This should be considered
for those wanting to learn the language as it is said to be a very difficult language to fully understand.
Living Spoken Languages of the Philippines
This site addresses the overwhelming fact that 167 distinct and identifiable languages exist within the Filipino culture.
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Information shown on this website is the result of a collaborative effort by Dr. Rod E. Case and the EDS491/691 Special Topics in Teaching English
as a Second Language Class, Wintermester, 2007. |
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