Vixie's friends

View all>>

Putting 7,107 islands in the map

posted on Sunday, June 03, 2007 03:27 AM

PUTTING 7107 ISLANDS IN THE MAP

I used to think before that with all the news about the Philippines that are being shown on international television, my country is already popular for its being infamous – a coup d'état here, a typhoon there, corruption in the government, terrorism in the south, ousting of the once action star turned president replaced by a hobbit-size woman with enough balls to stay despite all the allegations that are being put on her.

I am a proud Filipino and believe that I am an optimist, and so despite of all these, I used to think that surely people from other countries also know the other side of the coin – the beautiful country which is the Philippines and, the goodness of its people.

When I moved here to Spain though, I learned that a lot of people are not familiar with the Philippines. I learned more about the ideas, the knowledge of some of the foreign people with regards to my country. I was asked questions that some I find funny, others very ignorant and, some that made me feel a little mad.

I will state some of the questions as I go along, followed by my thoughts and ideas.

GEOGRAPHY
¨Hay playa en Filipinas?¨ which can be translated to ¨Is there a beach in the Philippines?¨

This question is something that never in my life I thought will be asked but I thought wrong. Believe me.

To this I answered, ¨No hay playa en Filipinas. Hay miles de playas.¨ - ¨There isn´t a beach in the Philippines, there are thousands of it.¨ (not sure of my spanish!)

I am not yet able to travel too much of my country. I was just able to visit a couple of beaches, around 4; saw 2 volcanoes and went up to 1; already saw lots of mountains but went hiking on 1; sightseeing on so many places than I care to remember. Fortunately, I was able to visit 4 of the 7107 islands. I am not bragging. My sister best me on travelling. She was already able to visit around 8 of the islands.

¨Philippines was a colony of Spain, right? And so you are in South America.¨

Hmmm…. This question made me pause for a very long 3 seconds with a look on my face that says ¨What in god´s name are you talking about?¨ The first part I admit is a very intelligent remark, correct. Philippines was a colony of Spain for 333 years and that explains the 92% of the Christian population in the country, a thousand Spanish words similar to the vernacular and heavily influenced the culture as well. This confuse some people as to the location of the Philippines as they have the thinking that ¨it was a colony of Spain, it is in South America¨. To answer the question though, Philippines is located in south east Asia below Taiwan, above Malaysia and Brunei.

THE LANGUAGE
There are about 76 major language groups with more than 500 dialects. It just sounds crazy but not to worry, Tagalog is considered the official language and is widely used. English is the second official language. You can travel all the islands just speaking English and there would not be any problem.

¨… and you, why do you speak English?¨
¨you are Asian, why do you have that American accent?¨

These questions put a smile on my face. I have been asked these questions for so many times than I care to remember. The longer version of my answer is this: Philippines after being colonised by Spain was sold to the United States. The Americans colonised the country for 44 years. They demanded the Filipinos to speak English instead of Spanish. Now, we conduct businesses in English, schools teach English from kindergarten to Masters. You can hear people having a conversation switching from Tagalog to English, vice versa.

As for the accent, I can honestly say that it is learned. I am a product of the numerous call centers and BPO firms who have infused momentum into the Philippines market which includes Fortune 500 companies. These call centers provide accent training depending on the client whether it be American or British and do not allow their employees to speak any other language inside the office aside from English. And, oh well, we are considered the third-largest English speaking country in the world.

THE CULTURE AND THE PEOPLE
I can describe the culture of the Philippines like this:

Malay + indones + chinese + arab + india + spanish + american + british + japanese = Filipino

The ancestors + the merchants+ the settlers + the colonisers

Like our vernacular, the Philippine culture is heavily influenced by the people who stayed in the country – close family ties and food of the Chinese, words and religion of the Spanish, democracy and English as an official language from the Americans are just a few examples.

Personally, I describe a Filipino as a person who have an easy smile, welcomes you to his home with open arms and serve you the best food that they can offer, gives respect to their elders, values freedom, believes in God and, fights for what he believes in.

THE COUNTRY
How can I describe it? Heavy traffic in the metropolis, 24hours of work in the business districts, lots of partying and beautiful people on weekends. Then, there are people who live in shanties who would be happy to earn 2dollars a day, thousands of the unemployed. Physically, it is very beautiful though – beaches like Boracay, Palawan and, Bohol; countrysides like Tagaytay; volcanoes like Taal which is the smallest in the world and, of course mountains too.

It has too much to offer! I always tell myself that when I get the chance I will go island-hopping and discover my own country - the Philippines.--visit www.tourism.gov.ph

Comments

Add your comment

(you must be logged in)