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The Philippine archipelago is a country in South East Asia. It consists of 7,100 Islands with a population of 84,525,639 (as of 2002). There are three major islands in the country; The Luzon, Visaya and Mindanao. These three are the mojor islands for trade & commerce and industry.

The Philippines has two seasons; the dry also known as the sunny season and the wet also called as the rainy season. The dry season is from September to May and the wet or rainy season is from June to September. The hottest month is May and the cooler months are December and January.

The Philippine dishes are a mixture of Malay, Spanish and Chinese cooking. The taste varies from sweet to salty; spicy to plain. The National food is called Lechon. This is a grilled, skewered whole pig with a liver sauce of sweet, sour and spicy flavor.

The Philippines has a Republican type of Government. It is headed by the President and the Vice-President who are directly elected by the people of the Philippines with a term that runs for a period of six years.

There are over a hundred languages or dialects spoken all over the country. The two official languages are Filipino and English.

Three languages are used for counting the numbers; the Filipino, English and Spanish. We tell the time using the English or Spanish only. Since, we have no Filipino or tagalog version for telling time we have adopted the Spanish way as the Filipino way of telling time.
We count by using the Filipino or English.
We use the Filipino, English and Spanish in telling prices. The Spanish is commonly used for telling prices in the local markets and kiosks.

90% of Pilipinos are Christians, 80% of which are Roman Catholics. Philippines account for 60% of Asia's Christians. Muslims, the followers of Islam, account for 5 to 15% of the country's population. Other religious groups are Buddhism and Hinduism.

The Education System was introduced to us by the Americans.
From the early 19th century until before 1946 classes were taught in English. And it was only in 1974 that a bilingual Tagalog-English system was applied.
The colonial language Spanish was a part of the college curriculum until the 1980's. At present, Spanish is still being offered by some schools as an elective course of study.

Our transportation system is by land, air and water.
Cars, vans and public vehicles such as bus, taxi and rail transit, are used as a means of transporting people or goods from one place to another by land. We also have;
Jeepneys. These are the local public transportation which can also be used for long journeys.
Kalesa. This is a horse drawn carriage. This is still being used in China town and the rural areas.
Tricycles and Pedicabs. These are bicycles and motorbikes with a sidecar which are usually used for short journeys.

For water transportation, we have ships and ferryboats. The ship transport people and goods from one major island to another. And the ferryboats sail within smaller islands. And by air we have airplanes and helicopters...


Written by:-lynne-

Hundred Islands, Pangasinan, Philippines.


February 4, 2009 at 3:00PM