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
Comments
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Your explanation was complete that I could get everything very well. It is really interesting. Thanks a lot for the information.
About the Spanish people, I think attacked is not the proper word to use in this context. We were colonized by the Spaniards for a little over 300 years Nafis. Spain was once our Mother country (for me, it can be compared to adopting a small child and teaching him/her how to face the challenges in life).
You know, the civilization before was very much different from now. Colonization was very common all over the world before but not anymore at this time. We are more educated now. We come to learn and realize the causes and effects of things around us, our actions, opinions, situations, etc.
All of this is part of our history. We cannot erase history and we must also understand that we can't live in the past. So, we have to learn, understand and accept it. After all, maybe if we were not colonized by them, we still can't tell the time up to now (and still be using the sundial)... :-) Everything that had happened has long been forgotten. It's a closed book now. It has given us favourable lessons in life... like, their influence on our food, clothings, manners, our actions, etc... Everything became constructive on our side.
So, I think you could now imagine why our language is a mixture of Filipino, English and Spanish.
Thanks for the comments Nafis.
Well, in school, you use both English and Tagalog. How is it? I mean you write in English and then talk in Tagalog or ?
I think if English is taught in schools, people do not have problem in English, right?
How come people talk in Spanish? I guess maybe in the past times, Spanish people attacked your country, right? that is why one day the official language was Spanish, right?
It is very nice post. Thanks a lot.
Take care,
Nafis
I'll wait for your blog about Egypt.
Tara Benwell, Elina and Bill the English teacher for giving me all the encouragement I need. :-)
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