Philippine Culture Manual for Foreigners: Understanding the Culture of the Philippines - Softcover

The culture of the Philippines is very much misunderstood by foreigners. Many people from other countries think that the culture in the Philippines is very similar to western culture. After all, the Philippines was ruled by the Spanish for 400 years, followed by nearly 50 years of American rule. Of course the culture would have been influenced by the west, and thus the Filipino way of thinking and acting would be very western. Wrong. It doesn’t take long of living in the Philippines to realize how wrong that thinking is. The fact is that the culture of the Philippines is very complex, and also very different from western cultures. It is not easy for foreigners to understand, even after years of living in the Philippines. At the time of this writing, I have lived in the Philippines for nearly 15 years, and I feel that I have a pretty good understanding of Philippine culture, but it took many years to gain that knowledge. In fact, I was able to gain a lot of understanding of Philippine culture because I had a private tutor who taught me how to speak Bisaya (one of the Philippine languages), and she also spent significant time explaining Philippine culture to me as part of the courses. In this book, I will lay out the tenets of the culture of the Philippines for you. I will also give you some real life examples of Philippine culture at play, and how I dealt with the various real life situations. I truly believe that learning these cultural lessons is a big factor in enjoying a good life in the Philippines. If you try to live in the Philippines without an understanding of the things in this book your life will be a constant series of frustration, misunderstanding in dealing with Filipinos and a general unhappiness with living in the Philippines.

Bob Martin is "The Expat Answerman". Bob is an American who has been living in the Philippines since 2000. Previously, Bob was also an Expat living in South Africa. Because of Bob's long experience of living in different cultures around the world, Bob offers advice to those who have decided to live abroad. Because of the economics today, many people are deciding to live in other countries. It is possible for people from first world countries (i.e. USA, Britain, Australia, etc) to live in developing countries at a fraction of the cost of living. If you can earn a living from your home country while living in an inexpensive country, you will certainly enjoy a much higher quality of life, and Bob is here to help you achieve that!