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did you know that the philippines is practically a haven for Americans/Brits and anyone who can speak English?

i was amazed when i visited the country. try visiting the philippines and you can see that virtually everything in public places is in English. all the malls and establishments are in English, the local dailies and newspapers are in english, the official language of instruction in schools is English (thats why i think half the population of south korea emmigrated to the phils) phone operators and receptionists answer you in english almost all of their websites are in english billboards and shops are in english and ae mostly franchises of US brands (they recently discovered krispy kreme) and oddly, TV commercials feature caucasians more than filipinos (i think it has something to do with their colonial mentality, and having been colonized by the US a century back.) the best thing is, $1 = 46 pesos. $1 can buy you arounda small serving of a burger, fries and soda. if you know english in the phils, people find you respectable and educated. has any1 else realized this?

Public Comments

1. that's becos u haven't been to Singapore........it gets even better there, a developed nation, english speaking.....but very small.
2. Yes i was there in March of 06 and it was I was amazed. Most of the people spoke english the little kids didn't to well I'm talking like 3 or 4 year olds. It was so much fun I hope I can go back in a year or two. The mall we went to everything was in english and we could buy so much cause everything was so cheap. At one store over there the prices were in american dollars no joke they were and it was so cool I even found a Dr. Pepper, they have Pepsi and Coke but no Dr. Pepper. We were treated like celbrities they loved us so much. Some kids me and my friend talked to were so amazed that they were even speaking directly to american's ( they don't see us everyday just on TV. They see us all the time on TV but not in person.) they thought we were so rich everyone gawked at us like we were famous celebrities or something every single filipino was like that they gawked at us until we wen't out of sight.
3. Minimum wage earners in America and Europe are millionaires in the Philippines. That is something. I agree with you. English is encouraged by our education system. One of our 'sunshine' industries nowadays are call centers and medical transcription (mostly taking clients from the US), our wage is competitive with India, so any enterprising American will surely love to invest in the RP. Yes, South Koreans flocked our universities here, most of them are here to study. The colonial mentality is strong here, it was good in a way, because it brings employment and other opportunity. But comparing us to a more culture-adhered society such as Malaysia, or Japan, or even Korea, most of them don't speak in English but they are one hell wealthy society!