Cultures the Philippines. This made the Philippines as one

Cultures may vary
based on its origin. Different countries around the world prominent lifestyle,
customs or traditions. Some possibly adopted cultures from its colonizers.
Philippines are one of it. Through the years, Filipinos keep embracing the
cultures from its colonists. Western colonials leave a great impact and change
how Filipinos live for over centuries.

The Western Culture

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were colonized by the Europeans with the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan back in
16th century. Spanish colonial rule introduced the Christianity in
the Philippines. This made the Philippines as one of the most religious country
in the world. Spanish rule ended by the Spanish – American war after Spain
defeated against United States. American made a huge impact in the Philippines
up until now. They introduced the Filipinos in English language and in culture
making Filipinos a mixture of Spanish, American and Asian ancestry.  

The Philippine

Philippines may do not have specific identity before the Spanish colonization.
The Philippines have got almost all of its tradition and cultures by it
colonizers. The culture of the Philippines perhaps came from the colonials; it
was empowered by the Filipinos making it known as the Filipino culture.

staple food of every Filipinos is the rice. Rice is the main food that Southeast
Asian countries can mainly produce. It is not surprising that Filipinos love
rice. From the appetizer to desert, rice is the #1 food that many Filipinos cannot
live without.

Differences of
Philippines to Western Culture

Time and

first glance, some people make the assumption that most Filipinos are lazy. When
you come to the Philippines, you will need to keep this in mind. If you arrange
to meet people, it is worth keeping in mind that time is fairly loose and there
is not a huge emphasis placed on punctuality in most areas (Cooney, 2012). The
most famous saying in every Filipino meeting or gatherings is the “Filipino
time”. Filipinos tends to be always late. There will be an additional time for
a person to come because of many factors that may affect his or her time. One
of the best examples is the traffic and unexpected happenings.

Philippines is far
from an orderly place

indicated by Cooney (2012), many western countries are considered to be well-
ordered places but sometimes, Philippines is very far from this. Let traffic as
an example. There are so many traffic signs, lines in the roads and traffic
cops yet people do whatever they want. Rather than rules, there is the honk.
When you turn a corner, you honk. When you overtake someone, you honk. Honk for
anything and everything.

disposal is also a concern to Filipino Citizens. Filipinos keep throwing garbage
waste everywhere without thinking the effects of their wrong doings. Although
3R’s are known in the country and thought in many schools and community
campaigns, many Filipinos will not take it seriously.

for this is the latest etiquette which is the escalator rule. Some may not know
it but this is present in various malls in the Philippines. There is a rule
that individuals should stand on one specific side of an escalator to enable
other individuals to walk on the other side. Suddenly this is not the case on
some escalators in the Philippines; people may tend to occupy the whole lane of
the escalator forgetting the etiquette and the person behind them. Many
Filipinos are responsible for this practice.

Western Culture in
the Philippines


of the famous forms of transportation in the Philippines is the Jeepney. This is mostly observed in
Philippine streets. It was influenced by the American military jeeps. The jeeps
are the remaining of the Second World War in the Philippines. Jeeps are
decorated and extended to increase the seating capacity for making it as a
public vehicle used by many Filipinos in different locations (MultiRational,
2013). Jeepney is included in
everyday lives of every Filipino.


Filipino pastime that can be seen even in the smallest lane in every street in
the Philippines is the basketball. Basketball originates in America. Basketball
is very famous in the Philippines from the upper class to any other class.
Philippine Basketball Association or PBA is the largest professional basketball
association in the Philippines similar to NBA of United States of America.


over hundred years, colonizers rule the Philippines. The biggest of influence
of western in the Philippines is the Christianity. Filipinos have strong
beliefs when it comes to religion. Many festivals and ceremonies are formed
because of this. As mentioned by Esmaquel (2015), while Islam will nearly match
Christianity in terms of membership, the Philippines will house the world’s 4th
largest Christian population by 2050, a US-based think tank reported. It is
undeniable that Christianity will remain in the lead with Islam as most
Filipinos’ religion. 


it comes to the economy on countries in Asia, Philippines has one of the
highest growth domestic product making Philippines as a rising nation. Investors
from different countries and the number of Overseas Filipino workers continue
to grow; it gives a great impact to make Philippines arise.

Effects of English

Sprout of Taglish

is hard to find a native Filipino person that can speak a pure Tagalog without
English on its phrases and sentences. Almost all of the subjects in the curriculum
in the Philippines speak English. English tends to be more proper and it is
easier to explain concepts most likely in math and science in English.

It is also embedded
in our culture that English tends to be related with the social status. The
more fluent a person in English, the more educated you appear to be.

English language in
various institutions

is more proper and serious. Various institutions like government agencies in
the Philippines have an equivalent name in English and Filipino. For example is
the department of education that has a Filipino equivalent which is Kagawaran ng Edukasyon.

 Job interview are also conducted in English,
both of the interviewer and the interviewee will speak English even though they
are both native and fluent in Filipino.

English as a second
language of Filipinos

are well-known in the world as one of the best English speakers. English became
a language in the Philippines after the American colonization. It was thought
in schools and Filipinos uses English for business and tourism purposes.
Perhaps many Filipinos can have jobs easily international because they can
speak English fluently. They can teach other nationalities like Koreans on how
to speak English as business. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) are starting
to emerge and its form Call Center is very popular in the Philippines that need
fluency in English. Urbanized cities also affects the way how people speak.

Philippine media
contains a mixture of western and Filipino influences

Filipino movies

mentioned by Torre (2016), our movies’ enduring fad and fetish for English
titles is merely reflective of our nation and culture’s “deathless” colonial
mentality, which has persisted despite many nationalistic movements to wrest
and rescue us from its all-controlling claws. We were “taught” by our
colonizers much too well, that’s why. Analyzing the sticky and icky situation
more closely, English titles are preferred for local movie productions because
they imply plus factors like trendiness, youth, a “global” flavor and mindset,
“world-class,” “hip,” “educated,” “sosyal,”
“plugged-in,” “rich”—etc.! Another relevant factor is that some or many local
films’ English titles are derived from popular American songs, which are used
as movie theme songs, adding to their appeal and cachet.

movie titles back in Pinilakang Tabing
era was a very long, figurative and poetic-like words that cannot be applied
today due to the fact that almost all of its viewers are in younger generation
that want to be on trend.

OPM – Original
Pilipino Music

to pop music from countries like Thailand, Indonesia, India, or Arab world, you
can hear music that comes from those cultures. Philippines have generic
sounding, much like American pop or k-pop. Back before the music in the
Philippines start to emerge, many songs have figurative titles and deep meaning
of the song. Pure Filipino words are used in those songs. Until in the mid-
90s, people are more educated and towns start to urbanized. The Filipinos is
starting to develop a new language. Taglish
was developed and most of the songs used taglish as a medium of many songs. It can be simply interpreted and
acknowledge by many Filipinos.

Filipinos clearly have
adopted some of its cultures and beliefs from its colonizers yet it doesn’t
mean that Filipinos are imitator from other nations. Filipinos have distinct
characteristics that other race admired of. It is being hospitable to its
visitors and even in strangers. Filipinos always shows love and support to other
people but especially to the Filipino representative to compete with the world
just like senator Manny Pacquiao and the miss universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach.
Being hospitable and showing the Filipino pride makes the Filipinos different
from other race and other nation.