Filipinos are surprisingly not that mixed… the vast majority of Filipinos are Austronesians, who are related to the southern Chinese and Taiwanese aboriginals. Others may have very small and insignificant European ancestry.
“Average Austronesian Filipinos”
Average Filipinos
Old English originally had three grammatical genders and complex noun cases, just like modern German. It lost them because England was conquered—twice.
If you look at a manuscript from before these invasions, you will likely not recognize it as English at all.
The shift away from this complex Germanic structure started with the Vikings. In the 9th and 10th centuries, Norsemen settled across northern and eastern England in an area known as the Danelaw. Old Norse and Old English were closely related Germanic languages. Their core vocabularies were similar enough that a Norse settler and an Anglo-Saxon farmer could recognize the roots of each other's words, but their grammatical endings—the suffixes that indicated gender and case—were entirely different. To make trade and daily life possible, speakers of both languages began dropping these confusing endings. This contact smoothed away the complex inflectional system, leaving a simplified grammar that relied on word order rather than suffixes to convey meaning.
The second wave came in 1066 with the Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror replaced the English ruling class with French-speaking Norman nobles. For the next 300 years, French and Latin were the languages of government, law, and the church. English was relegated to the peasantry.
Because English was no longer the language of the educated elite, it stopped being formally taught and lost its standardized written form. Unmoored from the conservative influence of scribes and scholars, the spoken language evolved rapidly. The remaining grammatical genders vanished entirely. To compensate for the loss of noun cases, English locked into a strict Subject-Verb-Object word order and began relying heavily on prepositions like "to," "for," and "by."
By the time English reclaimed its status as the national language in the 14th century, it had transformed from a synthetic language that built meaning through word endings into an analytic one that built meaning through word order. It also absorbed about 10,000 French words in the process, leaving modern English with a Germanic foundation, a massive Romance vocabulary, and a grammar that operates like neither.
Actually you know what? It kind of is! When you look at OPM or Original Pilipino Music, there are many love songs, and you can’t have a karaoke without someone singing an Aegis song about heartbreak and a Regine Velasquez or an OPM band song about yearning.
It’s probably because we Filipinos are big romantics. Even in our movies and TV shows, we love watching love teams and hoping the actor and actress are also dating in real life hahah!
To be fair, we also have music that isn’t about love, at least not romantic love.
We have Freddie Aguilar’s music that’s usually about family and Philippine pride.
We have rock and rap songs by icons like Bamboo, Gloc-9, and the late Francis M. that are about politics and social issues.
We also have a lot of folk songs about simple Filipino life, nature, and local traditions.
Filipinos joke all the time about being “senti” (sentimental) or “maoy” (Bisaya word that means extra emotional or heartbroken) so it’s not surprising that our music reflects that.
But if you think about it, anything can be about love. So any song can be a love song if you try, and it looks like we Filipinos try all the time!
What are the top three places in the world to visit, and why?
For anyone who has traveled the world extensively, it is excruciatingly difficult to eliminate all the scenic beauty, fascinating culture, and stunning cuisine we’ve enjoyed, narrowing down a lifetime of adventures to only three recommendations.
Sorting through my memories around the globe - the mountains of New Zealand, Montenegro, and Switzerland, the remote regions of Argentina, Peru, and China, the oceanfront of northern Norway, southern Chile, and Australia’s Lord Howe Island, and the exotic aura of India, Brazil, and Egypt - all of this is so diverse and unique and worthwhile. It’s so unfathomable to reduce the planet to only a few of the world’s highlights.
Within the United States alone, I cannot imagine overlooking the stunning scenery of Alaska, Hawaii, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, California, Oregon, and Washington! America has its own impressive highlight reel, which I’ll set aside for the purposes of recommending the planet’s most ideal, exotic, far-flung places off the radar of many.
If I must attempt this impossible task, I won’t need to necessarily select the three most beautiful places I’ve witnessed. I must simply choose three locales of great variety that will offer a tremendous adventure to anyone who takes my advice, not only the final destination but the experience along the way. With that in mind, I’ll give you three examples whose photo ops will make all your friends envious, places with staggering terrain and stunning water features, sufficiently life changing enough to ignite a passion for travel if not already, and even the opportunity to glimpse unique wildlife as a bonus.
This is one of the most majestic places you’ll see in the world. The massive sand dunes of the Namib Desert are juxtaposed against the mighty South Atlantic Ocean in one of the planet’s most surreal scenes.
Lions, cheetahs, leopards, elephants, black rhinos, and oryx are among hundreds of species that roam the barren desert landscape and even the coastline itself. The endless stretch of crashing waves and lunarlike topography without the intrusion of resorts and high-rises is simply stellar.
See as much of Antarctica as you can. Quite simply, these are the most indelible travel memories I retain. In Paradise Bay, the water is as smooth as glass, the black mountains offer an eerie intrigue, and the glacial cliffs of stunning proportion rise like frozen skyscrapers towering above the bay. Turn off the boat engine and you won’t hear a sound. It’s the only place in the world I’ve ever felt the experience of going deaf. There is literally not one speck of noise pollution in this remote place at the bottom of the world. And my goodness, the journey along the way!
Just tour all of Iceland from top to bottom and your mind will be blown. But a personal highlight was strolling along the southern coast of this magical island, with jet-black sandy shores, waves reaching for the foothills of Reynisfjall mountain, and basalt sea stacks towering in the ocean. The orange-beaked roosting puffins and odd rocky formations along the cliffside known as Columnes Reynisfjara complete this otherworldly trek, as if you’ve stumbled into a fairytale.
Of all my travels, these three places are perhaps the most unforgettable and most likely to inspire!
You may also be interested in my list of the most exquisite and lesser-known places in the world.
That short of experiencing a fairytale life…
Integration will be necessary.
A single failed marriage with any number of children, or even without exchanging rings, you'll have to bring kids into your new relationships. Putting their emotional well-being first means timing and correct decision making is paramount.
I've been with somebody for roughly eighteen months without my daughter knowing, partially because I'm concerned regarding her emotions. She's not in my local area so it's been easy to compartmentalise. But when moving in with my new girlfriend (and possibly have children) I'll have to decide whether or not to keep it a secret, possibly staying at my parent's home which is common anyway during her visits, but it couldn't be forever and I don't want to withhold her knowing if she has siblings. It may get trickier and more complicated.
An entire considerable matter which isn't directly part of the relationship. But integration will sooner or later become necessary.
After living through experiences which permanently change your circumstances, loving somebody and entering relationships will never (or for a long period) be one dimensional, but instead involve serious additional life components. It requires a level of maturity some people never develop and that often leads to harmful consequences.
Reading above must feel strange to observe how little I've mentioned the actual relationship? It's a hard reality which individuals commonly navigate, sometimes putting off getting into relationships altogether for the well-being of their children.
My Dad had five children (including myself and full siblings) and chose not to remarry, largely motivated by the sake of his children. Either way, he wasn't going to have more children, but a relationship would've been good for companionship.
Older than myself and with far more children, he didn't want more but said in my circumstances (decade younger than himself during that period with one child) that having more could have been desirable. We can see degree of challenges integrating family largely varies dependent upon circumstances.
Following your heart isn't just considering love for your partner 💘 …
It's about piecing together everything that matters 💞
I remember an elderly male who came to me several months after leaving his profession. I was sure he would talk about his happiness of sleeping late, traveling and being free.
However, he looked at me and said, "Doctor, I spent forty years figuring out how to retire but did not think about what I will do after retirement."
It is memorable.
Being a physician for more than 40 years I saw that many of my patients were ready for financial changes after retirement but they were not ready for emotional and social changes.
The most common retirement mistakes that I observed were:
Many people underestimate the importance of a career not just as a source of earnings but also as a source of structure, identity, relationships and reasons for doing things in life.
In particular, one of my older colleagues had an excellent way to organize his retirement life. When he left the hospital he developed a ritual of waking up and making a cup of a warm home recipe he loved for decades, sitting alone and thinking about what he would do today which could bring joy to other people or himself: helping somebody, learning something or spending time with dear people. He once told me, "Retirement is not the end of useful years. It is a beginning when you can choose where your usefulness will go."
This statement remains with me.
Good retirement plans are not just about financial readiness. You should have people to laugh with, something to do every day and a feeling of necessity.
The most common mistake of retirement is not leaving the job. The main problem is leaving life.
Every day this skill gets more valuable.
Attention spans are dwindling. Distraction is everywhere.
Simply being able to focus on one thing without interruption for 45 minutes will separate you from 90% of the population.
How to improve:
2. DISCIPLINE
Stop relying on motivation and willpower.
Start building systems to set you up for success.
How to improve:
3. COMMUNICATION
Your ability to effectively communicate your thoughts impacts everything you do:
This is a non-negotiable skill.
How to improve:
4. SALES
Ok, now hear me out. Have you ever.
That's sales. Negotiation and persuasion.
Whether you realise it or not, you're doing some form of selling nearly every day.
How to improve:
5. TAKING ACTION BEFORE YOU FEEL READY
Most people's time:
80% thinking
20% action
Flip those numbers. Watch your life transform. 80% action 20% thinking.
How to improve:
Drop💯 if you reached here!
This shows you are a part of 1% who actually finish what they start.
