The Philippines was colonized by Spain for 333 years from 1565 to 1898, although the first Spaniards (led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan) landed in 1521. Inevitably, parts of the Spanish language, culture, traditions became imbued into the Filipino culture. This is particularly apparent in the influences in food and language. The modern-day Filipino is very familiar with Spanish fare (or at least Spanish-influenced food) such as mechado, afritada, calamares, paella, chicharon and leche flan, for example. More to the question, we also share a lot of similar words. Here’s a random list of everyday words in Filipino and Spanish:
Filipino - Spanish - English
mesa - mesa - table
silya - silla - chair
kutsara - cuchara - spoon
tinidor - tenedor - fork
kumusta - como estas - how are you?
plato - plato - plate
gwapa - guapa - beautiful/pretty (female)
gwapo - guapo - good-looking/attractive (male)
gabinete - gabinete - cabinet (both the one in government and the furniture)
biyahe - viaje - trip
trabaho - trabajo
Names of colors (azul, verde, rosa, etc), actual names of people (Juan, Miguel, Maria, etc) and the numbers (uno, dos, tres, etc) are also very similar (in some cases, exactly the same) as well. You get the picture. Obviously, a LOT of countries speak Spanish and each of their cultures is different so we might or might not share these similarities with those countries as well.
Edit: Updated how some of the Filipino words are spelled! Thanks for the feedback!
