You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?

There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!

Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!


Visitors of germanexpatinthephilippines/Besucher dieser Webseite.Ich liebe meine Flaggensammlung!

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Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Why do many Filipinos speak a mix of English and Tagalog...

 

... instead of speaking either pure Tagalog or pure English?

By: Dayang C Marikit, Philippine History Professor

First of all, there is no such thing as a "pure language".

Secondly, it’s a “class thing”… the higher you are on the social ladder, the more likely you are to “code-switch” between Filipino and English, we call these people “conyo.”

  • Most of the people who are interviewed in those “Asian Boss” videos are generally “well-off” college kids who study along the “university belt” in Manila and they don’t represent everyone, I’d say that they are a “significant minority" in that location of the city.
  • If they interviewed people like market vendors, street food vendors, Jeepney drivers, etc, they’d most likely get a much different result. There would be far less code-switching and it's highly unlikely for them to have a proper conversation. What I'm saying is that the demographic sample that they used in this social experiment is skewed, which then confirms their bias.

My second point is, code-switching isn’t “new,” especially for the upper classes. “Pure Tagalog” still has a lot of Malay, Javanese, Sanskrit/Indic and Chinese cognates & loan words.

  • The oldest written document in the Philippines is the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, dated to be from the 10th century, and it was written with a mixture of “Old Malay, Old Javanese, Old Tagalog and Sanskrit.”
  • The first word written on this document is “Swasti” a Hindu greeting that wishes people “good fortune”… this is also the word from which the term “Swastika” is derived from, this is because the swastika is a symbol of “good fortune” until the Nazis corrupted it and made it infamous as a symbol of hate… anyways, back to the point, this artifact proves that “code-switching” isn’t new.
  • Lastly, even English and Spanish themselves have also adopted a lot of loanwords, from different languages such as Greek, Latin, Phoenician, Egyptian, etc.

Monday, July 5, 2021

Typical Filipino (XXIV): Typisch Philippinisch (XXIV): Utang ng loob - A dept of inner self

Utang na loob (Visayan: utang kabubut-un) is a Filipino cultural trait which, when translated literally, means "a debt of one's inner self (loob)." It is also often translated as a "debt of gratitude.

In the study of Filipino psychologyutang na loob is considered an important "accommodative surface value", along with hiya (propriety/dignity) and pakikisama (companionship/esteem). It is one of the values by which Filipinos accommodate the demands of the world around them as opposed to its counterpart grouping, referred to as the "confrontative surface values", which include values such as lakas ng loob and pakikibaka.[1]

The essence of utang na loob is an obligation to appropriately repay a person who has done one a favor. The favors which elicit the Filipino's sense of utang na loob are typically those whose value is impossible to quantify, or, if there is a quantifiable value involved, involves a deeply personal internal dimension.[3] This internal dimension, loob, differentiates utang na loob from an ordinary utang (debt); being an internal phenomenon, utang na loob thus goes much deeper than ordinary debt or even the western concept of owing a favor. Filipino psychology explains that this is a reflection of the kapwa orientation of shared personhood or shared self, which is at the core of the Filipino values system.[1]

What Filipino culture should be stopped?

Utang na loob is a pretty toxic belief. The whole ‘owing your relatives something’. Or just owing them the ‘debt of gratitude’. Which seems fine on the surface, but it’s often abused. Say you are your average Filipino family, fairly poor as Filipino families tend to be. You have one auntie in Canada or Dubai. She’s hot shit. She’s super important. She sends boxes home and give gifts to her nephews, nieces, siblings back home. Nice of her, isn’t it?

But no, auntie isn’t really very nice at all. Because some relatives get considerably better gifts then others, some barely get anything at all. Even among cousins the same age, some kids are ‘favorites’ and get brand new roller skates, whereas a ‘less loved’ kid gets only a Toblerone or a large Snickers bar. But auntie is so good, she’s so helpful… you have to worship her like a God.

Oh and auntie is so selfless too! She never married, so she could support her relatives. Never mind that she kind of hates kids and kind of hates men and kind of hates everybody. Never mind that she is hardly marriage material to begin with. No, no, it’s all a ‘noble sacrifice’ from her end. She will side in family conflicts. She will determine the outcome of these conflicts. Which of the nieces or nephews will be supported financially to go through college, the kindest, the smartest, or the one whose parents kissed aunties ass the most?

At times it feels like Filipino families are a bit like Game of Thrones with various ‘factions’ duking it out. People will simultaneously look up to and praise their ‘rich’ foreign relatives, and hate them at the same time for their arrogance. There’s a lot of in-fighting, hidden and not-so-hidden rivalries. And it’s all hidden underneath this cultural veneer of ‘showing how grateful you are’.

As an example… a great-aunt in our family has once helped some of our relatives. Now my wife’s family is expected to be super nice to this great-aunt. People forget, however, that this great-aunt only became successful in the first place because her older sister, wife’s grandmother, paid for her studies in the first place, allowing her to go abroad. Now each year on great-aunties birthday, slavishly devoted relatives make videos of themselves wishing her a ‘long and happy life’, puke-worthy sweet music underneath, holding up posters with her face like she’s a Filipino provincial version of Kim Il-Sung… you know, because of gratitude. Doesn’t work both ways, though, and a lot of it is determined by how popular you end up being inside the family. Older sister later got broke, so her kindness and help in getting younger sister rich and abroad is conveniently forgotten as the rest of the Clan kisses her little sisters ass into perpetuity.

Utang na loob is the single most toxic Filipino cultural aspect I’ve ever seen, and I have stories for days on how it gets abused by some people. There’s so much bitterness, so much awfulness. So much gossip, so much drama. And sometimes this spans two, three, even four generations. The concept of ‘owing one’ to the sister of your grandmother for something she did forty years ago and it allowing her to act like a bitch in the year 2020 is ridiculous.

Saturday, July 3, 2021

Das Auswärtiges Amt gibt bekannt


www.auswaertiges-amt.de

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Philippinen: Reise- und Sicherheitshinweise (Teilreisewarnung)

02.07.2021

Letzte Änderung:
Aktuelles (Vulkanische Aktivität)

Aktuelles (COVID-19: Einreise; Beschränkungen im Land; Hygieneregeln)


Lagen können sich schnell verändern und entwickeln. Wir empfehlen Ihnen:
- Verfolgen Sie Nachrichten und Wetterberichte
- Achten Sie auf einen ausreichenden Reisekrankenversicherungsschuthttps://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/ReiseUndSicherheit/reise-gesundheit/-/350944
- Abonnieren Sie unseren Newsletter https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/newsroom/newsletter/bestellen-node oder nutzen Sie unsere App „Sicher Reisen“ https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/ReiseUndSicherheit/app-sicher-reisen/350382
- Folgen Sie uns auf Twitter: AA_SicherReisen https://twitter.com/AA_SicherReisen
- Registrieren Sie sich in unserer Krisenvorsorgeliste https://elefand.diplo.de/elefandextern/home/login!form.action 

Aktuelles
Vulkanische Aktivität

Seit dem 1. Juli 2021 zeigt der 60 km südlich von Manila gelegene Taal-Vulkan erhöhte vulkanische Aktivität. Die philippinischen Behörden haben die dritthöchste Warnstufe 3 ausgerufen. Bei Exposition kann es zu Reizungen von Augen, Atemwegen und Haut kommen.
Evakuierungen können angeordnet werden.
• Beachten Sie die Warnstufen der philippinischen Vulkan- und Erdbebenwarte (PHIVOLCS).
• Machen Sie sich mit Verhaltenshinweisen bei Vulkanen vertraut. Diese bieten die Merkblätter des Deutschen GeoForschungsZentrums.
• Beachten Sie stets Verbote, Hinweisschilder und Warnungen sowie die Anweisungen lokaler Behörden. 
COVID-19



Thursday, July 1, 2021

Filipino is seen together with a foreigner?

 By: Jean-Marie Valheur

It depends entirely on what type of foreigner they see they kababayan with. There are various types of foreigners who date in the Philippines. I’ve seen a story of a Filipino dude, a surfing instructor, who fell in love with a blonde girl he taught surfing. Their story made it to the news, and most responses from people were: “Wow, good for him!” because in the eyes of his countrymen, a Filipino man courting and getting with a foreign woman was seen as quite a successful move. Some even went as far as to say the man was: “elevating his race.”

More commonly, the male is the foreigner, and his partner is a Filipina. A lot of Filipinos, fond of their tsismis (gossips) will look the man and the woman up and down. What type is he, what type is she? If he’s the handsome backpacker type, they may assume he is not a serious guy, maybe he’s a cheater, a playboy? If he’s young, decent-looking and a morally upstanding guy in their eyes — maybe a missionary? — they may also judge him… is he broke? Will he just live off the Lord’s goodness and stay in a nipa hut with her?

Or he’s old, and balding, and she’s pretty… he must be rich, they think! Or he’s young, but otherwise physically unappealing. Couldn’t get a girl back home? How sweet he was able to find one here. Pity for the girl though. Maybe their children would still look good; mestiza and mestizo children typically do. Just the correct blend of genes that works well together, no matter how unappealing the parent(s).

Sometimes they see a foreign man who fell in love with what the Filipinos refer to as “a gay”. This is not really a gay male, but usually a Vice Ganda-esque crossdresser, a ladyboy or perhaps even a post-op transgender, although surgeries are hard to come by in the Philippines. In this case, some Filipinos will think the man was “tricked” by his partner. Others will assume he is simply unaware even now, maybe he’s stupid? Or they will just question his manhood; he must not be a ‘real man’, maybe his “masculinity is only 50% male, and he’s 50% female”, I have heard it being described in such a way.

Sometimes the man seems normal enough. But his Filipina wife already has two or three kids from another man. She does not want more, or maybe she is too old. The foreign man adopts them as his own, pays for their education and loves them as if they were his. If a Filipino man did such a thing, his countrymen would consider him a ‘sucker’. Since this man is a foreigner and therefore has infinitely more options on the dating market, he’s seen as double the sucker.

These are just a few of the many things that cross the minds of Filipinos when they see a Filipina or Filipino with a foreign partner. It all depends on the foreigner and the situation, but judgements are made, if not always spoken aloud.

WITH BEETHOVEN UNDER PALMS (XXI): Epilogue and Preface to my Expat Life

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Over the past few years we have flown to the Philippines with various airlines such as Lufthansa, Thai Airways, or Emirates. This time everything was different. Singapore Airlines took us direct from Berlin via Singapore and Cebu and then SilkAir to Davao City. All three of us had one-way-tickets. 

At the same time, our two containers were on their way to Davao by ship via  Hamburg and Singapore. The containers were packed with many memories. We decided before, we could take everything from our both households with us. Maybe a little crazy or funny. At the beginning we thought that when we woke up in the morning, we would still be in Germany. Only the car was not allowed. Everything was in the name of Rossana because during this time a Filipino citizen was allowed to send everything back to the Philippines tax-free once in a lifetime.

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When we arrived in Davao, we were amazed. Our house looked almost finished from the outside. But there was still a lot to do inside. The greeting was exuberant. We lay in each other's arms and cried for joy. 

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Rossana's brothers Archie and Ricardo had taken over the building supervision last year. They had already lived on the property with their families and had also laid out the small garden. A small swimming pool was there and my greatest wish had come true: dogs.

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Everything seemed perfect down to the last. We lived wall to wall with our American Ninong Maurice and his Filipina wife, our Ninang Alicia. They had bought the property right next to us already in 1959.

In the next few days and weeks there was a lot for us to do. Unpacking suitcases, arranging the interior fittings and doing paperwork after paperwork. Rossana, my mother and I hardly got time to think about Germany. Homesickness did not arise. Not yet.

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Rossana was especially busy sorting out the dance group costumes from Berlin. Maybe there will be another chance to perform in Davao City as a New Manisan Cultural  Dance Troupe? Well, that should become reality faster than we thought. I thought about my music library and several thousand books. 

And then events rolled over! One telephone call from the Davao City Port Customs Office in particular kept us in suspense. Our knees shook.

To be continued!)

What kind of country is the Philippines?

By: Allan Daniel Serrano, Cavite City


Hi! I’m Allan Daniel Serrano, I’m a Filipino with good understanding of our culture, politics, religion, history, geography and everything related to our archipelago and our relationship with neighboring countries and other foreign nations.

My genetic makeup is native Austronesian with a dash of indeginous Papuan of course, plus the bloodlines of the Sangley traders and the Iberian conquerors.

I am nationalistic, but not to the point that I would berate and belittle other countries just to flag my pride, because I’m also globalist. I wouldn’t tolerate any condescending attitude towards my people and my nation.


We are a country composed of 7,107 islands, most of the islands aren't populated and about 95% of the population can be found in 11 major islands, namely: Luzon, Mindanao, Mindoro, Palawan, Cebu, Negros, Panay, Samar, Leyte, Bohol and Masbate.

8 major languages are spoken in our archipelago, namely: Bicolano, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Ilocano, Pampango, Pangasinense, Tagalog and Waray-waray, with other 100+ tongues also spoken throughout the islands.

We are as colorful as the rainbow:

Tagalog

Cebuano

Ilocano

Hiligaynon

Waray-waray

Kapampangan

Bicolano

Pangasinense

Igorot

Sierra Madre People

Maranao

Tausug

It is true that we are still suffering from the abuses of corruption that is driving my people to poverty. But I'm thankful because Filipinos are very resilient. Even the poorest will greet you with the sweetest smile that you only see here. Maybe the way God shaped our archipelago is one of the many things why we are content with ourselves, in spite of all the hardships that we've been through as a people. This is what I'm talking about.

Batanes Island

Paoay Windmills, Ilocos Norte

Rice Terraces of Philippine Cordilleras

Hundred Islands, Pangasinan

Sta. Ana White Beach, Cagayan

Corregidor Ruins, Cavite-Bataan

Independence Shrine, Cavite

Pagsanjan Falls, Laguna

Taal Volcano, Batangas

Verde Island Passage, Batangas

Ditumabo Falls, Aurora

Casiguran White Beach, Aurora

Cagraray Island, Albay

Caramoan Island, Camarines Sur

Anvaya Cove, Bataan

Mt. Samat Shrine, Bataan

Subic Bay, Zambales

Intramuros, Manila

Pandan Island, Mindoro

Cowrie Island, Palawan

El Nido, Palawan

Underground River, Palawan

Port Barton, Palawan

Magellan's Cross, Cebu City

Sumilon Island, Cebu

Fort Pilar, Zamboanga

Camiguin Island, Mindanao

Hmm maybe it's our rich history and fine sceneries that works wonders in easing the pain and suffering of people.

This is one of the few countries in the world where you will find people having wide smiles with bleeding hearts.