10 Interesting Facts About the Philippines

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Philippines, Philippines Facts

As a non-filipino, my love for the Philippines keeps me looking up the Philippines on internet and often finding very interesting information. Here I have put together ten interesting facts about the Philippines.

1. Not many people know that the Philippines is ranked 12 among the most populated countries of the world. The country boasts “90 million” as of its official population. The figure itself is quite impressive to get one’s attention to this new emerging economy of the world.

The life in the capital city of the Philippines

2. It’s the only country in the world where you see an amazing blend of Spanish, Malay, Chinese and American people. Filipinos have their origins attributed to these origins ranging from 1520 to as recent as 1946 when U.S. ended its rule over the Philippines.

Courtesy: bloggermanila.com

3. Filipinos are very patriotic and proud of their country. The Philippines was the first country in Asia that liberated itself from the foreign occupation after the World War II.

Courtesy: http://ginmanila2012.wordpress.com/

4. Filipinos and their culture is enormously influenced by the U.S. culture. The U.S.  heavily influenced the land with U.S. culture and language during its rule over the Philippines from 1898 to 1946. Many westerns will feel at home when visiting the Philippines.

Courtesy: BBC

5. The Philippines comprises of 7,107 islands and hundreds of volcanoes.  Manila, Cebu, Angles City and all other big and small cities in the country are essentially islands, surrounded by water.

6. The Philippines is almost the size of Italy in area. The country covers 300,000 Kilometers. A huge difference between the two is the Philippines having a number of white sand beaches that attract a huge number foreigners every year.

7. Filipinos are extremely fond of texting through cellphones. This has earned the country the title of being “the text capital of the world”. On average, everyday around 450 millions SMS are sent by 35 million registered subscribers in the country.

8. Unlike most places on the earth, the Philippines barely gets winter and cold between November and February. Instead most parts of the country remain oppressively humid and warm throughout the year.

Short clothes are a common sight due to oppressive hot weather.

9. The Philippines is not only a popular tourist destination for westerns and Asians, it’s also a place where many from the U.S., Britain, Australia and European countries retire to. The country is exceptionally open to foreigners and many of them end up marrying into local families.

10. English is not only one of the official languages in the Philippines, most people speak English in the country. In cities and semi-urban areas, one will rarely have a problem of not being able to communicate to locals. Almost everyone, young or old, speaks fairly good English in the Philippines.

Elizaveta is a Russian student taking courses taught in English in the Philippines – she says fees are a quarter of courses in Australia or Canada