Being a Filipino-American- just a few statements

I was born in the Philippines but moved here when i was only 3months old. So I grew up here in the US and just visit the Philippines usually annually. I grew up speaking English and Tagalog. I am not fluent in Tagalog there but can understand everything in Tagalog. I grew up with the same basic customs in the house that my parents grew up with except am more fortunate than when they were younger. We are very religious considering most people in the Philippines are and are mostly Catholic unlike here where there is a wide variety of religions. I do not get to celebrate all of the holidays those in the Philippines get to though since it is different here but my parents still acknowledge those holidays in our house.

Transportation

Here in the US, we have:

• Busses
• Cars
• Subway

In the Philippines there are:

• cars
• jeepneys
• tricycles
•  mopeds

Jeepneys are basically like buses  just with another name.

Tricycles are motorcycles with an attachment where passengers ride in.

But most of the people just end up walking.

More General Things

Since the Philippines is considered more family oriented to its natives,
kids are normally allowed to go out and play with other kids without adult supervision, walk to other houses alone, and even go to the market and mini stores by themselves or with other kids.

But be weary, if you are not somebody living there, some vendors will take advantage and overprice things and if you have children, somebody may try and kidnap them.

Household Rules and General Things

1. No shoes in the house
2. No bad grades(below an A is considered bad, at least for my parents)
3. There is typically a maid in almost every household in the Philippines
4. Don't bring the chickens inside the house
5. They tend to have many pets such as

• Dogs
• Cats
• Rabbits
• Guinea Pigs

And so on

• They also say don't kill the lizards since they are common in houses

Leisure Time

When i visit the Philippines, i see these things:

1. Men and boys drinking alcohol
2. So much karaoke
3. On the porch and just hanging out with family and friends since in the Philippines, everyone pretty much knows everyone in their district. It's more of a family environment than in the US
4. Playing guitar and singing
5. All the kids are ALWAYS outside playing games(not electronic games) like here in the US
6. Cooking is something they LOVE to do
7. Working on the farms
8. Malls (SM is a huge mall frnachise- it is also a grocery and clothing store like walmart)
9. Mall of Asia
10. Enchanted Kingdom

The people there do not usually watch TV; however, many cannot afford a TV. They aren't as technologically advanced as the US is thus they stick to non-electronic activities for the most part. 

Filipino Foods

I have noticed that Filipino foods have not really become a mainstream asian-american food like Chinese and Japanese foods have become. There are so many Chinese places to eat in America and people seem to love sushi.

So why not Filipino foods.

I mean sure, most of the foods are fried and unhealthy but it tastes so good. But it's not like Americans are the healthiest people either with the Giant fast food chains spread across America!

So readers, you can ponder over that because i cannot come up with a conclusion.

Filipino Holidays

In America, the holidays celebrated include:

• New Years
• MLK Jr. Day
• President's Day
• Christmas
• Thanksgiving
• Veterans
• Columbus
• Memorial
• Independence
• Labor

and so on. 

In the Philippines they celebrate:

• New Years
• EDSA Revolution Day- Feb.22
• Labor Day
• Day of Valor-April 9
• Independence Day- June 12
• National Heroes Day- August 31
• All Saints Day- Nov.1
• Christmas
• Rizal Day-Dec.30

In addition to those holidays, there are so many Festival Holidays celebrated

An example- Fiesta of Santa Marta and San Juan Town Fiesta

The Schedule of a School day in the Philippines

The typical school day in America would be as follows:

1. Go to school around 7am or 9am depending on whether you are in elementary, middle, or high school
2. Stay in school for roughly 6hours
3. Stay after school if you have sports or clubs
4. Then go home

The school day in the Philippines is more like the day in a college in America:

1. Go to school around 8am
2. Students have a 1 hour lunch break where they can either go home to eat, stay at school, or go somewhere else to eat. They also just hang out and talk or play some sports during this time as well- this is around noon
3. Then after that return to classes until around 5pm.
4. Then they go home
   

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School- Secondary School

The main subjects they focus on in secondary school are pretty much the same as the US having classes like Algebra I, Spanish I, English I, and science. They obviously are going to take Philippine History instead of American History.

School- Primary School

They focus on these main subjects:

• Math
• Science
• Social Studies
• The languages of English, Tagalog, and Spanish

Something I find interesting is that you are not allowed to speak Tagalog in Filipino schools except for when you are in Tagalog class. They used to hit your hand with a ruler when you spoke English, but now they just make students pay 1piso--their smallest unit of money-- as punishment. 

School- Part 2

• The school year goes from June to the following March of the next year
• They are given a 2 month 'summer vacation' from April-May
• They get a 1 week semester break after October
• Then their Christmas break is 1-2 weeks just like here in the US.

School- the Basics

The basics are pretty similar to the schooling in America except for some differences:

1. They start off in primary school which consists of preschool through 6th grade.
2. Then go off to secondary school which consists of 9th through 12th grade(they don't have 7th nor 8th).
3. Then off to college

So when kids in the Philippines graduate, they will be around 15 or 16 years old instead of being 18 or 19 as American students graduate.

I personally find that to be a better system than ours; however, i do not like other aspects of the schooling there.

Tocino

Tocino is a cured meat product native to the Philippines. It is usually made of pork and is similar to ham. This is a very common breakfast food in the Philippines. This is the recipe for home-made tocino, there is frozen tocino. The ingredients include:

• 2 lbs pork ham
• ¼ tsp Prague powder
• 1 tsp phosphate
• 2 tbsp coarse salt
• 7-10 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp Anisado wine (or ground star anise and/or anisette)
• ½ tablet ascorbic acid (250 mg)
  
  
  Cooking Instructions:
  
  
  1. Slice the pork ham to about ¼ inch thickness
  2. Except for the meat, combine all ingredients in a container and mix well
  3. Apply the combined mixture to the meat by rubbing. Make sure that the mixture is evenly distributed across the meat
  4. Place the mixed ingredients in a covered container
  5. Store the covered container (with meat and mixture) in room temperature for 14 hours. It may also be refrigerated but would take at least 3.5 days to complete.
  
  Filipino Recipes, Healthy Eating, & Diet | Panlasang Pinoy. Web. 20 Aug. 2011. <http://panlasangpinoy.com/>.

Garlic Fried Rice

This is a very simple and very common side in the Philippines. You would eat this with almost any kind of meat, fish, and vegetable. The ingredients include:

• 6 cups rice, steamed
• 3 tbsp garlic, minced
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp cooking oil
  
  Cooking Instructions:
  
  
  1. Combine rice and salt then mix well.
  2. Heat the pan and pour the cooking oil.
  3. When the oil is hot enough, put-in the garlic and cook until color turns brown and texture is crispy
  4. Add half of the rice. Mix the rice well with the garlic while frying. (this is applicable for large rice quantities. If you are frying less than 4 cups of rice then you can put all the rice at once assuming that your pan is large enough to handle the volume)
  5. Add the remaining half then cook for 5 minutes or until the rice is done.
  6. Remove from the pan and place in a serving plate. Garnish with fried garlic on top.
  
  Filipino Recipes, Healthy Eating, & Diet | Panlasang Pinoy. Web. 20 Aug. 2011. <http://panlasangpinoy.com/>.