I know the Philippine very unique it's in own way, that's what makes it special. However I'd like to know what kind of foreign nation is like the Philippines. So far I'd have to say: Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Canada, Mexico, Russia, and Brazil.

Mexico, Guam, Hawaii

i've been to vietnam and they are a lot alike, except u can walk around with your purse and not get snatched....vietnam doesnt allow prostitution as well they checked our hotel room every night...

^ You can thank the Communist Party of Vietnam for banning prostitution. But yet during the Vietnam War a lot of prostitution was around, as it was the only way for young Vietnamese women to make money during warfare, and many of their customers were US soldiers.

However out of all the first world nations, Canada seems to be closest to the Philippines. Mainly because they use the metric system, a lot of Catholics up there, the peoples personality and attitude tends to be similar to Filipinos, various languages and dialects, lots of mail order brides are coming out of Canada, similar population and economy, and even Canadians regardless of race tends to take off their shoes in the house.

Although I think Manila is pretty much a combination of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Detroit, and New York City.

u think so?? hmmm i guess i wouldnt know....

Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Brazil and some of your neighboring nations.. All tropical nations. Economically not Cuba.

Yeah it is. From what I've observed. Manila is like Detroit from the way the houses, stores, and buildings look like, Manila is like New York since it has a large population and lots of financial establishments, Manila is like Los Angeles since it's also an entertainment mecca and there is also a large road system and the trafffic really does suck, and as for San Francisco, I'd say the terrain, liberal culture, and it's also a popular gay mecca in Asia.

If you're talking about corruption and terrible time management (where everybody shows up an hour late of the designated time), then you're talking about Indonesia!

Any Latin American country. Out of all of them, I'd say Paraguay.

Latin America in general has the same feel as the Philippines, even when spanishness is not taken into account.

Hey, I know this from Dalawapo (where is he anyway?), that you guys have the custom of kissing the hand of your elders as a sign of honor. We have the same custom too!

Kissing, not really. Not in my family at least.

We do, however, have this thing where you take an elders hand and bring it toward your forehead.

I'd say Brazil because it's very multicultural, Catholic, party country, there's a big gap b/t the rich & poor, big slums, dangerous in some parts, lots of gays, etc, etc.



Hmm I dunno. For the Catholic thing, a lot of ppl in Canada aren't religious, even if they call themselves Catholic or w/e. And the personalities seem to be polar opposites too. Canadians seem kinda reserved while Filipinos are very social people. And population, Canada has around 30 mil, while the Philippines has over 80 mil.

I'd have to say that Manila probably resembles LA the most because both cities are sprawled in a very big area. I dont think New York reminds me of Manila at all though, aside from having plenty of financial institutions. Its two very different places. Manila is laid back, relaxed everybody takes thier time, and are more dramatic. While New York is extremely fluid, you bend down to tie your shoe, by the time you get up your clothes are out of style. I've never been able to compare the way of life in Manila to any other city to be honest, Manila is Manila I guess.

Hey Bhaskara I love your little ASEAN banner, but whats that Mexican girl doing between Myanmar and Singapore? Is she lost or something? LOL! (Im just kidding by the way)

@ham_let: Yeah, that's what I meant. I'm sorry for my incompetence in explaining things in English. I thought that act of bringing hand to your forehead is kissing too

@DCguy: No she wasn't. She was just making a quick stop before going to the Maskara Carnival Thank you for liking it!

They don't kiss the hand. The younger people place the elder's hand on their forhead and bow while they do it. My little nephews, nieces, and my adult cousins and their spouses does this to my elderly grandmother.



In comparison to other Latin American countries, Philippines is more like Mexico since they shared history together during colonial times while they're like the rest of Southeast Asia.
Latin America may be Spanish and Portuguese "influenced" but some those countries are culturally and linguistically different from one another. Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Puerto Rico/Cuba, Colombia/Venezuela, Brazil, and Bolivia/Peru/Ecuador are way different from each other. They only thing they have really in common is their interest in baseball or soccer. Also they speak Spanish differently in each region than from Spain like Canada, regional areas of the United States, Australia, South Africa, regional areas of Britain and Ireland speak English differently. Anyone here from Latin America would probably agree with me.

This is a forum of Filipino cities if you want to check what it looks like: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=295

yea, méxico would be a good choice too.

as far as the spanish language goes... they aren't that different linguistically. the biggest difference is the use of 'vos' vs. 'tú', IMO. it's insignificant compared to the differences found in other languages. portuguese has an infinite amount of dialects and I can count all the Lusophone countries on my fingers. Lol.

I think the main reason for why I chose Paraguay was because Paraguayanos mix Spanish and Guaraní on the spot and conjugate guaraní verbs with spanish grammar and vice versa, kind of how Filipinos constantly mix their dialects with English.

no place like the philippines

i agree to all ur answers (Guam, Hawaii, Palau, Marianas) the pacific thingy... honestly to all Latin Nations i feel much closer to Mexico than any like Venezuela, Colombia & Puerto Rico. Mexican are short in height too plus some of them are Moreno & the Aztec & Mayan Indian... very Filipino. Indonesia is a good choice but i dont feel close to them ( im talking about the culture & tradition of Indonesia not the People). Filipino can be Passionate & Hot blooded (short tempered)

Filipinos Learned good American habits also, like Frankness, Practicality, Hardwork, Open-mindedness, & Fairness. But also got some bad American habits, like Materialism, Ruthlessness, Rudeness(Wtf & wth), Drunkenness & selfishness.

Because of the Spanish influence, the Filipinos have such good character traits as: Christian devotion, delicadeza(word of honor), Palabra de honor(keeping promise), urbanidad(good manners & romanticism(hmmm...) also inherited some bad traits as Manaña Habit(delaying work), sentimentalism, siesta(afternoon nap), señorito habit(dislike of manual work & aristocracy or snobbishness...

I'm pretty sure it's different from each other in each country or region. I heard about this from my former high school teacher who is a white Puerto Rican that Spain and Latin America speak spanish differently from each other. The westernized Mexican AmerIndians speak spanish slow and soft like the character "Speedy Gonzalez" (no offence to anyone here). The white and black Cuban and Puerto Ricans speak Spanish fast like Tony "Scarface" Montana and Ricky Ricardo. Probably because they have large influx of European immigrants in late Spanish colonial times via the Royal Decree of Graces 1815. Some of the South Americans speak Spanish with an Italian accent because they had a large influx of Italian immigrants along with German immigrants, Lebanese/Syrian Christian immigrants, French immigrants, and Welsh immigrants. From what I remember what my former high school teacher told me, I think the Spaniards speak medieval form of Spanish/Castillian using the words "thou art", "thy", "tis" or "vosotros". I also saw this in a Wolverine comic book where Wolverine and his fellow Canadian superhero Puck go back to Civil War Spain and meet up with anti-Fascist Spanish Communist guerillas who were speaking like that. They also speak regional ethnic languages like the Philippines or India and China like Catalan, Basque, Galician, and Andalucian. When I was in college, my Mexican American friends and I met some white Spaniards who were foreign students and who can look like these people. The Mexican Americans and my former Chilean college professor couldn't understand the Spaniards. I also read about an Argentine actress in wikipedia who starred in Mexican TV shows and movies in the 1960's and 1970's. In the beginning they had to dubbed her Argentinean accent because the Mexican audience couldn't understand it.

The biggest difference between European Spanish and Latin American Spanish is the Lisp. For example Cine (movie), Mexicans would say "see-neh", while Spaniards would say "sthee-neh". I met this white girl before who learned her spanish from Mexicans, and when she took a vacation in Spain, she said everybody kept giving her dirty looks. She found out later that Spaniards look down on Latin American spanish because it sounds low-class. Funny thing is that the Mexicans I know cant stand European spanish because it sounds snobbish.

california

indonesia in terms of food...

you said it dude

Guam and the Marianas

Both places has an Austronesian language as official language, both influenced or invaded by the Spanish, Americans and Japanese

A smaller version of India without the thousand's of years of continuous civilization.

Lots of ethnicities
Been invaded and colonized several times
Speak a language that isn't spoken by the majority
Speak English fairly well
Religious and superstitious people
Big families
Crazy drivers

I think among Asian nation, Phillippines is much closer to Indonesia, yet Phillippines also belongs to Hispanic world.
Phillippines and Indonesia are myriad and diverse archipelagic nation.

Phillippines is like Indonesia without Hindu-Buddhist legacy, and Islamic tradition.
Just skip it, from tribal ancestral worship fast forward to Hispanic/European then American influence.

Some of Indonesian tribe/ethnics also had similar phase like Phillippines.
For example the Minahasan of North Sulawesi or Flores people of East Nusa Tenggara.
Minimum (almost non existence) Hindu-Buddhist and Islamic influence, but maximum in Portuguese or Dutch influence.
The results is..., most of them now either Catholic or Protestant Christianity, and heavy Dutch/Portuguese influence made them somehow more "westernized" than most of Indonesian ethnics.

Their personalities being polar opposite, that is hardly true. White Canadians are like the fair skinned version of Filipinos. As for religion, go look up the CIA fact book Canada is a majority Catholic nation, although only 20% are practicing. And as for population well yes they are kind of similar, I mean both nations aren't even in the triple digit millions yet, thus they will have similar economies.



Well as for you saying Manila isn't like New York City, well it sort of is, I mean it's mainly a walking town, especially out in Mandalayuong, Greenhills, and Makati. Plus there's a lot of fashion and shopping establishments like NY. Although the LA part some from that fact that they are heavily sprawled in a large area too. But then you never commented on the fact that I also said Manila is like Detroit and San Francisco also.

Im not trying to make an argument about this, but I still disagree with you. Just because you paint an apple, orange, It doesnt make it an orange, might look like one though, but no its not. Manila is nothing like New York. Miami, London, Milan, and Tokyo also have plenty of fashion and shopping establishments if not more. New York is hardly a walking town, its a taxi and subway town. As for San Francisco, I dont know to much about it except its fame for having a sizeable gay community. With Detroit, when I spent a summer there way back when, It didnt really stand out too much for me. Besides it being slightly ghetto, but DC and Maryland is way ghettoer.

lol remind me never to go to maryland?

as far as american cities go, i'd say it has most in common with LA. by a long shot. the connection is based on the huge income disparity and the fact that considerable amounts of the population live in abject poverty even though the city enjoys a rather remarkable infrastructure. money is spent in all the wrong places.

LOL! Well as long as you steer clear of PG County and Baltimore City, you should be ok.

Yeah of course. Plus Manila is a walking town, especially if you're a tourist who doesn't have enough money to spend jeepney fares. Plus from what I've experienced in Manila I'd say it is a walking town, unless if you need to go far distances.

Well of course Miami, London, Milan, etc. have fashion and shopping establishments, but Manila despite not having a whole lot compared to those cities, they have a sizable amount enough to be easily compared to NYC.

As for San Francisco yes there is more to it than the gay community (which Manila is also famous for by the way), the liberal culture (90% of the population is pro-choice, only 7% of the population are virgins, and 40% of them believe mariujana should be legalized for any reason), it's hilly terrain (Manila also has this too, especially if you go out into Caloocan and Pasig). Manila also has a liberal culture like as well, a lot of my cousins who live in Manila tend to be less religious and they love to talk about drugs and sex without no problem.

As for Detroit, the only thing it has in common with Manila is the way the neighborhood and homes look like as well as the ghetto poverty like nature of the place.

Your right about painting an Orange, but yet I'm just saying if manila were to be compared to US cities I'd say those 4 cities would be the closest to Manila.

Isn't PG Country one of the wealthiest counties in the USA?

That is so unghetto.

Manila's Sister Cities:
-Los Angeles
-Sacramento
-San Francisco
-Honolulu City and County,
-Maui County

How come California get all the fun?

It's actually the richest Black County in the Nation. Those buji folks usually live further out in the county, with their big fancy mansions lol. Closer to DC and along the border though where I grew up is a very different story. It's where crime and the ghetto spill over from the District.

Is Montgomery Country, MD (e.g., Potomac, Bethesda, etc.) ghetto? How about Annapolis? Maybe you mean Baltimore -- yes, that's a real hole.

Now something tells me that Russia and the Philippines have a lot in common than many people think.

No, Montgomery is a power county, Lots of very rich powerful white people live there, especially in Bethesda. There's pockets of Latin ghetto though, near the PG border. Annapolis is nice, mostly white folks there, it has that historical feeling.
Yes, Baltimore can be a hole at times, but I love it because it has that gritty feeling.

Manila is NOT a walking town. It takes an hour to get from Parañaque to Pasay and they're right across from each other. SJ is so fu-king tiny (I thought it was just a neighbourhood in QC for the longest time) yet you need to drive everywhere to get around. The traffic is bad, but if you 'walk', you'll get hit by cars.


Lol yea, I'd never go to Baltimore, man. I've watched 'The Wire'.

Explain

-Both Filipinas and Russian women are stereotyped as mail order brides.

-Both nations are poor as hell and are living in extreme climates, such as the Philippines being in a hot place, and Russia being in a cold place.

-Both have had oppressive governments, the Philippines having Marcos and Russia being the Soviet Union.

-Both have large citizen diaspora populations across the world.

-Both countries have high crime rates.

-Both countries are extremely diverse.

I really should'nt encourage your impression on Bmore since it is a nice city too, but the stories from the show are actually real experiences from actual criminals from the streets of Baltimore. LOL!

Your looking at the guy who walked from Greenhills to the SM Megamall in the middle of June.

I understand everything except for Russia being extremely diverse though, in the Philippines you can actually have two Filipinos not understand each other because of a language barrier. The Philippines has had influence from many different cultures, that are still apparent today. You can have a Filipino who would pass as black, and a Filipino who would pass as Japanese. Russians, are all pale looking and their culture seems a bit monotonous.

Ok, I can kinda see what you mean. But if I was gonna compare any group of white ppl to Filipinos then it’d be Southern white ppl. Both are family oriented, conservative, deeply religious, slow paced, fun loving, likes to sing, likes unhealthy fried food.

Hey This Topic was already posted....

in fact I was the one who made it...

hehehehhe

mmmmmm....

I'd say Mexico- Spain-and Peru(Corrupt)

because the biggest population of filipinos are in california

The Philippines is a mismanaged and fcuked up version of Thailand and Malaysia.


Indonesia is like her twin sister tho.

mismanaged???

you think thailand and malaysia are better???

puhlezzzzzzz you think Thailand's sex industry is better???
hahahahah..........

and indonesia as her twin sister???? some similarities maybe...
but twin sisters???? ughhhhhhh NO!!!!!!!!!!

did i burst your bubble? get those rose-coloured specs doo

have you been to thailand and malaysia? i guess not.....homie. manila's crumbling infrastructure is 4th world compared to the progress of these two countries....NAIA vs Suvarnhabumi airport, KLs modern and efficient rail system vs. MNL's, wait Manila has a rail system? no competition

..at least Indonesia has Bali

yes you're right haven't been to those countries and yes their airports are better
but to say m and t are better just because of those hehhehehe
nnot a chance!!!!!!!!
don't just compare their infrasturctures......

thailand= sex industry which is NO NO for MEEEEEEEEEEEE