Customer Reviews

Culture Shock! Philippines: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Cultureshock Philippines: A Survival Guide to Customs & Etiquette)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book to be extremely informative. It is centered on western ex-pats living in the Philippines, but it is highly useful for anyone traveling there. It is nicely written and also includes some Tagalog phrases/translations that are not well known among non-Filipino. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a general overview of Filipino culture, society, and history.

This book is an excellent reference if you are going to visit the Philippines and a MUST read if you are going to live there.

A necessary resource for anyone traveling to the Philippines, intending on interacting with the people there. As other reviews have stated, it is intended primarily as a business traveler or ex-pats guide. However, there is enough detail to help any traveler. The book is well organized and presents the topics in short, related and relevant ways.

The book states, and rightly so, that the West is a 'goal oriented' culture, while the Philippines is a 'people oriented' culture. As such, there are many traditions and expectations. Their violation may be forgiven a first time traveler. However, there is only one chance to make a first impression. This book makes that much easier. It explains expectations in most social and business settings.

The only area found lacking is the section on Dating. If one is on business, a single ex-pat, or tourist there is an opportunity to date. The book's section on dating covers some key points in an abstract way. For example, the book explains that at some point in time one must 'meet the parents'. But, one learns elsewhere in the book when meeting anyone for the first time, a gift is expected. Showing up at a female date's house to meet her parents without a gift is a BAD thing.

Speaking of gifts. The book does mention gift giving as a cultural expectation. It also makes some suggestions as to appropriate gifts. The gifts mentioned are for business settings with peers or superiors. Casual/social settings do not require such elaborate or expensive gifts.

Overall this book delivers a great deal of insight and information to the Philippine visitor - be it business or pleasure or both.

Like every culture visited, attempting to respect national/regional culture goes very far in being welcomed. This book does allow one to do that.

I hope to visit the Philippines in the near future with an eye towards possible retirement in the Philippines. To educate myself I have ordered and read four books about the Philippines, namely:

Philippines Travel Guide - by Jen Peters
Culture Shock Philippines - by Alfredo Roces
A Long Way to go for a Date - By Henry Makow
A Man's Guide to Life and Love in the Philippines - By Larry Elterman

"Philippines Travel Guide" is just that, a Travel Guide, pure and simple, and an excellent one at that. It will tell you about all the places to go, where to eat, where to stay, where to have fun. However it does not offer a lot of insight or practical information about what it would be like to live or retire in the Philippines.

"Culture Shock Philippines" is a book written by a Filipino, from a Filipino's point of view, describing Filipino culture, customs and history. If this is what you are looking for it is an excellent book. However, it is written from a Filipino's point of view, not a Westerner's point of view. It does not offer a lot of practical advice about what it would be like to live or retire in the Philippines.

"A Long Way to go for a Date" is a short and light weight book about a man's quest to find the perfect Filipina bride to bring back to his home country of Canada. It describes his visit to the Philippines to meet and date his potential bride and his experiences in bringing back and living with his Filipina wife in Canada. Ultimately it describes how it all went wrong and turned into a nightmare. This book is written in the first person by the author, Henry Makow, and although Henry sometimes comes across a bit pompous and selfish, I never-the-less like what he did, which was to "put himself out there". It is a very personal account in which Henry is not afraid to say who he is and what he wants, even if you don't agree with it. This book is very light on practical information, but it will give you some nice insight into the process of finding a Filipina wife. However, it was Henry's goal to find a wife to bring back to Canada, not to live in the Philippines, so it did not correlate perfectly with what I was looking for.

"A Man's Guide to Life and Love in the Philippines" like "A Long Way to go for a Date" is also written in the first person, but unlike "A long Way" the author does not "put himself out there". He describes things from more of a distance, so that you never really get to know who the author is. This is my only criticism of the book. Perhaps it would have been a bit more entertaining if it was a bit more personal. That being said, the book never advertises itself to be a book about the experiences of the author, it claims to be a "Guide" about life and love in the Philippines, and on that level I think it succeeds very well. It contains a great amount of information both about what it's like to live in the Philippines and about the practical side of making a life for yourself in the Philippines. It also describes in much detail the process of how to go about finding a Filipina girl friend or wife. In this regard it is interesting how he doesn't just lump all Filipina together as homogenous. He describes a number of different types of Filipina women and what each of them is like and what they are looking for. In terms of my goal of possibly living and retiring in the Philippines this book was by far the best match.

this product was a gift for my wife (visiting Philippines yet) and she says "This book avoid me some doubts and mistakes in this country". Thanks

I got impatient reading at least one review which complained that this book was written from a Filipino point of view. That was exactly what the book is *supposed* to give, so we foreigners can better understand the Filipino way of doing things.

I don't visit other countries with the attitude, "Here's the difference between me and them--so be on guard!" I visit to *enjoy* the differences . . . and perhaps to learn more beautiful ways of doing things than exist in my own culture.

I also got annoyed by reviewers saying that some of these customs are out of date--at least with "modern" Filipinos. So what? It's better to err on the side of deep appreciation for a native culture (and be gently laughed at by the moderns) than to boorishly go tromping through a country without any thought to my hosts' values. (Besides, the moderns are probably listening to Justin Bieber, lol. I could have stayed home for that.)

Some years ago, while visiting New Zealand, I stayed with a (unfortunately) modern Maori family. I experienced nothing of the beautiful Maori culture there because the family was too involved in their western way of life.

One evening, as we were all watching TV, I was seated on the couch between two of the teenagers. An elderly Maori was visiting too that night. The teenager on one side of me was playing with some tech gizmo, and after a while, the teenager on the other side of me asked him to pass it to him. The first teenager did so--right over my head.

I thought nothing of it, until the elderly Maori exploded in rage. It seemed that the teenager had shown me extreme disrespect by passing something over my head.

An out-of-date concept? Obviously. But I can't tell you how moved I was by the elderly Maori's outrage that disrespect had been shown me. I wasn't a Maori. I wasn't even a New Zealander. Yet I meant that much to him. These are the moments I live for when I travel.

In conclusion, if you want to know what Filipinos are like in a nutshell, here's something that wasn't in this Culture Shock book. I was reading up on a famous Filipino song recently--"Dahil Sa Iyo" ("Because of You")--and I learned the song is so popular in the Philippines that many Filipinos want it be the national anthem.

It's a *love* song! I can imagine few, if any, other nations wanting to make a love song their national anthem. But that's how Filipinos are.

If you feel a thrill at the idea of that, you'll do fine in the Philippines. If you think the idea would be silly, better go somewhere else.

This book has been updated several times, and seems to be a superb source of general information about the current culture and state of affairs in the Philippines. For those of us with family living there, it is especially useful and interesting. The transaction was excellent, and the price and response time were even better than we expected.

Here are my pros and cons.

Pros
-The information is well written and organized.
-Filled with humorous illustrations.
-Highlights cultural similarities and differences to North America.
-Book dimensions similar in size and thickness to a DVD case.

Cons
-Doesn't smell or taste like filipino food.

This book is a good read for anyone seeking to travel to the Philippines or just want to know a little about the cultures there. Granted the material is a little out of date but still pretty accurate. The neat thing I like about this one is that it is written in english but there is also a mix of tagalog words so you can get a taste. It also provides tips and pointers to any EXPAT(foreigner) planning to reside or just visit the Philippines. the book is not just focus on one area of the Philippines either like Manila but it also provides insight to other areas like Pampanga and Zamboanga. I think any who is interested in the Philippines should get this book.

I lost a little faith in the veracity of the text when on page 0, the capital, Manila, was placed incorrectly on the map, over 100 miles away on the wrong island'_'
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Other than that, I'm really enjoying this book so far

This book provides a great insight into the history and particular customs and traditions of the region in an easy to follow way full of useful insights. I am embarking on living in Manilla for 5 months and wanted to know a little cultural background information and am finding this very helpful. Only a small book but so far very helpful and easy to read.