by After years living in the Philippines, I still find things that surprise me. Some moments remind me of my travels in the Pacific; others reveal Spanish and American influences alongside distinctly Filipino traditions. Then there is the karaoke, which rarely allows anyone to forget where they are. These are my impressions as a German making a home here—not a definition of a country with countless different lives and stories.
Island Life and Familiar Pacific Memories
Living in an archipelago brings the sea into the picture in a different way from my life in Germany. Coastal places sometimes remind me of Fiji or Hawaii. Busy cities, inland towns and coastal villages can feel very different from one another.
Spanish Influences in Everyday Life
Churches, fiestas, names and familiar-looking words make the Spanish colonial influence visible. Places such as Intramuros and Vigan preserve parts of that architectural history. The way these influences sit alongside local traditions is what interests me.
American Influences—and Filipino Versions
Basketball, English and American popular culture are also visible in daily life. Yet local versions have lives of their own: Jollibee is a Filipino business, not simply an imported fast-food idea. Living here has made me more interested in what people make of an influence than in treating every familiar thing as evidence that I am somewhere else.
More Than a Mixture of Other Places
It would be easy to describe the Philippines only through the countries it reminds me of. That would leave out much of what makes living here distinctive. Languages, food, faith and family customs vary between regions and communities. My experience in Mindanao is one part of that much wider picture.
He, she—and a small moment of confusion
Language sometimes provides its own entertainment. In Filipino, the pronoun siya can mean either “he” or “she”. When that distinction gets lost in an English conversation, I occasionally find myself trying to work out whether we are still discussing the same person.
For someone accustomed to German grammar, this takes a little adjustment. German gives practically everything a gender, including objects that have never expressed an opinion on the matter. Here, I sometimes need a little more context.
The neighbourhood rooster concert
Then there are the roosters.
In our area, it can feel as though almost every man owns at least one. Some apparently consider one rooster an insufficient contribution to the neighbourhood soundtrack.
Cockfighting surprised me, and it is a part of life here that I find difficult. Its quieter domestic consequence—although “quieter” is entirely the wrong word—is the number of roosters kept around the neighbourhood.
Early in the morning, the concert begins. One calls from one direction, another answers from somewhere else, and soon the entire residential area appears to be participating. These are not modest little farmyard voices. These roosters project.
I have never met a rooster that considered whether its neighbours might fancy another hour in bed.
The mall as a place to cool down
The role of shopping malls also surprised me. In Germany, I generally associate a mall with buying something. Here, buying something can be almost secondary.
For people without air conditioning at home, a mall offers somewhere to escape the heat. Shops, food, company—and a temperature at which you can remember what it feels like to have a functioning brain.
Once you understand that, spending hours in a mall makes considerably more sense. Sometimes the attraction is simply the air conditioning. The shops are a thoughtful extra.
A family gathering needs food
One thing I have learnt: when family gathers, food is rarely far away.
It does not seem to matter very much what the occasion is, or whether anyone has recently eaten. There will be something to share. Food is part of the conversation, the welcome and the pleasure of being together.
My German instinct might ask whether a meal is necessary at this particular hour. Life here has gradually taught me that this is not always the most useful question.
The family is together. Naturally, there is food.
Faith is part of the neighbourhood soundtrack
The visibility of different Christian communities is another contrast with my life in Germany. Alongside Catholic churches, I encounter Latter-day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Born Again congregations and other Christian groups.
Faith is present in everyday life—and sometimes very much present acoustically. Singing, worship and amplified voices can become part of the residential neighbourhood’s soundtrack.
Together with the roosters and the occasional karaoke session, it makes for a place that rarely feels completely silent. Germany has church bells, of course. But the mixture of sounds around me here is quite its own experience.
Final Thoughts
What makes the Philippines feel different to me is the combination I encounter in everyday life: island surroundings, family gatherings, different cultural influences and a soundtrack that can move from conversation to Whitney Houston without much warning. It helps explain why living here continues to surprise me—and why it has become home.
A Few Details Behind Those Impressions
Language Is More Than One Conversation
The Philippine Constitution identifies Filipino and English as official languages, while also recognising the role of regional languages. That helps explain why English is so useful in many situations, but does not mean everybody speaks it with the same fluency or uses it at home.
Christmas Arrives Early
The “Ber” months can bring Christmas music and decorations well before December. Compared with the calendar I grew up with, that takes some adjustment. The festivities are another reminder that a familiar celebration can have a very different rhythm here.
If September feels a little early for Christmas, read about my first Filipino Holy Night. Germany had not quite prepared me for a white Christmas at 30 degrees.
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