Cultural Synopsis The Philippines
The Republic of the Philippines is the only predominantly Christian nation in Asia and has a unique heritage of Malay, Spanish, and American cultures. Ruled by Spain for nearly 330 years until 1898, its cultural characteristics are today in some ways more like those of the nations of Latin America than those of Southeast Asia, the ten-nation geographic region to which it belongs. The Spanish language, however, is spoken by less than 1 percent of the population, in spite of Spain's long colonial rule. On the other hand, the Spanish heritage is visible in other features of national life. For example, about 85 percent of the population is Roman Catholic; there is a predominance of Spanish place-names and family names, and the patterns of land tenancy and ownership can be traced to the Spanish period. American colonial influence prevailed from about 1901 until the late 1940s. Major legacies of
that period are an American-style educational system and, with it, the teaching of English, which today is spoken as a second language by about two fifths of the population. Along with Pilipino, a language derived from Tagalog, English is one of the two official languages. The Philippine education system is based on the North American model: primary, secondary and finally a higher education. The illiteracy rate is only 12% of the population over fifteen, the standard education is high compared with other South-East Asian countries. The Philippines achieved full political independence in 1946, following four years of occupation by Japanese armed forces during World War II. The period since independence has been marked by repeated crises. The Philippines consists of 7,000 islands of only which 2,000 are inhabited. The two largest islands are Luzon and Mindanao and seventy-nine percent of the population are located on
Some common words found in the essay are:
Roman Catholic, Traditional Philippine, Southeast Asia, Arts Philippines, Luzon Mindanao, Aguilar Filipino, World War, North American, War II, Spanaish Muslim, percent population, world war,
Approximate Word count = 627
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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