Philippine Culture Manual for Foreigners: Understanding the Culture of the Philippines

This book goes through the basics of Philippine culture, such as the emphasis on the group versus the individual, and the key role of shame and saving of face. I thought the material was well presented but could have used more examples. For instance, he says the key tenets of Philippine culture work together in interesting and possibly deadly ways, but lists few ways in which this happens.The book has important warnings to potential Philippine entrepreneurs. For instance, you need to understand why things are as they are, before assuming that you have the right ideas and trying to change long-standing practices. When I was on Philippine mailing lists, my conclusion was that it's just about impossible to make a living in this country with the wages and prices on offer. If you have a good business idea and it is successful, Filipinos will copy you and undercut your prices, and because any Western person is high overhead, they can drive you out of business effortlessly. You need to be selling something or providing a service appreciated by those in the West. Bob doesn't mention how he makes his money, only that he is a successful entrepreneur, but obviously he makes money through his Philippine guides and web sites. This shows us that he is indeed smart, but not as knowledgeable as one might hope about Philippine business per se.I visited the Philippines for three weeks in 2006, which certainly does not make me an expert. I was a little surprised that some real frustrations I felt when I was there were not covered. For instance, stores are often out of even the simplest things like, in my case, Coke Light, their equivalent of Diet Coke. Furthermore, it tasted funny compared to the US version.Alas, one really important topic was not covered, because he had (and still has) a Filipina wife he met while in the USA. It is briefly mentioned that if you want a date, all you need to do is visit a shopping mall and women will approach you. But that is covered as a hazard, since he assumes you are already married, like him. I suspect the most attractive thing for most guys visiting the country is the abundance of women interested in western men(*). Information, perhaps by guest authors, on how the Philippine dating process works, and how you can best take advantage of the feminine abundance that is available, would be enormously helpful for many men.I enjoyed reading this, but it was perhaps too obviously a bunch of blog posts combined into a book. The author was always trying to provoke his audience, with phrases like "What do you think of this?" That looks really strange, almost like a cop-out, in a book format where you can't read or write blog comments! In the future, I would hope that when he creates another edition of the book, he takes some of that stuff out and adds some of the best comments and his reaction to them.(*) Or, generally, Filipino men interested in Western women, an increasingly common situation. Or men interested in Westen men, women interested in Western women, etc, etc. Let's just say that romance is generally in the air, and although these people initially want you because of your money, if you are a good person, they typically form loving relationships with you where the money is just one factor of their appreciation of you.

Educational.

its ok