If there’s one country that could end up being the 51st state of America regardless of geographical limits, the Philippines would probably be on that very short list. For a country with so much Spanish influence, you would think we’d be more European than anything, but then, you would be surprised.
We’re not here today to make value judgments on the fact that the Filipino is so Americanized. We’re just here to point out that it’s very much a thing. Here are just 8 signs that’s the case.
m to be the non-American country who loves Donald Trump the most.
There’s an expression for brown people who have become white on the inside, and that’s “Oreo.” It seems that’s exactly what we are, considering how much Filipinos in general support Donald Trump, even if said support goes against our own interests.
A lot of Filipino immigrants tend to forget that they’re not white, and have ingrained the American mindset so much that it’s downright uncanny.
We default to America as the land of opportunity.
It’s hard to imagine anyone in the last few generations not having parents float the idea of migrating to America so that they could live a better life. When it comes to wanting to find greener pastures outside of the Philippines, America is often the first choice, and people who would choose something like, say, Canada, tend to merely use those detours as stepping stones to America.
Most of our Asian neighbors were more influenced by the British.
Take a look at our neighbors such as Singapore and Hong Kong, and you will quickly realize that while a good chunk of them speak English impeccably, they still don’t speak the same English we do. From small differences like their lift to our elevators, or even their idealized accent for speaking English, it is pretty clear that Uncle Sam has not had the same level of influence on them as he had on us.
We take our cue with sports from them.
While baseball isn’t as popular here as it is in America, you know that their influence on us when it comes to sports is undeniable, seeing how basketball-crazy we happen to be as a nation, despite our glaring lack of height on the average.
50 years of colonialism does that to you.
This needs no explanation, seeing how Spanish influence still remains to this day as well.
We regard English proficiency as a signpost of intelligence.
Most other Asian countries do not see things this way, but we do. We laugh at people who have horrible accents when speaking in English, or whose grammar is just that egregious. Speaking of English proficiency…
English is practically an official language.
Compared to Filipino, specifically, the Tagalog-heavy variant, it’s safe to say we likely have more English-speakers in this country by virtue of our southern counterparts who would prefer to speak English with Imperial Manila than speak in Tagalog.
We let America influence us even from afar.
Koreans influenced us from within, more than anything else, by having so many of them study in our schools. The same goes for nearly every other culture at this point that has managed to influence us. America is the only exception to that.
We search for their movies, their TV shows, and search for their influence no matter where they are.
How else are we Americanized? Tell us your thoughts below!
