Last December 16, 2021, Supertyphoon Odette (internationally known as Rai) struck multiple parts of Visayas and Mindanao including Surigao, Palawan, Cebu, Bohol,  Negros Oriental and Southern Leyte. While the total death, missing person, and injury rate in all affected areas are not as grave, the real impact is in the destruction of infrastructures, homes, and cities as a whole. 

Having survived the typhoon myself, I saw my home, Cebu City, transform into a ruined wasteland overnight. Roofs and debris scattered all over the street, trees, and powerlines knocked over, blocking the roads, and come nighttime, extremely dark streets lit only by the moon and headlights from passing cars. It took me a while to get (very spotty) service after the typhoon and I checked the news online to see the full picture of the aftermath. 

All affected cities looked like scenes straight from a post-apocalyptic movie the morning after the tragedy. With a pandemic ongoing and the lack of anticipation on how severe the typhoon would become, everyone was not prepared for the lifestyle changes it would bring: no electricity, signal, and water – with the Cebu City government announcing that everything would be back to normal in a month. Worse was the lack of media coverage and news to unaffected areas like Manila and abroad due to the termination of ABS-CBN’s contract by the Duterte administration during the start of the pandemic. This in turn left many worried fellow Filipinos in the dark about the whereabouts of their loved ones who lived in those areas. 

In the first few days after, hundreds of people would queue in the streets in search of gasoline, water, cash, groceries, and charging stations. While everyone is virtually affected by the crisis, not everyone is in the same boat. The privileged are able to move into temporary shelters like hotels and condominiums with generators, many poor people lost their homes to the typhoon. While some would pray for rain to spare them from the hot weather while others don’t wish it because they lost a part of their entire roof or house. 

Cebu City is known for its relief efforts when neighboring areas are affected by calamities. Being the second-largest metropolitan in the Philippines, it serves as the business and trade hub for the Visayas. In fact, many donation drives were initiated in Cebu with the help of other provinces to help provide relief packages to affected communities despite the damages. Thankfully with the cooperation of electricity and water providers from unaffected regions, Cebu is slowly being rebuilt into normalcy.

While electricity and water were slowly being restored in different affected areas, not everyone was able to celebrate Christmas and New Year with water and electricity but nonetheless, Cebuanos are grateful and humble people. Despite their situation, they are cooperative and resilient and they do their best to continue on with their lives while helping others and waiting for full restoration.

Learn Tagalog

Learn Cebuano

Learn Ilocano

Gail Ma

A medical student who is passionate about writing and loves to travel in her free time.

The post %%http://learnfilipino.org/filipino-culture-lifestyle-language/%% appeared first on %%http://learnfilipino.org/%%.

Did you know? The Philippines is the only Christian nation in Asia with more than 86% of Filipinos identifying as Roman Catholic so it’s no wonder why Catholicism has a great sphere of influence in the country’s decision-making. One very prevalent example is the Philippines is one of the only two countries (the other being Vatican City) where divorce is not legalized. Another is how we have dedicated national holidays to celebrate our faith like Christmas and Lent.

Lent, for those who aren’t familiar, is a 46-day season in the liturgical (Catholic) calendar for repentance when believers reminisce how Jesus died on the cross for their sins and rose from the dead. True enough, Catholics all around the world celebrate this but it’s a really big deal in the Philippines. It starts with Ash Wednesday, where believers make time to go to mass and have a cross made of ash (from burning palm leaves from last year’s Palm Sunday) marked on their foreheads. This represents repentance as the person marking the ashes says “Remember that you are dust, and to dust, you shall return.” On this day, you will notice heavy traffic and a lot of people crowding in churches to join this event. Despite Wednesday being a weekday, people dedicate their lunch breaks or go straight away to church after work and this shows how important this event is to their faith. This is also a day of fasting and abstinence so most people don’t eat red meat on this day as a form of sacrifice.

Lent, in general, is a time for prayer, fasting, repentance, and sacrifice. Although it is not strictly implemented, Catholics are encouraged to fast. Fasting doesn’t necessarily have to be in the form of food. It can be in the form of social media, alcohol, or bad habits, for example. The point there is to sacrifice something to glorify God. Probably one of the most common sacrifices would be the abstinence of red meat or meat, in general, every Friday. Pork is a staple dish in Filipino cuisine so this is a great feat for many Filipino believers.

The last week of Lent called “Holy Week” is where the highlights are. There is an open secret among Filipinos, especially the non-religious and non-believers, that it’s a perfect time to take a vacation as it is a four-day weekend. Although flights are usually expensive during this time, they still take advantage of the big chunk of time. However, those who stay true to their beliefs would say it feels wrong to be merrymaking during a supposed time for mourning. However, in the end, it’ll be up to the person and their beliefs to make the call.

“Maundy Thursday” is a day of abstinence, fasting, and sacrifice intensify as this represents the day before Jesus was crucified. Believers attend mass which usually has a reenactment of the Last Supper (this is also broadcasted on many TV stations), and they practice Visita Iglesia where they usually walk to different churches as a custom. Although the usual tradition is to visit seven churches, there are others who visit fourteen to represent the fourteen stations of the cross.

The next and probably the most important day would be “Good Friday”. This represents the day Jesus died (which is at 3 PM). At this point, many pray and usually intensify their abstinence and fasting. Usually, to make up for the fact that they can’t eat meat, most Filipinos cook ‘binignit’ (or wit-wit or bilo-bilo in other dialects). This is a soup dish made with glutinous rice, ube (purple yam), taro, bananas, tapioca submerged in coconut milk (I swear, it’s super good!) On this day, attending mass also has a reenactment of Jesus’ suffering and many devotees even beat themselves bloody and even crucify themselves to a cross to commemorate the pain Jesus went through. In fact, this event attracts thousands of tourists yearly as many cannot fathom the extent of Filipino faith.

On Black Saturday, the fasting, abstinence, and sacrifice continue. The next day is finally a happy day and end of Lent: Easter Sunday, the day Jesus resurrected. Many Christians flock to a church full of joy. After all, Jesus is alive and Lent is over. For the kids, most establishments offer Easter egg hunts, to mirror Western tradition but many Filipinos never forget the true essence of this day. It is truly a happy day of blessing and celebration.

This is one of the many times you’ll expect to see extreme religious devotion when you visit the Philippines. If ever you decide to go from February to April, this is one holy season and a very traditional part you’ll expect to witness and whatever religion you’re coming from, you would be amazed. 

Learn Tagalog

Learn Cebuano

Learn Ilocano

Gail Ma

A medical student who is passionate about writing and loves to travel in her free time.

The post %%http://learnfilipino.org/filipino-culture-lifestyle-language/%% appeared first on %%http://learnfilipino.org/%%.

The most awaited fight of the year, the fight against Keith Thurman and our very own Manny Pacquiao, was indeed a heart-pounding spectacle to watch.

Even at the age of 40 years old, Pacquiao continues to wow fans and snatch world titles.  He proved that his legendary career is still at its pinnacle by beating the unbeaten champion Keith Thurman and showing the world that he still has the skills and stamina by winning in a split-decision over the 12-round thrilling fight on July 21, 2019, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.  Pacquiao bagged the WBA title after and continued to be the boxing world’s only eight-division world champion.

Boxing fans have really anticipated this fight because not only is this considered the fight of the year, but also, it is a fight for pride, especially for Pinoy fans.  Every time Pacquiao has a fight, Pinoys would really go all-out with their support.  Back in the Philippines, you can spot restaurants, hotels, municipal city halls, and other entertainment places that have an exclusive Pacquiao fight watching event where fans get together and watch him at the same time, whether paid or free.  And this particular boxing event was greatly watched out for because Pacquiao was also out to prove his opponent Thurman wrong and make him eat his words by saying in an initial interview for the fight that he will make him retire and crucify him.

In an interview after the fight, Pacquiao said, “I’m not the kind of boxer to be a talker, just promoting the fight,” Pacquiao said. “I think we did a lot of things. He did his best, and I did my best to make the people happy.”

Pacquiao has really put his heart into this fight by showing that his experience and preparation for the event spelled out the difference for him, evident in scoring a knockdown on the first round with a timely right hook, and continued to do so as they both fought at an incredible pace. Pinoy fans watching in the arena, back in the Philippines, and everywhere in the world, shouted and cheered for Pacquiao for every punch and connection he made, which made him really inspired to perform at his best.

In that same interview, Pacquiao said, “I really loved the fans.  Thank you so much for coming here and witnessing the fight.  I’m sure you were happy tonight because you see a good fight.  Even though Thurman lost, he did his best.  He’s not an easy opponent.  He’s a good boxer, strong.  I think I’m just blessed tonight.”  Winning this title, he is considered to be the oldest welterweight champion in boxing history.

This Pacquiao win is a proud moment for Pinoys all over the world.  Filipinos are born fighters and he also epitomizes humility and faith in God that made him win this close fight.  His humility and courage in his every fight is a great thing to emulate and live by, a true Pinoy Pride we can always be proud of.

Source: https://www.cbssports.com/boxing/news/manny-pacquiao-vs-keith-thurman-fight-results-scorecard-pacman-earns-title-in-split-decision-win/

Learn Tagalog

Learn Cebuano

Learn Ilocano

Jocelyn Medico

A writer by heart who is fascinated with topics related to the Philippines, motherhood/parenting, self-development, health and lifestyle, food, and travel.

The post %%http://learnfilipino.org/filipino-culture-lifestyle-language/%% appeared first on %%http://learnfilipino.org/%%.

Thank You for making us more popular this year!

On September 10, 2015, we have launched Learn Filipino with a huge vision in our mind.  The financial budget was tight but with a great passion to accomplish Learn Filipino’s goals to realize its vision, we started it and we have worked endless nights and days to realize our dream of sharing the Filipino language and culture around the world.  It is our users that gave us an inspiration the most and our contributors from the very beginning.  We greatly appreciate your talents, thoughts, requests, and by sharing the uniqueness of the Filipino culture and Language across the web. We are in awe and we will work hard for the future.

What have we accomplished in our second year?

We got indexed by Alexa and since then our popularity rank in the United States, Philippines and globally continues to go higher.  Popularity rank is not something that we wanted to achieve for only 2 years but, rather it was a distant goal!  It only means that things get better for Learn Filipino if we will continue to work hard.

Learn Filipino’s Alexa Traffic Statistics – 500,115 Global; 96,968 United States;  66,511 Philippines – as of Sept 11, 2017.  Ranks change every day! Quarterly updates matter more! For the figures to make more sense, you can retrieve the live total number of websites worldwide.

We can only be grateful for a 532% Users growth!  It only means there are many people out there who would love to hear about the Filipino culture and learn the language.  There is more to work for!  Our users are mainly organic and direct users which mean they find us through search engines and they return for more. We don’t use any form of paid advertisements.

We developed an Audio Dictionary that has more than 20,000 audio translations in English to Tagalog and Ilocano.

We were visited by people from 174 countries worldwide. Currently, our top 10 countries for visitors are:

1. Philippines
2. United States
3. Canada
4. UAE
5. Saudi Arabia
6. India
7. United Kingdom
8. Singapore
9. Australia
10. Qatar

You are not alone!!!

Lastly, we have made the site more secure! We have made it SSL certified so your translation requests and communication with us are more secure as stated in our Terms of Privacy.  A more secure server is always in our mind as well!

If you want to volunteer and/or be a contributor, YOU ARE CERTAINLY MOST WELCOME!

The post %%http://learnfilipino.org/filipino-culture-lifestyle-language/%% appeared first on %%http://learnfilipino.org/%%.