To RB: I am certified diver and have dived Cebu, Davao, Puerto Galera and La Union. In company of with Kiwis, Aussies, Canadians, all English speaking. Yes, tourist places, mostly.
But I also live with local family in 2005 in Negros Occidental for charity work with Presbyterian church. So poor was farmer family they have no outhouse. Very nice people. I cry when I leave.
Many Koreans in Philippines going to school and other things. Two nieces and one nephew go to English school in Baguio, one niece speak Filipino very well. Very nice climate in Baguio.
Englishmen: why do you drive on wrong side of street????????????? :)
Rasputin, my father is from Ilocos up north, where Marcos is from. I lived in in a town called Bambang southeast of that, my mother's hometown. The town is named after a noise because it was full of holes afer WWII from the bombings.
As you may know there are at least 100 of what they call dialects in the Philippines. These are really different languages. I know Tagalog, the official dialect and Ilocano the second most used. The two "dialects" have very little in common. (Marcos was an Ilocano, and Ilocano almost became the official dialect.) Yet, Ilocanos from the north have seemed to adapt to Tagalog as the main dialect.
I hear Tagalog is now spoken in Bambang. I remember it as Ilocano. There is no animosity. Not even from the Visayas in the south. The troublemakers are the Muslim rebels in the south, I'm sorry to say.
just for you Ivor.
Australasia includes Australia, New Zealand and many islands etc. Now does a New Zealander refer to him/herself as an Australasian? .... Well I wonder!
No, never! its said in another ten years Chinese population here will be 3 to 1 kiwi, so its rather fitting.