The Philippines is a very Westernized country.
This is one of the reasons why they’re such a great outsourcing destination.

But as you talk to Filipinos and work with them for a long time, you will start to see that there are still some things that they don’t understand about American culture.

Many of these misconceptions stem from the Western media. Our movies and TV shows often take creative liberties. So when they finally encounter these aspects of our culture in real life, it confuses them.

I asked Julia to explain.

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1. The US having multiple time zones

I think the reason many Filipinos, like me, find it difficult to understand multiple time zones is that the Philippines and many countries around the world use a single time zone. That makes sense because the maps we see in school don’t really show the scale of how large or small different countries can be.

When we learn about time zone differences, we imagine an entire country using a single time zone.

So when we encounter countries that have multiple time zones (like the US and Canada), it takes a while for us to process that. A country that’s so big it has more than one time zone is pretty mindblowing.

It also doesn’t help that most American movies and TV shows don’t explain time zones at all. Even when characters are in different parts of the US, they all appear to be happening in one time zone.

It’s only when I started watching American Idol that I understood that there’s a one hour difference between Eastern and Central time, and that Hollywood is 3 hours behind New York. The first time I heard about Mountain Time was when I started working for John. 

2. Distance between states

Our longest domestic plane route is just two and a half hours. And that’s on a small, slow plane.

Growing up with that scale of distance, it’s hard for us to imagine crossing states taking longer than a few days’ drive. We think that New York, LA, and Chicago are just short plane rides or short 3-day drives from one another.

It’s only when I started working and learned more about American geography that I found out that the Philippines is about the same size as Arizona. Our cross-country drive is equivalent to crossing just one state.


(John interjecting into Julia’s dialogue here)
I once had one of my team members come visit me. They flew to San Francisco, drove to LA and then to Vegas.  They were going to “just stop by Zion and Bryce National Parks on their way to stop by my house.”  “Stop by…” in an 8 hour drive.  Yeah, they don’t understand the scale and distance of things in the US.
(Back to Julia)

3. Not eating rice with every meal

Now that I’m older, I do sometimes skip rice wth some meals, but I can’t imagine giving it up completely.

We’ve been trained from childhood that a full meal should always include rice, and anything else that’s not rice (bread, soup, or noodles) is too light to be considered a full meal.

Burgers, sandwiches, and pasta are considered “snacks” here in the Philippines. If you choose to have a sandwich for lunch and pasta for dinner, Filipinos will think you’re on a diet.

(John interjecting…)
When my son Austin was living in the Philippines, people could not comprehend that we don’t eat rice all the time.  “What do you eat?” was a question he got asked every day. They couldn’t imagine eating just cereal or a bagel or a sandwich or pasta.
(Back to Julia)

4. Homecoming

To be honest, I still don’t understand this.

Homecoming in the Philippines usually means reunions. A family homecoming would be an entire clan coming together for a party. A school homecoming would mean an alumni gathering.

That’s why we don’t understand why American high schools would have a homecoming weekend. How is it related to football? And why would there be a homecoming queen or king?

If anyone could explain this to me, please reply. 

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Ask your Filipino virtual assistant if there’s something about American culture that they always wanted to learn more about but were too afraid to ask. I think it’ll be a great conversation starter.

John