Joey Alarilla wrote a piece about the “Filipino and the Blogosphere” in his regular column at CNET Asia.
According to Duncan Riley, “Some of the worlds best as yet undiscovered bloggers reside in the Philippines.”
What then makes the Filipino Blogger Competitive in this International Industry? I have cited a few items here:
Good Command of Written and Spoken English
The Philippines has two national languages – the local Filipino and English. There are many other dialects spread throughout the islands but English has always been the “modern” language which Filipinos “spake” ever since the American occupation. The medium of instruction at schools is English and there has been, for some reason, a strict compliance to good grammar and language.
EDIT: I guess when I wrote about a strict compliance to English, I was referring more to a generation before the GenTXT craze. I remember back in grade school and high school we went through rigorous classes in grammar, penmanship, English and Filipino literature as well as composition classes. But maybe this was an isolated case since the schools I went to were very strong in the Humanities (we took 4 years of Latin) but a little poor on the Math and Sciences.
Affinity to Technology
The Philippines is the “SMS Capital of the World.” Probably next to Japan in terms of the cellphone craze, we are years ahead of the west when it comes to technology services. Several foreign companies set camp in the Philippines and hire them as programmers, network administrators and operations managers. The technology scene in the Philippines is quickly becoming a mainstream item as most Filipinos always want a new phone or computer every four months.
Good Compensation
Filipinos who start to work with blog networks are motivated to perform because of the cheaper cost of living here. As Darren Rowse once told me in a quick chat, your US dollar goes a long way when you’re in the Philippines.
Care to add / affirm / challenge these insights?
