Philippine ranked #43 out of 87 "best countries"

[Mike J]

Long article with graphs, pictures, etc. so you may wish to use the URL to see the actual article.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/philippines

Thousands of islands in the South China Sea comprise the tropical nation of the Philippines. The land of beautiful beaches and abundant biodiversity has long been plagued by political instability, but its resilient economy continues to improve and push ahead of others in the region.

The Republic of the Philippines claimed independence from Japan after World War II in 1946 with assistance from the United States, which had exercised colonial rule over the nation earlier in the century. American influence and ties remain prevalent in the Filipino society, although the relationship has become more strained since the 2016 election of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Citizens have led two revolutionary movements - in 1986, and again in 2001 - against corrupt governments, leading to the exile and impeachment of two presidents. Though shaky, republican ideals have again taken hold. Recent government actions have boosted social spending in an effort to battle high unemployment and manage a rapidly growing population, a quarter of which lives below the poverty line.

Threats to national order also come from separatist groups primarily based in the southern part of the country.

With more than 100 million people, the Philippines is the 13th-most populous nation in the world. Hundreds of local dialects are spoken throughout the national archipelago, representative of the diversity of its people. English is an official language used in schools; the country has the third-largest group of English speakers in the world. A second official language is based on that of the majority Tagalog ethnic group.

Each year, the Philippine economy is flooded with billions of dollars sent home by the large number of Filipinos living abroad. These remittances, along with a flourishing tourism industry, have helped maintain a budget surplus. But the implicit dependence on global trends has proved risky, and opportunities in electronics, petroleum and other goods are being explored.

Foreign investment in the Philippines is low, but frequent devastating tsunamis and other national disasters often draw large amounts of humanitarian aid. International rights groups have criticized the president for his controversial drug war, which has resulted in thousands of deaths.

The Philippines is a member of major international organizations, including the United Nations, the ASEAN Regional Forum and the World Trade Organization, among others.

 

[Kingpin]

16 minutes ago, Mike J said:

English is an official language used in schools; the country has the third-largest group of English speakers in the world.

Huh, I guess nobody told the citizenship test...

[craftbeerlover]

28 minutes ago, Mike J said:

English is an official language used in schools; the country has the third-largest group of English speakers in the world.

 

It absolutely is not.  Most of the private schools English is the language used, however, the other 10 bazillion public school English is a mere footnote.   And no, the Philippines is not the third-largest group of English speakers in the world.  Who the heck wrote that article? 

[Dave Hounddriver]

18 minutes ago, craftbeerlover said:

Who the heck wrote that article? 

Probably ChatGPT

[Lee]

28 minutes ago, craftbeerlover said:

And no, the Philippines is not the third-largest group of English speakers in the world.

Quote

 

What Are The Main English Speaking Countries?

English is perhaps most commonly associated with the United States and the United Kingdom; the two largest English speaking countries. It is believed that there are around 230 million native speakers in the United States, making it the largest English-speaking country, while the United Kingdom has approximately 60 million native speakers.

Despite having two different official languages, Canada has the third largest English-speaking population, with somewhere in the region of 20 million native speakers, while Australia is next in the list, with around 17 million.

Some of the other notable countries around the world where English is the primary language include the Republic of Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand. Combined, these three countries are believed to be home to around 13 million people who speak English as their first language.

 

https://www.lingoda.com/en/content/english-speaking-countries/

[scott h]

37 minutes ago, craftbeerlover said:

Who the heck wrote that article? 

Looks like a cut and paste from Wiki, with very little proof reading for fact checking.

1 hour ago, Mike J said:

but frequent devastating tsunamis

I might be wrong, but I dont remember the last tsunamis, now typhoon influenced tidal surge I can accept

[hk blues]

It's a source of great pride here that they have a superior level of English.  It's probably fair but not at the level they believe IMHO, and certainly not across the country or layers of society.  Not always but a significant amount of times when we're shopping in places like SM the staff need my wife's translation.  Just today we received delivery of a fridge and the 3 delivery guys' level of English was basic at best - way better than my Ilongo though!

[Tellamugalie]

Thats an interesting spread of information with respect to English speaking, I'm not sure where 3rd comes from, but I did find they ranked 5th as far as English vs overall population here:

English Speaking Countries 2023 (worldpopulationreview.com)

and again here :

10 English Speaking Countries In The World - Largest.org

with the proficiency of overall English being 18th in the world found here:

ef-epi-2021-english.pdf

 

[Old55]

Welcome to the forum Tellamugalie.

You may want to introduce yourself at Members Greetings and share a few things about yourself and your Philippines experiences if you wish to do so.

Members greetings link;

https://www.philippines-expats.com/?forumId=109

[Clermont]

They might be counting hand motions as verbal language, I got the dreaded middle finger by a young kid the other day.