We get all kinds of questions since we started out our journey here in the Philippines, but this is probably the most asked one. Whether French or Filipino friends, everyone is asking us — “Why did you choose to live in the Philippines?”
In France, they think we’re living in an exotic jungle. More than that, some of them even had no idea where the Philippines is before we showed them a map. While the others only see the Philippines as a tourist destination with great beaches and beautiful islands.
Believe us, it is more than that!
People in the Philippines also do not understand our choice sometimes. They wonder why we quit our hometown, the most beautiful city of the world: Paris — yes the most beautiful, this is our blog so we can write what we want 😜 — to live here, in this busy Asian capital: Manila.
They think we are crazy.
So, here are 5 reasons why it was a thoughtful decision:
1. PEOPLE ARE THE BEST
The Philippines is amazing because of Filipinos. If you ask some foreigners living in the Philippines, why do they live here? There’s a 99% chance they’ll answer people. Everyone who visited the Philippines experienced the world-famous Filipino hospitality.
We experienced it first hand! Allow us to share it a bit with you. 🙂
The first time, we went to the Philippines. We were volunteers for a local NGO, called Gawad Kalinga. It was in May 2015. We lived in one of their villages for four months. (Nelson was in Iloilo and John in Bacolod: two cities in the Visayas Region). We’re going to be honest, it was quite different from Paris, the residents had a very different way of life from us.
The places we were living in were economically poor. But, the people living there were the most generous.
They were always keen on extending a helping hand. Some locals were trying their best to give assistance to us when we were lost. But what touched us the most was, they shared their food with us even when they had little, without expecting anything in return.
During our stay there, we had one of the most beautiful experiences in our life as we had the chance to live with heartwarming people. As they say, “the best way to travel abroad is to live with the locals.” After our four-month stay, in August 2015, we had to fly back to France. At that moment, we knew we wanted to go back to the Philippines.
One year later, we went back.
In October 2016, it was our first time in Manila and we didn’t know anyone there. We had no relatives, friends or connections. In the beginning, it was very hard.
We did not really know how we were going to live here. Because we had no jobs when we left France. Just some savings, enough for us to survive two to three months.
Since we are just new in the city, we started going out. We met new friends, Filipinos or foreigners living in Manila. They took us around the city and shared some important tips on how to live here.
Finding a job is quite a challenge too. It is not easy to find one when you’re a fresh graduate, especially if you think you’ll keep the same level of lifestyle as in your home country. Just like that, some French people became envious of our choice.
We’re not saying we don’t like French people. It is just that we tend to be more individualists. Our sense of community and collectivism isn’t something we have strongly developed in our culture. It just feels good to experience this feeling of “belongingness” here.
This is why Filipinos are the number 1 reason why the Philippines are our new home.
2. TRAVELS ARE BREATHTAKING
Obviously, the Philippines is well-known for its attractive tourist destinations. Living in this country gave us the opportunity to travel around those beautiful islands.
When you want to escape the noise of the city. You can take a one-hour flight. Then drink a refreshing mango smoothie on a splendid white sand beach. You’ve got no idea how our European friends are so jealous when we post our latest picture by the beach. There are so many paradise islands to visit. We fell in love with Palawan, ranking #1 island in the world, in 2017.
Experiencing the wildlife of Coron. Seeing the great lagoons of El Nido and resting on the superb Nacpan beach continued to inspire us to stay in the Philippines.
We surely enjoyed the landscapes of Cebu, driving a motorbike along the island. Also, we loved visiting Bohol, Negros, and Panay island.
Then, we had the chance to see the frequently called “eighth wonder of the world”: The Rice Terraces of Banaue. Out of the places that we visited, there are still thousands of places to discover like Siargao, Leyte, Davao, etc.
Filipinos are lucky to live in such a beautiful country. Of course, tourism is a changing landscape. The Philippines haven’t reached yet the heavy tourist flows of its neighbor to the West, Thailand. Another good thing when you live in the Philippines.
You can visit its neighboring countries like Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and other South-East Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and more.
3. THE COUNTRY IS GROWING
We have a background in Economics and Business. So, no doubt, we did some research about the Philippines’ economic situation. It is one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia (6.8% growth in 2016), compared to the stagnant European economies (1.2% for France in 2016).
There are more and more foreign investments and foreign start-ups deciding to set up their business in the Philippines. We think that there are great business opportunities here and that we could be more useful here.
Of course, when we said to our parents — they live in France — or our friends that we wanted to do business in the Philippines. They were quite dubious about our project. Thinking it is just a third world country and it would be better to have a career in France or a similarly developed country.
But we believe that it is more useful to create something here than staying in our comfort zone in France. We wanted to use what we learned in France and in the Philippines to establish a bridge between our two homes.
4. COMMUNICATING IS EASY
You know we’re French. We are not really known for speaking English well. We are not even sure this previous sentence is grammatically correct.
When we arrived, we thought, “Wow, Filipinos have way better English than us!”. Having English in school, sometimes at home, on TV. Filipinos commonly combine words in English with their local language, Tagalog, to create Taglish.
More and more Asians who want to improve their level of English skills go to the Philippines as students. We’ve seen a lot of South Koreans doing such.
Honestly, Nelson was extremely bad at the beginning. Then we met new friends and we had new colleagues. So, we had to speak English. We never learned as much as here. In a few months, Nelson went from only saying the greetings to having long conversations. Today, he is totally fluent.
Because Filipinos are great at English. It makes life really easier. Compared to that time when we went to Bangkok in Thailand, it was truly difficult to communicate with the locals.
Everyone you meet in the Philippines can understand and speak English. From the people in the airport to tourist destinations, or just the average people you see walking down the streets every day. They have good English skills. “Languages are passports to another world.” Thanks to their skills in English, living in the Philippines became a more achievable goal.
5. IT’S MORE THE FUN IN THE PHILIPPINES
Because there is a great combination of cultural behaviors, possible adventures, and amazing people. It is more fun in the Philippines. We believe in this tourism campaign.
Every day, we meet many great people: locals, travelers, expats etc. We are living an adventure that we would have never imagined possible elsewhere. We are visiting unique places that European people have in their bucket lists.
With this blog, we are creating something that we love. We can share our thoughts and hopefully, share our love for this country.
Of course, life isn’t perfect here… (except when you’re laying down on the hot sand of a deserted island. Bathed by the sun and sipping your fresh coconut).
We sometimes get angry being stuck in the traffic of Manila (it literally takes hours just to get by the city) . Experiencing the Filipino time (wherein some Filipinos show up for commitments 30 minutes to 1 hour late, due to the heavy traffic or some other reasons). Having delays with our flights (Yes, even airports in the Philippines experience heavy traffic) . Or not eating some good French food.
Overall, we found more advantages than drawbacks about staying here. This is why we have no regrets about quitting France to live in the Philippines. Let us be clear, we did not totally forget our friends and families in France, but we have found a certain routine that matches our new lifestyle, and we still fly back to Paris every now and then.
“We are just happy with the way things are right now.”
Salamat Philippines ❤️
Hope you enjoyed reading this article. We are definitely not the best English writers. But we are the best at loving the Philippines. Write a comment to tell us what you think of the article!
