What is to be a Filipino? The word Filipino evokes a history of resilience and strength.

Our country was repeatedly invaded years ago by different countries yet, our ancestors were able to give those invaders a good fight resulting to a country with freedom. The word Filipino also prompts images of people smiling amidst disaster; taking everything with a positive conviction . You will notice Filipinos wearing their joyful smiles and still manage to celebrate even with a struggling economy, political confusion and rising poverty in the country. The jokes and laughs is just one way of the Filipinos to feel relief about everything and make them see things more positively. The word Filipino carries the reputation for beautiful culture, heritage, and colour. In my opinion, Filipinos are linguist, adventurist, and preserver of a number of cultures mixed together. Filipinos are linguist. Filipinos are skilled at learning and speaking a language. Aside from Tagalog, Filipinos are English-proficient. In fact, it is not uncommon for a Filipino to speak at least three: his dialect, Tagalog, and English. Of course a lot speak an added language, be it Spanish, Chinese, or if he works abroad, the language of his host country. In addition, Tagalog is not a sexist language. While many conscious people of today are determined to be politically correct with their language and in the process constituting gender sensitive words, Tagalog has evolved gender-neutral words like asawa (husband or wife), anak (son or daughter), magulang (father or mother), kapatid (brother or sister), biyenan (father-in-law or mother-in-law), bayani (hero or heroine), etc. Filipino language was definitely advanced. It is no small wonder that Jose Rizal, our national hero, spoke some twenty-two languages. Filipinos are adventurist. At the root of the Philippine culture is the Malay spirit. It is said that the Malay spirit is being always on the move. Philippine people represent a surviving and intuitive people, capable of adapting to and rising above almost any situation. It is inevitable that Filipinos compose the worlds largest population of overseas workers, populating sometimes major capitals, minor towns, and even remote villages in different parts of the world. Filipinos

adventurism has made us todays citizen of the world Filipinos are excellent at adjustments and improvisation, managing to recreate their home or just to feel at home anywhere. Filipinos are preservers of a vast culture. The Filipino character is actually a little bit of all the cultures put together and it is due to different invasion of various countries. Filipinos are tagged as basically a Malay stock with a sprinkling of Chinese, American, and Spanish blood. Even today, these cultures are evident in almost all Filipinos. The bayanihan or spirit of kinship and camaraderie that Filipinos are famous for is said to be taken from Malay forefathers. Filipinos are well-known with being in a neighbourhood that everyone knows each other and some are even close friends. The close family relations have been inherited from the Chinese. One of the values of the Filipinos is the close family ties wherein it is not unusual to see a home that house not only a parent and their children but it also extends to grandparents, and even cousins, aunts, and uncles at most. The religiousness comes from the Spaniards who introduce Christianity. The Spaniards succeeded in converting the overwhelming majority of Filipinos. It is a common scenario in a Filipino home that every Sunday, everyone is getting ready to attend mass at church. Filipinos always pray: before and after eating, before going to sleep, after waking up, and even before a starting a class at school. The American occupation was responsible for the teaching the Filipino people the English language. The Philippines is the third-largest English speaking country in the world. Hence, Filipinos are probably one of the few, if not the only, English-proficient Oriental people. But what is to be a Filipino? First, it is to be proud to be one. It is when one recognizes himself as Filipino and proudly says, Pinoy ako! It is not about the color, physical appearance of mere citizenship. Even if a Filipino repetitively go to Belo just to achieve the Caucasian white color and avoid being brown, his Filipino blood can still be evident on his values and beliefs. It is not about the citizenship. Anyone can be a Filipino by just embracing its culture and tradition and living his everyday life like a true Filipino do. Second, to be a Filipino is THIS. It is about understanding the Filipino culture by heart.